New Sun Microsystems CEO Jonathan Schwartz`s decision to axe almost 5 000 employees will not affect the South African division, says Sun regional director for sub-Saharan Africa Vito Bonafede.
"The local impact, as far as I can see, is more than likely going to be zero," he says. "We`ve actually recently been given approval to increase our headcount."
California`s San Francisco Chronicle reported late last week that Sun "has struggled for five years with sluggish sales, quarterly losses and Wall Street scepticism about its future". It added that former CEO Scott McNealy was criticised for his apparent reluctance to slash jobs.
Most of the South African staff are involved with the front-end (the parts of software systems dealing with the user), says Bonafede. He explains that most of the job cuts around the world would come from the back-end (the systems that process input from the front-end) offices.
"The job cuts are actually a positive thing from our perspective - it will cut out some of the 'fat`, streamline business operations and remove any duplication," he says.
Sun employs about 115 people in SA, he adds.
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