Sun Microsystems is going to leave the roots of its name -- Stanford University Network -- behind and change its listing on the Nasdaq stock exchange from SUNW to JAVA.
Sun itself was a preferred brand during the dot-com boom, with Sun Solaris servers and the Java programming language being a common part of dot-com infrastructure. But the 2001 bust hit Sun hard, including its stock price. It's recovered somewhat from its January 2003 lows in the $2.60 range, but Sun is clearly hoping the Nasdaq name change will give it a boost. Its stock was trading at $4.90 by late afternoon Thursday, still at the low end of its $4.50 to $6.78 12-month range.
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I doubt this could help. The original image of the company is a mainstream industry leader making high end servers, UNIX operating systems, innovative initiatives (like NC), and of course the standards of the popular JAVA technology. Of course Java is successful and as SUN claimed it is developed into a "Java industry". But renaming the symbol sends a negative message that the power of the company is shrinking. People would think is Java the only thing left that is SUN's success? And what? It's free downloadable? Good luck.
