Well the rumor mill proved true once again: Sun Microsystems CEO Scott McNealy said he will step down as CEO effective immediately after announcing a $217 million loss. McNealy handed the reins to president and COO Jonathan Schwartz. McNealy will remain as chairman of the company and take a position as chairman at Sun Federal, which deals with government customers. McNealy built Sun from the bottom up as one of its co-founders and led the company during its heyday in the dot-com years when Sun was considered a technology giant. Many see the CEO's exit on a sour note as particularly troubling to the co-founder, but others hold that Schwartz has been calling many shots in the past few years. It's incumbent on Schwartz to prove his mettle soon and pull Sun out of its slump.
For more on the new management at Sun:
- see this article from InfoWorld