Could it be that Sun Microsystems Inc president Scott McNealy’s voice is being heard this side of the Atlantic, after he was reported to have told Novell Inc’s Ray Noorda to fire everyone at Unix System Labs except a handful of marketing guys and the engineers? Last week, London-based Unix Labs Europe made four of its 40 staff redundant – jobs went from accounts, marketing, technical and systems administration departments. According to an insider the cuts were made to satisfy calls from Novell to get costs down, before the acquisition is complete. Unix Labs Europe’s poor financial performance over the the year also contributed to the decision. The redundancies came as a complete surprise to Unix Labs staff who were assured before Christmas that no jobs were threatened. And its not good news at Unix International Europe either – it is having to downgrade some marketing activities in Europe because a new budgeting arrangement allows member companies to determine how, and in which geographical areas their cash is spent, and US firms want it spent at home.
