Sun is planning to axe up to 2,500 jobs after blaming the US for unexpected losses in 2008's third quarter.

The results for the three months to 30 March 2008 showed Sun's global turnover was $3.266bn (£1.65bn), down half a per cent on the same period last year. Net loss was $34m, compared to a net profit of $67m in Q3 2007.

The vendor also revealed that between 1,500 and 2,500 jobs, which represents up to 7.5 per cent of its total workforce, would be cut.

Sun chief executive Jonathan Schwartz said: "The US economy presented Sun with significant challenges in the third quarter, masking our progress in developing nations and economies across the world. With double digit year-over-year growth in India and Brazil and triple digit billings year-over-year growth in our energy efficient, Solaris-based Chip Multi-Threading systems, Sun made considerable progress during the quarter.

“We continue to invest in the future created by open alternatives to proprietary technologies, best exemplified by the acquisition of MySQL. The world is moving to open source innovation and Sun continues to lead that revolution."