Founding the SUN MicroSystem
After him graduate at Stanford University, an Alumni of that University asked an offer to McNealy
to make co-founded of Stanford University Network. McNealy and two other graduates Vinod Khosla
and Andy Bechtolsheim had been working on that company. So that, they took the initials SUN for
the name of their new start-up. The company went public in the year of 1980’s. McNealy become
a co-founder of SUN Microsystem company in 1982 at the age 0f 27 and after two years he become
CEO (Chief Executive Officer). Bill Joy, he is the fourth member of the project. He was brought
in for his programming genius to develop a UNIX operating system for the prototype workstation.
SUN Microsystem had been transformed into an innovative leader in the information technology
industry. McNealy became one of the most high-profile CEO.
SUN vs Microsoft
SUN Microsystem had a big presence in information technology industry. At the same time, Microsoft
also had a big presence in IT industry because of the combination of Windows operating system with
the Intel computer chip. This company known as Wintel. Wintel has a big impact and threatens the
market and SUN number one competence. SUN won publicity, but not all are convinced that this was
necessarily positive attention. Some people think that McNealy’s anti-Microsoft was a greedy and
that’s all for his sake. Many customers are also worried in the competence between the two
companies. All they want is to be able to run both kinds of technology, not to have choose between
them.
Challenges
After two decades of SUN Microsystem, McNealy faced many challenges. In the year of 2000, it is
the beginning McNealy’s most difficult period as CEO of SUN Microsystem. SUN faced increased
competition in its market from other companies producing lower cost and cheaper alternatives.
One of the competent company that SUN Microsystem sales are goes down is the Linux operating
system, an open-source software. Scott McNealy faced criticism for his apparent inability to
return the company to profitability. After this, SUN Microsystem have a shocking announcement
in 2004 that SUN and Microsoft were calling a truce. Microsoft would pay SUN $2 billion to resolve
lawsuits, and SUN and Microsoft agreed to work toward making their technologies. There are
speculations that McNealy was approaching the end of his time as SUN CEO. But McNealy continued
to lead the company to return his company to profitability.
