The AP reports that today is the day that Sun Microsystems flushes its old ticker symbol — SUNW — in favor of the trendier JAVA. Sun’s stock is off 10% since January, and is off its February 2007 high by over 20%.
Seems faddish and pointless to me. Sun is not the Java company; I know Java, and I know Sun products, and I don’t equate the two anymore than I equate Chevy and Corvette.
Other companies taking the same step recently? Federated Department Stores moved to symbol “M” to bring forward their Macy’s brand, Anheuser-Busch Companies adopted the symbol “Bud.” My favorite?
And Harley Davidson Inc. had its ticker symbol changed to ‘HOG,’ an acronym for Harley Owners Group, from ‘HDI.’
