SAN FRANCISCO - SUN Microsystems Inc swung to loss of US$209 million (S$314 million) in the latest quarter as the company absorbed a big restructuring charge for job cuts and grappled with falling demand for its servers and data-storage machines.

Shares jumped 7 per cent in extended trading on better-than-expected sales.

The Santa Clara, California-based computing company said after the market closed Tuesday that its loss amounted to 28 cents per share in the latest quarter. In the comparable period a year earlier Sun had a profit of US$260 million, 31 cents per share.

The latest figures were weighed down by a US$222 million restructuring charge. Sun, the world's fourth-largest server maker, revealed in November that it is cutting up to 6,000 of its 33,000 workers over the next year. The cuts will save up to $800 million a year.

Without one-time charges, Sun said it earned 15 cents per share.

The figure didn't directly compare to analysts' forecast for a loss of 10 cents per share, because some analysts included charges that Sun excluded.

Sales fell nearly 11 per cent in the latest quarter to $3.22 billion. But that was slightly better than analyst estimates.

The last three months of 2008 were brutal for hardware makers as corporations cropped their tech spending. For instance, IBM Corp., a key Sun rival, saw its hardware division's revenue decline 20 per cent during the period.

Sun's server revenue fell 14 per cent to US$1.37 billion. Storage revenue fell 13 per cent to $570 million.

Sun shares finished the regular trading session up 21 cents, or 5.6 per cent, at US$3.99. The shares jumped to US$4.26 in extended trading. -- AP