Sun's McNealy Gets Cropped

Online exclusive: Sun's chairman and CEO joked about his new haircut during his appearance at the Gartner Symposium/ITxpo. "It's kind of like the new IT budgets. It's short," he said.

LAKE BUENA VISTA, Fla.—With companies' information-technology budgets getting a haircut, so did Scott McNealy.

The chairman and chief executive of server maker Sun Microsystems came on stage here Tuesday at the Gartner Symposium/ITxpo sporting a closely cropped buzz cut.

Asked by Gartner research group director Daryl Plummer about his "new do," McNealy said it was in keeping with how companies are managing their own spending.

"It's kind of like the new IT budgets. It's short," he said. "If you want one, it's [the] No. 2 at Supercuts. It costs $10 once a quarter, whether you need it or not."

Plummer noted that Microsoft president Steve Ballmer has long taken the same approach, with an essentially bald head. Plummer then sought agreement from McNealy that Ballmer, chief of Sun's archrival, "had it right all along."

"I didn't say anything," said McNealy, who pointed out that he was trying to avoid uttering the "M" word.