Sun Microsystems Inc. said on Thursday it will cut from 1,500 to 2,500 jobs in the wake of U.S. economic weakness and delays in orders from some customers.

The server and software maker said it will take a charge of $130 million to $220 million in its fiscal fourth quarter to account for the cuts. The announcement was made by company's chief financial officer, Mike Lehman, on a conference call following a disappointing quarterly earnings report.

Lehman said the move would take $100 million to $150 million off Sun's yearly operating expense total.

Details about the positions to be reshuffled were not immediately available.

The Santa Clara-based company said it lost $34 million, or 4 cents per share, compared to a profit of $67 million, or 7 cents per share, during the year-ago period.

Sun Microsystems blamed the loss on charges related to the $1 billion purchase of open-source software company MySQL AB, which cut net income by about 4 cents per share, and a higher tax bill.

Sun noted progress in the emerging markets, but couldn't overcome a weak economy. The U.S. economy presented Sun with significant challenges in the third quarter, said Sun CEO Jonathan Schwartz in a statement.

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