It appears that the growth plan of Sun Microsystems’ Chief Executive Officer Jonathan Schwartz is not working. Sun Microsystems Inc. yesterday fell the most in almost six years in Nasdaq trading after a surprise loss, stagnant sales and despite a new round of job cuts.

The Santa Clara, California based fourth-largest maker of server computers, computer components, computer software, and information technology services, Sun Microsystems posted a third-quarter net loss of $34 million, or 4 cents a share, after a tax expense of $52 million. Schwartz now plans to trim as many as 2,500 workers, or 7.3 percent of the staff.

According to the Chief Financial Officer Michael Lehman, the sales fell less than 1 percent to $3.27 billion in the third quarter, which ended March 30, missing the $3.38 billion average estimate, but the fourth-quarter sales will be little changed.

Lehman had earlier predicted a gain of 5 percent in the second half of the year. The company had reported a profit of $67 million, or 7 cents in the year-earlier third quarter. The company had a tax benefit of $3 million in that period.