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Art Technology Group (Nasdaq: ARTG) rose US$1.31 to $7.06 in morning trading Wednesday, after announcing an expanded alliance with Sun Microsystems (Nasdaq: SUNW).
Art Technology, a Cambridge, Massachusetts-based maker of e-commerce software, and Palo Alto, California-based Sun said the "multimillion-dollar" alliance involves sales, marketing support and engineering.
Doug Kaewert, vice president of Sun's developer network group, said that through strengthening Sun's relationship with ATG, the company will be able to continue to help its global customers "take advantage of the 'Net Effect' to further improve their business efficiency."
ATG and Sun said they already have more than 650 customers in common and that the expanded partnership will allow them to offer "more comprehensive global support" for those clients, which include AT&T, Target Stores, General Motors and Procter & Gamble.
Early this month, ATG said it predicted its first-quarter loss would widen to 19 to 22 cents per share from a penny per share in the same period last year.
The company also said that several expected large deals failed to materialize as customers decided to defer spending on technology.
On April 12th, ATG said it would lay off about 150 employees, or 12
percent of its workforce, because of the drop in business. At the same
time, the company said it would continue to hire people for sales 
and marketing , as
well as research and development, in order to maintain a competitive edge.
The job cuts will result in a charge to second-quarter results. The company's first
quarter results are due to be reported on April 26th.
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