Message from Al on Oct 28 1997 2:15AM EST
>Here's what MSNBC had to say regarding the rumor mill's
>circulation of the 'pending' sale of SGI:
>"Some industry executives, however, say that the company's Cray >computer unit, which relies on long-term contracts, makes it >unpalatable to many potential suitors. Moreover, the direct overlap >of SGI's products with those of Sun Microsystems,
>Hewlett-Packard and others also tend to dampen somewhat the >speculation of an imminent sellout."
I hope SGI remains independent and doesn't sell any subsidaries, but then I am speaking as a user not an investor. But if they are up for sale, here is my (non-expert) opinion on the possibilities.
First, I am assuming that SGI doesn't break up. In particular that SGI and Cray remain together. Selling Cray would be extremely stupid IMO.
IBM seems to be the rumor mill favourite. But as John M. Zulauf pointed out in reply-3232 IBM and SGI is not a very good fit. On top of the reasons John gave I see a major culture clash (would SGI people like working for IBM? - I am not degrading the IBM culture, just saying that SGI and IBM are very different) and problems with the US government (If IBM owned SGI/Cray they would almost have a complete monopoly on extremely large supercomputers - Convex, Sun, Digital don't sell very much in the $10 million+ category).
Intel/Microsoft - Even if they wanted SGI, I doubt they would risk more anti-trust action from the govt.
Foreign companies - Govt problems over sale of Cray, but not impossible
Sun/HP - too much overlap, as mentioned in the MSNBC article.
So, who would make a good suitor for SGI?
How about Compaq or even Dell?
Comments are always welcome.
Ed |
