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Technology Stocks : Silicon Graphics, Inc. (SGI) -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Mang Cheng who wrote (3404)	11/2/1997 3:20:00 AM
From: Paul Jamerson	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 14451

Finally SGI accepts the fact that Unix systems are decreasing in growth and moving to combination of Unix and NT. It's great that SGI finally accepts that microprocessors is the wrong place to be. I think that with Intel and graphics (as Ed said) SGI will be able to differentiate. The "El Capitan" development project is dead, just heard from an employee.

To: Mang Cheng who wrote (3404)	11/3/1997 3:55:00 PM
From: brushwud	Respond to of 14451

Regarding "ten years" and "nine months"--in that interview, Ed acknowledges that no one should need to stay a CEO longer than ten years, which is partial agreement with what I expressed in posting #3000. But he goes on to say that he'll be around for nine months, until the end of F98. This is rather extended over what was in the press release announcing his resignation which said he would continue during the search for a successor. He says other directors are running the search so why does he think it will take so long? Having Ed in a knocked-up state for nine months can't really be in anyone's best interest. After reading the transcript of the conference call (thanks John), in which Marilyn Lattin introduced Ed (the lame-duck CEO) and Bo as "acting COO" and Bill as "acting CFO", on Halloween I almost posted "Headless monster emerges from Mountain View swamp". It's unusual to see a company present its three top managers as short-timers or interim. It's like an advertisement saying "Fly me!" Generally the goal is to preserve at least the illusion of continuity and direction. Ed has simply failed Management 101: the first task of any manager is to develop a subordinate capable of stepping into his shoes so he can move on to the next opportunity. As a chronic malcontent, I'm probably not doing these guys any favors, but in my opinion they should just promote Dave Orton to CEO and Dennis McBride to CFO. Dave has been a general manager at the division level for years overseeing the strategic areas of engineering and marketing and has a lot of experience with all of the issues of SGI's business. Dennis is already the chief accounting officer and has been with the company for over ten years of growth and mergers. They could start today without missing a beat and I'll bet they have people working for them who could take over the roles they have now.