SGI, once a mega player in the computer workstation market and a silicon valley icon, has been sold to rackable systems for $25M. I am surprised that SGI is still around. SGI was disrupted by low cost PC graphics chip companies and it never really recovered or adjusted. I was a user of their workstations a long time ago and they made awesome prodoucts.
A collective shudder rippled through Silicon Valley on Wednesday morning, as Rackable Systems announced its purchase of Silicon Graphics Inc. for just $25 million in cash.
If you travel all the way back to 1997, SGI was pulling in close to $4 billion in revenue per year. The company produced some of the flashiest computers on the planet for handling tough graphics jobs. SGI was the next big thing in Silicon Valley, and people adored the company.
For some perspective, consider this sentence from a 1998 story in The Times.
Although Silicon Graphics is not considered a technology bellwether like Intel or Compaq, it was once one of the nation’s fastest-growing companies, best known for building extraordinary computers that helped create special effects for the “Jurassic Park” films.
Ah, those were the days.
It is a sad ending to once a great company. This is also a lesson to today’s companies (hello old media!) that if they don’t adjust to the market disruptions they can disappear real fast.