jim@baroque.Stanford.EDU (James Helman) (02/13/91)
The San Jose Mercury News article was taken from the New York Times. That the SJMN needs to rely on a newspaper in New York for covering Silicon Valley business never ceases to amaze me. ;-{ A couple sentences in last paragraphs say a lot: "Silicon Graphics last week adopted a so-called poison pill in the form of a preferred-share purchase right to be distributed to its stockholders in the event of any proposed takeover." "But there have been few successful mergers between technology companies, and the free-wheeling corporate culture of Silicon Graphics might clash with that of Compaq, which is more staid." [NYT version only]. With good reason, I doubt SGI is eager to be acquired. But I think it could be a useful alliance given another form of cooperation. Why? 1) MIPS-based Unix workstations are getting trounced in terms of unit volume by SPARC-based ones. This affects what ISVs port to, which in turn affects platform sales, starting a snowball effect. A platform's software base matters more as graphics moves into mainstream applications. 2) The graphics playing field will be getting closer in performance in the next 10 years. We don't yet have enough performance yet for most current applications, let alone things like VR, but by then, we may. If so, given the choice between a PC successor, a Sun, and an SGI, all with graphics adequate for 90% of applications, but with very different general software bases, who wins? Volume or innovation? History makes one cynical; I'd put my money on volume. [At Vis '90 last October, I asked Jim Clark (SGI founder) and Bill Poduska (Stellar founder and Stardent hitech mergerer) a question along these lines. Clark said something to the effect that SGI was going for innovation, which would lead to the critical size that a workstation company needs to survive. After that, Poduska didn't even try to answer. This is one place where size matters.] 3) Things are really shaking now. DOS can't hold on forever. NYT rumors of a Microsoft, Compaq planning a MIPS R4000 based OS/2 machine. SCO on a MIPS. SGI's move into the PC world with a board set. Sun's lagging behind SGI in graphics performance. It's not clear what will happen; but transitions make for opportunities, and Compaq and SGI could complement each other well. Interesting times. Jim Helman Department of Applied Physics Durand 012 Stanford University FAX: (415) 725-3377 (jim@KAOS.stanford.edu) Work: (415) 723-9127
zyda@TAURUS.CS.NPS.NAVY.MIL (Michael Zyda) (02/13/91)
Any net comments on the proposed acquisition of Silicon Graphics by Compaq Computer Corp that can provide more information than in the 12 Feb 1991 San Jose Mercury? mz