SGI Sells Alias Subsidiary to Accel-KKR 154
dmehus writes "SGI on Thursday announced it has agreed to sell its Alias subsidiary for $57.5 million in cash to Accel-KKR. Interestingly enough, Accel-KKR owns GroceryWorks, which powers and provides the online version of Safeway. After transaction costs and other items, SGI said it expects net proceeds from the sale come in line at $50 million. Slashdot covered this story in February, saying that SGI was rumoured to be in talks with an unnamed private equity firm, but now it is confirmed."
$57.5? (Score:3, Funny)
I'll pay $58!!
Re:$57.5? (Score:3, Funny)
As an accountant, I'd be wary of these guys
Re:$57.5? (Score:3, Informative)
Re:$57.5? (Score:2)
Isn't that the reason given on why we aren't allowed to edit posts? Talk about a double standard.
Re:$57.5? (Score:1)
Re:$57.5? (Score:2)
Why is this company buying Alias? (Score:4, Insightful)
I'm sorry, but it brings to mind that back in the 70's when AMF bought Harley-Davidson...and look at THAT fiasco.
Re:Why is this company buying Alias? (Score:2, Funny)
Re:Why is this company buying Alias? (Score:2)
Maybe they intend to spruce it up, clear out the deadwood, kill the Sacred Cows, and then re-sell it for a profit? There's probably more to be made on that kind of flip than on revenue of A|W's revenue. But I dunno.
Re:$57.5? (Score:1)
When the submitter said "teh sky is blue" I think he meant "the sky is blue."
I know a lot of /.ers don't have much contact with reality, but talk about stating-the-bleeding-obvious...
Interesting combination (Score:4, Interesting)
Blah, blah blah.
Accel-KKR also owns globalCoal [globalcoal.com] and Savista [savistacorp.com] just another shark trying to get a corner on the market so they can control it. I am interested where globalCoal fits into the big picture though...
Look, see, understand [technicalknow-how.com]
Re:Interesting combination (Score:1, Interesting)
Kids, it's humor. Dry humor, but better than average for the slashdot crowd. Let me break it down.
Accel-KKR now owns alias|wavefront, a 3D graphics software company
As well as global coal, a company that trades coal
As well as Savisa, a company that is in the food service industry.
So the parent post says, gosh, all this adds up to mean that they're cornering the market.
Which is so ludicrious it must be funny, not "intere
They outsource as well (Score:2, Troll)
It is said a fox will knaw off its own leg to escape from a trap. We can see the same is true of two bit companies with outdated technology.
Re:They outsource as well (Score:1)
Re:They outsource as well (Score:2)
2. Its getting to the point where a tech company that does not outsource in some way is becoming the exception.
Outsourcing? I doubt it. (Score:1)
Tech support- If you call technical support within the U.S., you get the U.S. offices.
Engineering- based in MN, with developers in CA and other locations in the U.S.
Now personally I would love to see executive management jobs shipped to India... we could probably get a CEO for about $30,000
Disclaimer- I am an SGI employee, but opinions posted are mi
SGI is as American as apple pie and baseball (Score:2)
SGI has engineering campuses in Eagan, Minnesota and Mountain View, California. They also have engineers scattered thruout the USA and world at various field offices. SGI's manufacturing is in Chippewa Falls, Wisconsin. SGI tech support and sales for American customers is also in the USA.
As for Alias, I don't know. Alias (and Wavefront) were once seperate companies before SGI bought and merged them years ago. Now SGI has s
Re:They outsource as well (Score:2)
Open Maya? (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:Open Maya? (Score:2)
Re:Open Maya? (Score:1)
Re:Open Maya? (Score:3, Insightful)
I don't have a problem with the C++ part, but I do have a problem with the implementation - it seems like the interface was designed around the programming, rather than the other way around. No where else have I see a "bend" function, and a "bender" object. This duality permeates much of the functionality, and I just can't seem to figure out why the distinction is even necessary.
Doesn't seem so sure (Score:2)
This transaction may not occur or may occur on terms substantially different from those described in this press release.
Will Alias management agree?
Slightly OT... (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:Slightly OT... (Score:1)
Re:Slightly OT... (Score:2)
Good move... (Score:4, Interesting)
What is left at SGI? (Score:3, Informative)
Re:What is left at SGI? (Score:2)
SGI is headed for a big-time comeback. Just wait and see...
Re:Good move... (Score:2)
Not to mention the many plugins that are in development, coming from other platforms (primarily 3ds max).
That said.. it's a good thing for Alias that they're rid of the SGI mass that was dragging them
Re:Good move... (Score:3, Interesting)
You've obvously haven't worked with Maya too much as thats a rather ridiculous statement given the following:
1. Maya cannot export or import animations in any really useful way. I myself have programmed as a result, my own importers and exporters for the program.
2. Maya's ability to import skin weighting is more or less broken.
3. MEL, maya's built-in scripting language
Re:Good move... (Score:2)
Rather, MEL is more of a support/glue language. Do you have some menial task that you keep doing over and over? Write a MEL script that does the same thing, and make an icon for it on the shelf. Have you gone to the trouble of modelling a head for a character and all the different blen
Selling Alias?! (Score:1, Funny)
Re:Selling Alias?! (Score:1)
surely she's not that cheap...
Mean while... (Score:2)
The Oakland tribute reports that a Billionaire increases Safeway stake [oaklandtribune.com]. Accel-KKR owns GroceryWorks which is Safeway, Inc. exclusive online shopping provider.
Answers and more... [technicalknow-how.com]
Also .... (Score:5, Interesting)
Not only that, but KKR (not Accel-KKR) used to own Safeway. This was a few years back. They purchased it cheap, held on to it for a while, and made an absolute killing when they sold it. KKR are no fools (RJR notwithstanding).
you forgot the part... (Score:1)
Re:Mean while... (Score:4, Funny)
Net proceeds (Score:2, Funny)
IANAL but sometimes I wish I was.
Whats the future of SGI now? (Score:4, Insightful)
Is SGI a lost cause or is there life in it yet?
Re:Whats the future of SGI now? (Score:1, Insightful)
"Get the one who looks like Burt Reynolds"
KER-PING! SPLAT! THUD!
"Get the one who looks like a viable high-end computer company"
KER-PING! SPLAT!
Just waiting for that final THUD...!
Re:Whats the future of SGI now? (Score:2)
Stay tuned, looks like SGI is going to come back in a spectacular way.
Why are there so few comments on this thread? (Score:1)
Not trying to troll, can someone please explain the significance of this news?
Re:Why are there so few comments on this thread? (Score:2)
Re:Why are there so few comments on this thread? (Score:2, Interesting)
Re:Why are there so few comments on this thread? (Score:3, Informative)
Although it's rather sad for anyone who remembers the mid 1990's when the game indstry was starting to move into 3D and SGI was still growing in every direction; Microsoft bought up SoftImage in order to push Windows NT into the workstation market, SGI responded by buying up Alias and Wavefront for millions of dollars in shares.
At that time, SGI had a near monopoly on 3D development systems, but management weren't willing to develop competitive PC-priced desktop s
Re:Why are there so few comments on this thread? (Score:4, Interesting)
They sold a bunch of them to people who wanted cheap SGI's, like ILM. I speculate to this day that the O2 was a key contributor to ILM making so many bad movies during the era they relied on those steaming piles. They were just crushingly slow and I imagine any sucked the creativity out of any artist that had to use one, especially after they saw Maya running on a $2,000 PC or a Mac.
SGI does some really interesting niche technology but they have never had a CPU strategy that worked in any sustained way and they completely lost it in graphics when they kept trying to build multiboard graphics monstrosities while GLINT came out with the first graphics chip, followed by 3DFX, Nvidia and ATI. Carver Mead outlined a long time ago how to design electronics and that was to put everything on a CMOS chip. SGI didn't learn that lesson for some reason so all their graphics systems were big, bulky, somewhat unreliable and most importantly way to expensive to manufacture versus a mass produced GPU.
Re:Why are there so few comments on this thread? (Score:1, Interesting)
The O2 had EXCEPTIONAL effective memory bandwidth, somewhere on the order of 1GBps, with 2.1GBps thoeretical. That's why it's STILL good at doing DV processing. There isn't a consumer product available *today* that can compete in DV streaming, at *any* price. Yes, the CPU was shit (maybe not shit, but certianly over priced if you were doing CPU intensive stuff). No argument there. But the memory system was, and still is, quite exceptional. And it was quite a while before Ma
Re:Why are there so few comments on this thread? (Score:2)
Yes it had exceptional total memory bendwidth and bandwidth to all the graphics and video gear and its a marketing bullet they used with great success to sucker people like you in to thinking it has great memory performance when it doesn't.
The problem is the memory pipe to the actual CPU is completely crippled. They improved it a little in later revs but it consistently trails a lowly PC in the definitive memory bandwidth benchmark, STREAMS:
http://www.dl.ac.uk/TCSC/disco/Bench
Re:Why are there so few comments on this thread? (Score:2)
Re:Why are there so few comments on this thread? (Score:2)
If you read the original post you would notice I was talking about their multiboard graphics systems. With all those chips and mechanical interconnects they simply had no chance of matching the reliability of a single board Nvidia or ATI card with single chip GPU. My point was SGI was late in jumping to a single chip GPU, they were still building complex multiboard graphics systems
Re:Why are there so few comments on this thread? (Score:2)
O2 was also inexpensive compared to earlier offerings. The main weakness was that it was delayed in design (as usual) and when it arrived although initially it blew PCs away in many respects 3D cards on PCs caught up to it pretty quickly or were on par with it at launch. After that the design cycles of 6 months at c
Re:Why are there so few comments on this thread? (Score:2)
At the time, the O2s had an excellent bandwidth. SGI stuff, by definition, beats the hell out of everything in terms of internal bandwidth.
What dragged the O2s back, though, was the CPU - the MIPS were already getting kinda slow at the time.
Fortunately, SGI is now switching en-masse to Intel CPUs and Linux, while preserving the clever high-performance NUMA architecture. Since Linux is gaining traction, there will be some interesting news coming up soon.
Re:Why are there so few comments on this thread? (Score:2)
Showing a loss because of 3DS Max and cheap VPUs (Score:2, Informative)
Shame, (Score:5, Insightful)
Ah well, wasn't to be.
Re:Shame, (Score:3, Insightful)
That's sort of pushing it, don't you think? I mean, the applications in the iLife suite are consumer applications that "most" consumers actually use.
Digital camera? Hell, my parents owned one before I finally broke down and purchased mine. iPhoto works great for me.
Digital camcorder? I don't have one, but someday. iMovie would fit the niche perfectly.
Music? iTunes works like a charm (so much, in fact, tha
Re:Shame, (Score:2)
Re:Shame...and almost happened (Score:1, Interesting)
But you hit the nail on the head. I expected Apple to buy them as well...then kill the Windows port (as they love doing oh so much). It would have made a great addition to Shake, Logic, and Final Cut Pro.
That said, I predict that Apple will make another bid sometime down the road. Maybe Accel-KKR will take Steve's offer.
Re:Shame, (Score:3, Interesting)
If Mac is serious about the 3D market, (and it honestly hasn't demonstrated it is, atleast for professional level work), they will start offering highend cards to their customers, cards such as the Nvidia Quadro FX 1100
Re:Shame, (Score:1)
First of all, it's Apple, not Mac. That's about as dumb as referring to SGI as "Onyx" or calling Microsoft "Windows."
Second of all, Apple can't offer to their customers a video card if the video card company doesn't make the hardware or drivers for it.
Re:Shame, (Score:2)
Re:Shame, (Score:2)
Re: The Mac OS X version rocks (Score:2)
Back when OS X wasn't even out yet, I thought Apple should have engineered a merger with SGI. There's lots of reasons why it didn't happen, but I think there's a bunch that could have come out of it -- a lot of benefit for Apple in the visualization arena, high-end goodies for OS X, and credibility in the machine room.
SGI would have gotten a company with better marketing capabilities, a product line that stretched fro
The original SGI/Alias/Wavefront deal (Score:5, Interesting)
NEW YORK, Feb. 7 / -- Silicon Graphics, Inc. (NYSE: SGI), Alias Research, Inc.
(Nasdaq-NNM:ADDDF), and Wavefront Technologies, Inc. (Nasdaq: WAVE) today
announced that they have entered into definitivemerger agreements. The
combined organizations bolster Silicon Graphics' commitment to the
entertainment andcreative design markets, and allow the company to architect
the foundation necessary for software partners andcustomers to build the
digital studio of the 21st Century.
As a result of the mergers, Silicon Graphics will form a wholly owned,
independent software subsidiary that will focus on developing the world's most
advanced tools for the creation of digital content. Rob Burgess,
currentlypresident and CEO of Alias, will become president of the new company,
and Mike Noling, currently president andCEO of Wavefront, will report to
Burgess as vice president of operations. Martin Plaehn, currently
Wavefront'sexecutive vice president of corporate and product development, will
also report to Burgess to lead the technical team.
Under terms of the agreements, which were approved by the boards of directors
of the respective companies, Alias stockholders will receive the equivalent of
0.90 shares of Silicon Graphics' common stock for each share of Aliascommon
stock owned. Wavefront stockholders will receive 0.49 shares of Silicon
Graphics' common stock for eachshare of Wavefront common stock owned. The
closing prices for Silicon Graphics, Alias and Wavefront commonstock on Fr
iday, February 3, 1995, the last trading day prior to the board meetings to
approve the transaction, were$31.25, $20.875 and $12.625, respectively. The
shares to be issued by Silicon Graphics have a current market valueof
approximately $500 million.
Re:The original SGI/Alias/Wavefront deal (Score:4, Informative)
(BUSINESS, Wednesday, February 8, 1995, p.B1)
As part of a three-company merger, Silicon Graphics Inc. of Mountain View, Calif., is expected to pay the equivalent of about $500 million (Canadian) in shares for Toronto-based Alias when the deal closes in June.
Silicon Graphics said it would pay for Alias and Wavefront with shares. The Wavefront purchase price is estimated at about $150 million (U.S.).
Alias stockholders will receive the equivalent of 0.90 of a Silicon Graphics share for every share of Alias stock. Wavefront shareholders will get 0.49 of a share, the announcement added.
The new subsidiary will team with Silicon Studio, a unit formed last year by Silicon Graphics to focus on the entertainment market and to develop software tools.
The software will be used by film makers, game developers and others in the entertainment industry to create interactive titles.
Analysts were largely supportive.
"It's a marriage made in heaven," said Charles Finnie, of Volpe Welty & Co.
Lost a ton on Cray too (Score:4, Informative)
Oh Oh... (Score:4, Informative)
It seems all KKR is known for is in gutting companies and selling the rest for a profit.
Yeah, I hope not.. (Score:2)
Re:Oh Oh... (Score:3, Interesting)
Those Guys are Still Around? (Score:3, Interesting)
Maybe if the survivors took a step back and said "Yeah being clever engineers is good and all, but what do our customers need?" Find something Wintel can't or isn't providing right now and figure out how to bring that to the market and a reasonable price.
Re:Those Guys are Still Around? (Score:2, Informative)
I can only guess SGI screwed up marketing. SGI should still be in competition to Sun, but instead they have kind of faded. There are still certain industries that rely on their hardware, but that appears to be shrinking. Having worked with Power Series to Origin 3800
Re:Those Guys are Still Around? (Score:2)
Expect some serious changes in the supercomputing arena pretty soon...
Re:Those Guys are Still Around? (Score:1)
Is it a bad sign... (Score:2)
No Alias for SGI hardware (Score:1)
I was hoping to get a demo copy to put my MXI graphics to work on my SGI Octane. Nope!
Poor SGI, I hope they can make a comeback. Somehow.
They are running out of things to sell off. Cray? Gone. Their buildngs? Gone (I believe they lease them now).
Gotta look good for the shareholders. The American way.
Re:No Alias for SGI hardware (Score:3, Informative)
Re:No Alias for SGI hardware (Score:1)
Re:No Alias for SGI hardware (Score:1)
Re:No Alias for SGI hardware (Score:2, Informative)
Re:No Alias for SGI hardware (Score:2)
Wasn't so long ago.... (Score:3, Funny)
What does it mean for Alias? (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:What does it mean for Alias? (Score:2, Interesting)
50% went to siggraph? Maybe 5% -- probably not even that many.
Great party -- yes, I admit we know
Re:What does it mean for Alias? (Score:2)
The cost of the build out is certanly figured into the cost of the lease. Come down to my building at the bank and I'll show you the difference. 15" monitors are standard and the only steel in the building partitions the toilets.
The difference between SGI and KKR is the fact that SGI was in a vertical market. KKR isn't passionate about 3D like a large number of people in SGI were/are. This is what worries me. When Studio sales slip for a quarter
Re:What does it mean for Alias? (Score:2)
Re:What does it mean for Alias? (Score:1)
And while 15 inch monitors might be standard at a bank, I've yet to see a single one of our customers who have standardized on anything less than 19"
P.S. I'd be bitter too If I had to work on a 15 inch monitor for a bank
CNET states SGI as beefed up PCs (Score:1)
Beefed up PCs? Interesting, they obviously can't tell the difference in construction, design, quality, graphics fidelity, OS of a "PC" versus an SGI box. I'd love to see a PC link 1024 CPUs as a single image system without ccNUMA. CNET needs to hire better reporters.
Re:CNET states SGI as beefed up PCs (Score:2)
MIPS (Score:1)
At the end of the day, what now makes SGI really any different than Intergraph used to be? Intel? Check. Cool looking boxes? Check. Future in the high end graphics world? Um....
Re:MIPS (Score:2)
Re:MIPS (Score:3, Informative)
Re:MIPS (Score:1)
The price is very low (Score:2)
It looks like Alias is going private, with the management buying the company with assistance from VCs. There may be other terms to this deal, but it's not clear how SGI benefits, other than the cash.
Re:The price is very low (Score:3, Insightful)
And how large is that market really? I was under the impression that the US 3d animation industry has largely been in decline for the past four years (at least it seems that way from the layoffs and closings of the large studios, and things I've heard and read).
I've heard that it's SGI's most publicly visible business, but that SGI mak
Why didn't Apple buy them? (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:$57.50? (Score:2, Funny)
Re:$57.50? (Score:1)