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SGI Sells Alias Subsidiary to Accel-KKR
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."
"SGI on Thursday announced it has agreed to sell its Alias subsidiary for $57.5 in cash to Accel-KKR."
I'll pay $58!!
I think the submitter meant $57.5 milllion .
Damn right... Tim, will you be my business partner? I've got a 20 pound note right here. matt.
Join the Free Software Foundation
Blah, blah blah.
Accel-KKR also owns globalCoal and Savista 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
32.19 GBP, but the article says its actually $57.50 milllion, which translates to 32,196,838.89 GBP.
They will probably sell a lot more of the non essential business units as they have done with Cray and Alias Wavefront. They have even resorted to the ever so sleazy practice of exporting jobs to India.
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 We can see the same is true of two bit companies with outdated technology.
I would like to see Maya at Sourceforge. THAT would be a news for nerds and stuff that matters.
There you are, staring at me again.
From the press release:
This transaction may not occur or may occur on terms substantially different from those described in this press release.
Will Alias management agree?
...but damn, I do love seeing that old-school Silicon Graphics logo /. uses for the increasingly rare SGI post. Whatever mojo SGI had left was certainly gone after they went with that Comic Sans-looking text logo...
SGI doesn't have any other consumer products, and what the Maya product needs now is marketing. There's really not too many other things they can do to develop the product left... it's a matter of sales more than development.
Okay, second line should be "I can just hear the antisemitism claims.".
I swear I have some kind of typing dyslexia.
"
What will I do without my weekly dose of Jennifer Garner?!
Don't call me a cowboy, and don't tell me to slow down!
The Oakland tribute reports that a Billionaire increases Safeway stake. Accel-KKR owns GroceryWorks which is Safeway, Inc. exclusive online shopping provider.
Answers and more...
IANAL but sometimes I wish I was.
To have a right to do a thing is not at all the same as to be right in doing it
A company in the position of SGI needs press releases to keep saying "I'm still here". A large percentage of the press releases were about Maya and Alias.
Is this a futile attempt at selling off the family silver in an effort to keep their failing business solvent or is it some shrewd move to raise cash for more profitable enterprises?
Is SGI a lost cause or is there life in it yet?
So... this merger... Is it good? Or is it ..?
Not trying to troll, can someone please explain the significance of this news?
#define struct union
my first thought was what will jennifer garner think...
(she's not *that* cheap)
and if you see me strut, remind me of what left this outlaw torn...
Increases in computer power and wide availability of previously obscure and expensive software has led to big problems for CGI companies. Expect massive losses to be posted by ILM later this year
The Oakland tribute reports that a Billionaire increases Safeway stake. Accel-KKR owns GroceryWorks which is Safeway, Inc. exclusive online shopping provider.
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).
KKR? Good thing they don't have to sell to consumers. I can't just hear the antisemitism claim.
I'm confused, are you saying that KKR are anti-semitic? Or that there would be anti-semitic statements against them?
Do they really hand over millions in cash?
Maybe they should check to see if that woman has any more of those million dollar bills.
I'll be reading /. while drinking myself silly.
"3DS Max"
???
Stop listening to the modern day frankenstein who gives children wine and then molests them in his private, gay theme park.
I mean, I could see a FX company buying it...but an investment firm that handles grocery technology and coal services?
I'm sorry, but it brings to mind that back in the 70's when AMF bought Harley-Davidson...and look at THAT fiasco.
"Music is everybody's possession. It's only publishers who think that people own it." - John Lennon.
I had almost expected Apple to buy the rights to Alias. The Mac OS X version rocks, and they've got billions in the bank, $50m would have been pocket change. It could have complemented Shake and Logic, bring 3D into their professional tools. And then we could have looked forward to iModel, or whatever, as the low end consumer version.
Ah well, wasn't to be.
SGI paid $500 million to buy them in the first place. Boy, how times have changed.
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.
I recall Cray be purchased for hundreds of millions then sold [ to Tera ] for tens of millions.
If it is the same KKR as in this article in "Der Spiegel" this might not bode well.
It seems all KKR is known for is in gutting companies and selling the rest for a profit.
If you want to e-mail me, use my PGP Key.
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.
I'm trying to teach myself to set people on fire with my mind... Is it hot in here?
Is it a bad sign that when I first skimmed over the headline, I thought there was going to be an Alias/Stargate SG1 crossover?
I call bullshit. Which jobs mr. Coward? Even better give me names and I'll do your fact-checking for you.
... now *that* would be some serious cost savings.
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 mine and do not represent anything official from SGI, yadda yadda...
Um, it actually sucks. The Windows version lets you export .swf (OS X version doesn't), and the Windows version supports hardware rendering (OS X version doesn't) and there are zero workstation level graphics cards available for OS X.
We ran PowerAnimator/Maya on SGI hardware for years (starting with a 4D/320 GTX), but when we decided to switch platforms, OS X was behind Linux and Windows. Alas, the Windows version is better suported than either OS X or Linux, so that is what we now have.
I do think Maya would have beeen a good complement to Shake, and SGI could offer Apple some technology that would give the XServe a shot in the arm.
on how long before the IRIX version is dropped now that SGI has no financial interest? I'll put two quarters down, one for SIGGRAPH this year, and one for SIGGRAPH next year.
Figures. You can get Maya demos for Windows, but try getting one to run on your old SGI box. Alias acts like SGI hardware doesn't exist, even though SGI owned them.
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.
Southeastern Virginia REPRESENT!
I think it was a totally disastrous attempt to make a KKR == KKK joke. But it is such a mess that it's hard to tell.
(Grandparent poster: please leave this sort of thing to the experts. Go warm up on rec.humor."funny" or something.)
If it is, Maya will cease to have English menus! They will all be in German! ;)
That that was the price of a single seat license for Wavefront.
In my opinion, I fear that this isn't very good news for the people at Alias; however, it doesn't surprise me. When the product dropped in price, the marketing costs soared in an attempt to reach a larger market. Even last year, Alias must have flown 50% of their staff to SD for SIGGRAPH, and they still held, and sponsored, ridiculous parties, including a private party with 'Rocket From The Crypt' (damn good show). Has anyone seen the Alias office in downtown Toronto? Yes, stainless steel, custom glass, pool tables, and hundreds of fancy display devices cost a LOT of money. The senior leadership at Alias always acted like SGI was the plague.. eventually, your master will write you off when you don't show them any respect. You can read KKRs site to tell that they are not interested in Maya or Studio, they are interested in money. Plain and simple. All this is simply speculation of course......time will tell the real outcome of this development.
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.
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.
Didn't they also sell MIPS? I was under the impression that all their offerings were now some flavor of Intel chips.
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....
"Expect massive losses to be posted by ILM later this year."
That statement makes no sense whatsoever.
a.) ILM is not a public company, so it posts "no" financial information whatsoever, and b.) there's no financial connection between ILM and SGI/Alias; ILM is simply a Maya (and former SGI workstation) customer.
You should really quit smoking crack first thing in the morning.
where they fired a bunch of people and closed a lot of stores to make the bottom line look better so they could make a killing when they sold it.
fnord
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.
and SGI could offer Apple some technology that would give the XServe a shot in the arm.
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 from desktop to cluster, and a lot of user interface goodies.
Ah well, won't happen now, but I sometimes wonder if maybe a Sun-Apple merger might make sense. MS can have the "business desktop" and SunApple can take all the other parts -- enterprise server, graphics, etc.
"Engineering- based in MN" -- what the hell is MN? Minnesota? Montreal? Mount Nerd?
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 sold Alias. Aside from the "aw.sgi.com" subdomain, that company was never really operated (or acted) like a part of SGI, it was truly a subsidiary.
That amount of cash would have been peanuts for Apple and Apple would finally have something in the 3D segment of the market.
Yes, they do. To Google, no less.