Slashdot Mirror
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."
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.
The Toronto Star reported this as well:
(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.
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.
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We didn't release a Maya PLE version for IRIX because of the low demand - the cost to make an IRIX version of PLE was too costly. However, we still ship commercial versions on IRIX.