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HPE Acquires SGI For $275 Million (venturebeat.com)
An anonymous reader writes: Hewlett Packard Enterprise has announced today that it has acquired SGI for $275 million in cash and debt. VentureBeat provides some backstory on the company that makes servers, storage, and software for high-end computing: "SGI (originally known as Silicon Graphics) was cofounded in 1981 by Jim Clark, who later cofounded Netscape with Marc Andreessen. It filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in 2009 after being de-listed from the New York Stock Exchange. In 2009 it was acquired by Rackable Systems, which later adopted the SGI branding. SGI's former campus in Mountain View, California, is now the site of the Googleplex. SGI, which is now based in Milpitas, California, brought in $533 million in revenue in its 2016 fiscal year and has 1,100 employees, according to the statement. HPE thinks buying SGI will be neutral in terms of its financial impact in the year after the deal is closed, which should happen in the first quarter of HPE's 2017 fiscal year, and later a catalyst for growth." HP split into two separate companies last year, betting that the smaller parts will be nimbler and more able to reverse four years of declining sales.
HP hasn't had a successful acquisition since they bought Convex Computer decades ago. They essentially trash every company they buy and either let it die or sell off the remains. Palm, EDS, Zenith Data Systems.... it goes on.
Since HP is now run by bean counters, acquisitions give an "illusion of progress" to those who cannot lead innovation.
This has been a systemic problem with HP since the Fiorina days.
The company is dying and most of their innovators have moved on in frustration.