Hewlett Packard Enterprise (HPE) is to acquire SGI, the company formerly known as Silicon Graphics, for $275 million in cash and debt, equal to around $7.75 per share. HPE says the move will help its push into the big data analytics and high-performance computing (HPC) markets.
Founded in Mountain View, California, in 1981 by Netscape co-founder Jim Clark, Silicon Graphics, Inc. manufactures hardware and software for high-performance computers. The company filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy for the second time on April 1, 2009, following its de-listing from the New York Stock Exchange a year earlier. It was subsequently acquired by Rackable Systems, which adopted the SGI name.
SGI has approximately 1100 employees worldwide and brought in $533 million in revenue in its 2016 fiscal year, according to the statement - a drop from the $767 million it made in 2013. Its HPC and big data analytics products are used in the scientific, technical, business and government communities.
"SGI's innovative technologies and services, including its best-in-class big data analytics and high-performance computing solutions, complement HPE's proven data center solutions designed to create business insight and accelerate time to value for customers," said Antonio Neri, Hewlett Packard Enterprise’s executive vice president and general manager.
Hewlett-Packard split into two companies last year; it’s PC and printers business became HP Inc., while its servers, software, data centers, and various enterprise products came under the roof of Hewlett Packard Enterprise. HPE’s consulting unit, Enterprise Services, was spun off into a new company in May.
Providing it passes regulatory approval, the deal is expected to close in Q1 of next year.
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