HPCwire: SGI Posts Q2 Loss as Revenues Rise

Since 1986 - Covering the Fastest Computers
in the World and the People Who Run Them

Translation Disclaimer

Subscribe | Sign In

Visit additional Tabor Communication Publications

Leading HPC
Solution Providers

February 08, 2012

SGI Posts Q2 Loss as Revenues Rise

Robert Gelber

Currently run by its board chairman and interim CEO Ronald Verdoon, the company released its Q2 financial report for fiscal year (FY) 2012. SGI struck out with a $2.3 million dollar loss and investors did not seem to be pleased as they saw the stock drop nearly four dollars after the earnings release. Further, SGI reported a decrease of $20.4 million in working capital compared to the same quarter in 2011.

The report tries to paint a rosy picture though, touting higher revenues ($17.7 million more than the same time last year and $16 million more than in Q1) as well as some big customer wins at Kyoto University, NASA, Poznan Supercomputing Center, and iVEC, among others. The also trumpeted the posting of a world record Hadoop benchmark, but of course, that didn't add anything to the bottom line.

The company pointed to an unsettled economy in Europe, high European business costs, and lapsing high margin contracts as the source for some, but not all of the red ink. The remedy here, according to SGI, is to restructure their European operations as they search for a path to profitability. Aside from European rejiggering, the company hopes that an update to Intel Romley-based products, and a focus on new storage and the SGI Hadoop starter kit will help staunch further bleeding.

Still, something seems to be amiss when anyone brings in a tidy profit one year, increases revenue the next year and ends up experiencing a sizeable loss. It’s almost like comfortably making payments on a modest family sedan, getting a near 10 percent raise and deciding to buy a new house and a pair of sports cars.

After former CEO Mark Barrenechea departed last December, SGI has been running without a permanent chief at the helm. The current leadership and board are working to remedy that, as well as renewing their focus on the usual business cliches, namely expanding market share and aligning business for sustainable profit growth.

SGI continues to be bullish on the revenue side, bumping their Q1 projections for FY 2012, from $740-$780 million to $770-$800 million. At the same time, they lowered their guidance on earnings per share, from 15 to 30 cents in the black to between 15 and 30 cents in the red. They also expect somewhat lower gross margins for the year, cutting their Q1 guidance a couple of a points to between 26 and 28 percent.

Share Options

Subscribe

Subscribe to HPCwire

Discussion

There are 0 discussion items posted.

Join the Discussion

Become a Registered User Today!

Registered Users Log in join the Discussion

RSS Feeds

Feeds by Topic

Feeds by Industry

Feeds by Content Type

Subscribe to All Content

All

May 23, 2012

May 22, 2012

May 21, 2012

May 18, 2012

May 17, 2012

May 16, 2012

May 15, 2012

May 14, 2012

May 11, 2012

Feature Articles

NVIDIA Works On CPU Co-Dependency Issues with Kepler GPU

NVIDIA is telling everyone that the GK110, its new Kepler GPU aimed at supercomputing, is all about improving performance per watt. But the other driving theme behind the new architecture is reducing the GPU's reliance on its CPU host. How well it accomplishes both these goals areas could determine the success of the new chip in high performance computing.
Read more...

OpenACC Starts to Gather Developer Mindshare

PGI, Cray, and CAPS enterprise are moving quickly to get their new OpenACC-supported compilers into the hands of GPGPU developers. At NVIDIA's GPU Technology Conference this week, there was plenty of discussion around the new HPC accelerator framework, and all three OpenACC compiler makers, as well as NVIDIA, were talking up the technology.
Read more...

NVIDIA Launches Kepler Into HPC

NVIDIA has introduced its first Kepler-generation GPU product for high performance computing, and revealed some of the inner working of the new architecture. The announcement took place at the kickoff of the company's GPU Technology Conference taking place this week in San Jose, California.
Read more...