SGI doubles job-loss total

SGI pulled a neat trick yesterday, doubling the number of job cuts it intends to make in its restructuring programme, yet claiming it's only laying off the 1500 staff it said it would last month. How was this feat of mathematical dexterity achieved? The addition 1500 jobs will not be axed -- the company will simply pack those staff into its Windows NT workstation and Cray supercomputer divisions. And, as it hopes to sell both operations off in the very near future, SGI manages to rid itself of 3000 unwanted people but by taking a redundancy hit for only 1500. Smart, eh? The plan is unlikely to upset any of SGI's shareholders since the process of selling the Cray and NT divisions will push the company's upcoming Q2 results into profit. SGI's CFO, Steve Gomo, also said the company would grow in profitability through the second half of the fiscal year. SGI's second quarter ends 31 December. The sale of the both operations is proceeding "quite well", said Gomo, who added that buyers will be announced in the very near future, possible later this week in the case of the NT division. ® Related Story SGI to spin off Cray, NT workstation biz, graphics expertise