SGI misses break-even by $1 million

The accuracy of SGI's claim that it would be "just short of break-even" were put to the test yesterday when the troubled company posted its latest results, for the quarter ended 31 December 1999. In the event, the company lost $1 million for Q2 2000, rather better than the $25 million it lost for the same period last year and the $213 million, including exceptional charges, it kissed goodbye during Q1 2000. It was still some way from break-even, and coupled with an anticipated fall in revenue -- down 5.3 per cent from Q2 1999's $684.8 million to $648.2 million -- the news isn't quite as good as SGI presumably would have liked. It's certainly a positive sign that the company is cutting costs and CEO Bob Bishop's management team is bringing SGI closer to profitability, but the shrinking sales -- and pretty small sales they are too -- is not a good sign for the longer term health of the company. Bishop optimistically reckons that the drift of customers away from SGI is pretty much over and with the company's loss similarly stabilised, SGI can focus now on rebuilding its marketshare. ®