What Happened on June 29th

Silicon Graphics Inc. (SGI) and MIPS Computer Systems merged in a stock swap valued at $333 million. SGI experienced a number of financial difficulties, leading to industry speculation about the future of the computer graphics software and hardware company that pioneered a number of techniques in widespread use. MIPS, founded by Stanford University Engineering School Dean John Hennessy, developed high-speed computer chips making use of reduced instruction set computing technology, which seeks to improve speed by simplifying the transmission of information within a computer. On April 1, 2009, SGI filed for bankruptcy and was acquired by Rackable Systems a few weeks later.