IBM and Silicon Graphics Inc are both said to be interested in acquiring struggling workstation vendor Intergraph Corp, according to a report appearing in Friday’s The Register. Quoting industry sources, the publication says that IBM Corp would be the most likely to succeed in any bid. Huntsville, Alabama-based Intergraph was one of the earliest of the workstation vendors to abandon its RISC and Unix product lines and move to the Intel/NT architecture. But the company is too small to effectively compete against giants such as Sun Microsystems and Hewlett-Packard Co, and since Compaq Computer Corp and Dell Computer Corp have moved into the NT workstation space, Intergraph has been struggling to differentiate its products from cheaper Intel-based alternatives produced in volume quantities. Silicon Graphics, which is preparing its own entry into the Windows NT workstation line next month (see Today’s News), could face the same problem. Intergraph also has a Unix to PC software integration arm. But most recently, the company has been in the news over its patent dispute with Intel Corp. Intergraph claims that Intel withheld technical information in an attempt to get Intergraph to give up the rights to intellectual property relating to its Fairchild Clipper RISC chip. It says it’s only still in business because the courts granted an injunction forcing Intel to supply it with information and technology. The case is seen as an important precursor to the government antitrust trial Intel faces early next year. If acquired by either IBM or SGI, the suit would almost certainly be dropped. IBM already has its IntelliStation Z Pro line of Intel workstations in addition to its Unix-based PowerPC line, but could use the additional customer base. It already takes graphics chips from Intergraph for the line, as do Dell, Compaq and Fujitsu Ltd.
