Silicon Graphics Chairman Quits

Troubled computer maker Silicon Graphics Inc. said Chairman and Chief Executive Richard Belluzzo resigned after less than two years in the top job and that board member and former SGI employee Robert Bishop will take over as chairman and CEO. A spokesman for the Mountain View, Calif.-based maker of computer servers and workstations said he did not know Belluzzo’s plans, only that he is not going to an SGI competitor. Belluzzo, 45, left the No. 2 position at Hewlett-Packard Co. in January 1998 to join SGI, vowing to return the firm to profitability, and the company did turn a profit in its most recent quarter. However, SGI still has a long way to go in cutting costs and improving its product line to compete with rivals HP and Sun Microsystems Inc.

SGI said Aug. 10 that it would cut as many as 1,500 jobs, or 17% of its work force, and sell its Cray supercomputer unit to try to improve results. SGI shares fell 23% that day after Belluzzo’s plan prompted concern about the extent of SGI’s woes. It also said it is in talks with an unidentified partner to help sell its new line of computers based on Microsoft Corp.’s Windows NT software and Intel Corp. chips. SGI plans to focus on computers that distribute video across the Internet. On Monday, SGI shares rose 31 cents to close at $12.44 on the New York Stock Exchange.