Silicon Graphics Inc blamed the 22% slump in fiscal third quarter profits on its inability to keep up with strong demand for its workstations – and growth slowed to 17%, giving the company sales of $677m for the period. The company warned that all was not well at the beginning of the year, but the 31 cents a share for the quarter still caught analysts on the hop – the average guesstimate was still 34 cents. Chairman Edward McCracken said orders for the quarter rose 34%, reflecting strong acceptance of new products unveiled in January. It said customer response to its new desktop product line had been enthusiastic and that desktop products had accounted for 64% of shipment revenue in the quarter. World Wide Web business grew, with nearly 70% of its WebForce business for the quarter involving sales into new customer accounts. The company completed its cash tender offer for Cray Research Inc after the end of the quarter, but the company’s results should be consolidated next time. Cray said its backlog at the end of the first quarter was $438m, up 55.3%; about 40% was T90s, 39% T3Es.
