Cray will realise 'substantial' loss. But Shasta minute, folks, big iron market will pick up Supercomputing remains a tough place to do business, with Cray warning investors that it expects to report a significant net loss for both 2018 and this financial year. Today's announcement included the prediction that revenue in 2019 will grow “modestly” over a preliminary result of around $450m in 2018 (compared to a full- …
If Shasta is delayed materially against expectations, current sales dry up faster, future revenues are further out, and potentially an additional eighteen month delay could completely wipe out the cash assets. This won't be lost on the real vultures, who will be wondering how to force the company to pony it up to investors. That's payday 1 either as a cash dividend, or by selling the stock. Then, with Cray in trouble and limited resources, there's more money for the same people, by shorting the stock - that's payday 2. And if Cray goes bust, then the assets including the name, IP and staff can all be picked up on the cheap, before a further trade sale or a fresh IPO in a few years time, which is payday 3.
Cray goes bust every 10-15 years. SGI the same
You're right, and I'd not thought of it as (in fashionable parlance) a natural cadence, and seems we're thinking along similar lines: Just like a magnetic polarity reversal, we're overdue for a Cray bankruptcy.
Maybe a Cray bankruptcy likewise leaves a record in sediments, so that future geologists will be able to use it to date rocks.
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