After Hours

Photos: Silicon Valley's office jinx

By // July 18, 2006, 8:44 AM PST // billdetwiler

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  • Company: Silicon Graphics

    Campus: Mountain View, Calif.

    What happened: SGI in 1997 moved into what many thought was the Taj Mahal of Silicon Valley--500,000 square feet of high-tech offices. But management turmoil and increasing competition from PCs badly wounded the computer maker. After several years of layoffs, SGI moved out of the sprawling facility, which is now leased by Google.

    Disordered.org

  • Company: Excite@Home

    Campus: Redwood City, Calif.

    What happened: The dot-com flameout started moving into its facility in 1999, but Excite@Home declared bankruptcy in 2001. The nearly 1 million-square-foot campus was empty for almost two years but is now slowly filling up.

    Disordered.org

  • Company: Exodus

    Headquarters: Santa Clara, Calif.

    What happened: Exodus opened its fifth Silicon Valley data center in August 2000. Not long after, the aspiring hosting giant declared bankruptcy. Exodus was acquired by Cable & Wireless in 2002.

    Disordered.org

  • Company: Novell

    Campus: San Jose, Calif.

    What happened: Despite concern about competition from Microsoft, then-Novell CEO Eric Schmidt moved the company's Silicon Valley employees into a new complex in 1998. Since then, Novell's revenue has stalled for nearly seven years and most of its executives now work out of Utah, where Novell got its start, and at corporate headquarters in Waltham, Mass. The San Jose campus was eventually sold to eBay.

    Prosoft

  • Company: Siebel Systems

    Campus: San Mateo, Calif.

    What happened: Siebel moved into its new headquarters, with a health club, swank cafeteria, and day care center, in early 2001, just as revenues were peaking. Rival software maker Oracle announced plans earlier this month to acquire Siebel, whose revenue has been on a three-year slide. (Photo submitted by Canonsreenu)

    Webshots.com

  • Company: Oracle

    Campus: Redwood Shores, Calif.

    What happened: Oracle, then a $584 million software company, set up shop in Redwood Shores in 1989. Its glass towers became a Silicon Valley landmark as Oracle went on to become the second-largest software company in the world. But even Oracle wasn't immune to the office curse: In 1990, the company had its first-ever money-losing quarter and was forced to lay off hundreds.

    Disordered.org

Company: Silicon Graphics

Campus: Mountain View, Calif.

What happened: SGI in 1997 moved into what many thought was the Taj Mahal of Silicon Valley--500,000 square feet of high-tech offices. But management turmoil and increasing competition from PCs badly wounded the computer maker. After several years of layoffs, SGI moved out of the sprawling facility, which is now leased by Google.

Disordered.org

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By Bill Detwiler

Bill Detwiler is Editor in Chief of TechRepublic and Tech Pro Research and the host of Cracking Open, CNET and TechRepublic's popular online show. Prior to joining TechRepublic in 2000, Bill was an IT manager, database administrator, and desktop supp...