IBMs market was also just far larger. SGI sales were around 3 billion, Sun were around 3x that. IBM was even more. SGI and Sun were based Unix so Linux could di

IBMs market was also just far larger. SGI sales were around 3 billion, Sun were around 3x that. IBM was even more. SGI and Sun were based Unix so Linux could disrupt that far more easy then IBMs systems. IBM also came into the game more vertically integrated. Having your own fab is expensive, but if you read on what Sun and SGI had to do in order to get chips, that route also wasn't great. In the beginning there was a chance that Sun and SGI could have merged, the reason it didn't happen was mostly because leadership couldn't agree on who would lead the company. Between them they duplicated a lot of technology while sitting right next to each other. Both doing their own RISC chips, at times Sun was doing their own graphics cars, competing in 'low' priced and mid priced work stations, incomparable Unix developments, competing in the large SMP market against each other. If they had been together and things could have been different a larger install base and more investment into the architecture might have given them a better chance.