It's Heads-Up at Informix
A new CEO starts putting things right at Informix
A new management crew is on the job at Informix (IFMX), the database software company, led by CEO Peter Gyenes, the
ex-CEO of Ardent Software, which Informix acquired in December. Gyenes had revived Ardent, which gives some investors hope. ''We've acquired 3.3 million Informix shares as a bet on Gyenes, who has a history of turning companies around,'' says T.J. Duncan of Frontier Capital Management. Informix is second only to Oracle in database software.
Duncan figures that with Gyenes at the helm, Informix stock, which has tumbled from 21 to 3 3/4 this year, could jump to 15 in 12 months. The first thing Gyenes did as CEO was to split Informix into two operating units: a database software company with annual sales of $840 million, and an intelligence-solutions company serving e-commerce enterprises, which he plans to take public this year. It has annual revenues of $130 million.
As Duncan sees it, Informix' database software unit is worth two times sales, or about $9 a share. The new e-business unit that develops e-commerce software and infrastructure to support databases, he figures, is worth 10 times revenues, or $6 a share. Some insiders come up with even higher estimates. They note that Gyenes usually sells companies after he is done fixing them up--as he did with Ardent.
The Ardent purchase and current restructuring have prompted analysts to drop their earnings estimates. James Pickrel of Chase H&Q figures Informix will earn 17 cents a share in 2000 and 27 cents next year. He rates the stock a buy for investors with a long-term investment horizon.
By GENE G. MARCIAL
businessweek.com:/2000/00_42/b3703164.htm
Thanks to the Yahoo IFMX thread. |
