Wednesday January 27, 7:52 pm Eastern Time
Informix quarterly earnings again top forecasts
(Adds details, additional CEO comments.)
By Duncan Martell
PALO ALTO, Calif., Jan 27 (Reuters) - Informix Corp., the No. 5 maker of database software, on
Wednesday reported a quarterly profit that was again ahead of forecasts, as rising database software sales helped boost profits.
Including a charge related to its purchase of Red Brick Systems completed in December, Informix (Nasdaq:IFMX - news) had net income of
$22.9 million, or 13 cents a share, up from net income of $7.29 million, or 5 cents a share, in the year-ago quarter. Revenue rose 18 percent
to $214.6 million from $181.3 million.
Informix has been charting a comeback begun in August 1997 when Chairman Bob Finocchio came on board to try and turn the beleaguered
database software company around. Since Oct. 21, when the company reported third-quarter earnings that bested expectations, the stock
has nearly tripled. Profit gains were paced by strong sales in Europe and North America.
''We're very happy. It's always great to have continued growth in revenue and profits,'' Finocchio said in an interview, adding that the
company also topped Wall Street's revenue forecasts of $200.6 million, according to First Call Corp., which tracks such figures.
Informix competes with No. 1 database software company Oracle Corp., International Business Machines Corp. with its DB2 database and
products from Sybase Inc.
Excluding a charge of $2.6 million, or a penny a share, Menlo Park, Calif.-based Informix had net income of $25.5 million, or 14 cents a
share, better than the 11 cents a share expected by analysts surveyed by First Call.
License revenue, or sales of new software, was $117.8 million, up 12 percent from the prior year and 22 percent from the third quarter.
Services revenue was $96.8 million, an increase of 27 percent compared with $76.2 million in the fourth quarter of 1997, and up from 9
percent from $88.9 million in the prior quarter.
''License revenue is important because it represents a vote of confidence from the market and our customers,'' Finocchio said. ''Financially,
obviously, these wins are an annuity for the future.''
Informix is charting a different course than one of its principle competitors, Oracle. While Oracle is branching out increasing into business
management software and growing its services business, Informix has elected to focus purely on database software and related technology.
''We're continuing our focus on being the best database company in the world and being highly differentiated from our customer,'' Finocchio
said. The company also announced new customers including telco SBC Communications Inc. and the Internal Revenue Service.
The strong results from Informix cap better-than-expected results from No. 4 database makers Sybase Inc. and top dog Oracle. In the past
year and a half, many analysts and investors argued that the database software market was nearly moribund because most of the world's large
companies already have the powerful programs that store, sort and categorize vast amounts of data.
''Clearly, not everyone who needs a database has purchased one. I said a year ago the database market was a good one to be in,'' Finocchio
said. ''Moreover, the Web is changing everything. There's nothing like it to drive transactions and the proliferations of data.''
Informix stock fell $0.06 to $13.31 on the Nasdaq. It released the results after the close of regular U.S. trading.
(Nasdaq:ORCL - news) (NYSE:IBM - news) (Nasdaq:SYBS - news)
More Quotes
and News:
Informix Corp (Nasdaq:IFMX - news)
International Business Machines Corp (NYSE:IBM - news)
Oracle Corp (Nasdaq:ORCL - news)
Sybase Inc (Nasdaq:SYBS - news)
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