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Technology Stocks : IFMX - Investment Discussion -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Jason Chesshir who wrote (9445)	2/13/1998 5:35:00 AM
From: TideGlider	Respond to of 14631

Certainly did...s

To: Jason Chesshir who wrote (9445)	2/13/1998 6:26:00 AM
From: TideGlider	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 14631

Thursday February 12, 10:08 pm Eastern Time Informix shares jump on surprise profit, higher sales MENLO PARK, Calif., Feb 12 (Reuters) - Informix Corp. [Nasdaq:IFMX - news] shares surged 19 percent Thursday after the struggling database software company surprised Wall Street with a profit for the fourth quarter on rising sales and reduced expenses. Informix executives also told investors they are confident they can win back customers after a year of losses and serious questions about the company's viability. ''It was a solid quarter,'' said Andrew Roskill, analyst at Salomon Smith Barney in New York. ''Management sounded very upbeat and in control of the situation.'' Shares of Informix, once the second-biggest independent publisher of database software, rose $1.44 to $8.81 on Nasdaq trading of 28.1 million shares. The stock was the most active in U.S. markets. After the market closed on Wednesday, Informix said it expects to report net income of $9.2 million, or 5 cents a share on a diluted basis, for the fourth quarter. The figures are preliminary because the company is conducting an audit. In the same quarter last year, Informix had a loss of $7.0 million, or 5 cents a share on a diluted basis. Wall Street had expected Informix, based in Menlo Park, Calif., to report a loss of 16 cents a share, according to a recent analyst survey by Zacks Investment Research. Fourth-quarter revenue is expected to be $181.2 million, compared with $216.8 million last year. Informix got in trouble in early 1997 because of poor sales of a new database product that had consumed much of the company's marketing and technical resources. The company reported huge operating losses for the first and second quarters. The company also discovered in August that it had improperly recorded several big sales contracts that did not conform to accounting practices. In November it had to restate financial results all the way back to 1994, to fix what it called ''accounting errors.'' In August, the company hired a new chief executive, Bob Finocchio, who has slashed costs and refocused the company's marketing. Analysts said he has done well so far. ''They probably turned the corner with the restructuring,'' said Michael Murphy, editor of the California Technology Stock letter and manager of a mutual fund that owns 10,000 Informix shares. Still, Informix faces huge challenges. Database software is extremely complex to install and maintain. Customers often consider the financial health of the vendor, as much as the technology, when it comes time to buy. From that aspect, Informix is still at a disadvantage to solid companies like International Business Machines Corp. [NYSE:IBM - news], Oracle Corp. [Nasdaq:ORCL - news] and Microsoft Corp. [Nasdaq:MSFT - news], said Esther Schreiber, analyst at CS First Boston. Analysts also said it is too early to tell whether Informix can sustain a profit. The fourth quarter is its strongest quarter, so it may manage only to break even in the first quarter, Murphy said.