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

To: Mark Finger who wrote (9623)	2/20/1998 6:04:00 PM
From: Mark Ericson	Read Replies (4) \| Respond to of 14631

Let's "Raise the Bar"; I have been monitoring this board for some time because it has been one of the best investment threads on SI. I am really disappointed lately with all the snipping back and forth over personalities and opinions. Including, the latest joke about upgrades. Let's get off it and get on with objective analyses of IFMX as an investment opportunity. Let everybody express their opinions without a lot of arrogant criticism which I believe is beneath the members on this thread. Thank you one and all.

To: Mark Finger who wrote (9623)	2/23/1998 5:44:00 AM
From: Peter Piper	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 14631

Do you think IFMX may come head to head against IBM's DB2 in some areas? Is IFMX taking any market share away from IBM? IBM Says Its Database Business Remains Strong (02/21/98; 12:03 p.m. EST) By Ellis Booker, InternetWeek IBM executives last week flouted the conventional wisdom about an industry-wide slowdown in the database market, citing their own strong showing last year. "We had an extraordinarily strong fourth quarter," said Tom Kendra, vice president of worldwide marketing at IBM's data management division. He pointedly compared IBM's numbers -- a 60 percent jump in its Windows NT and Unix business -- with Oracle's poor showing for the same period. Oracle database license revenues were up a scant 3 percent in the fourth quarter, prompting a tumble in Oracle's stock late last year. Asked about the numbers, Oracle officials quickly turned the tables on IBM. "Because their base is so small, it's easy to show higher growth rates," said Timothy Payne, senior marketing manager for server technologies at Oracle. But IBM's Kendra took issue with this analysis. "Then ask them why our 'dinosaur' business on the mainframe grew two or three times [compared to] theirs," he said. "They can't have it both ways." Kendra said IBM's DB2 mainframe business grew between 7 percent and 8 percent last year, and that its DB2 for the OS/390 in 1997 grew 11 percent from 1996. He said even its IMS business was up 4 percent on a year-to-year basis. A report from Giga Information Group, meanwhile, suggests that IBM's Unix prospects may improve this year, up from the 70 percent growth that it experienced in 1997. The reason? IBM will emphasize Unix platforms other than its own RS/6000, which accounted for 95 percent of its Unix business last year. The company also is due to ship its Universal Database Extended Enterprise Edition on high-end platforms from Sun Microsystems.