Informix turns corner

Informix was the unlikely winner from a number of vendors that released financial results this week, as it reported a 10.3 per cent rise in turnover for the quarter ending 31 March 2000.

Informix was the unlikely winner from a number of vendors that released financial results this week, as it reported a 10.3 per cent rise in turnover for the quarter ending 31 March 2000.

The company has been plagued with losses ever since it was forced to restate financial results when several former employees were accused of fraudulently inflating turnover from 1994 to the first quarter of 1997.

Since the vendor settled the case with the Securities and Exchange Commission and undertook key management changes, it has returned to profitability. Informix now focuses on its web and business intelligence tools, sales of which grew by 140 per cent during the quarter, the vendor claimed.

In the first quarter of 2000, Informix recorded sales of $250.9m, compared with $227.5m in the same period in 1999. Income for the quarter, excluding charges from the acquisition of Ardent Software, was $27m, compared with $7.9m last year.

Meanwhile, software vendor BMC reported a drop in profit for the quarter ending 31 March 2000 - $98m compared with $100.4m in the same quarter last year. Sales rose 23 per cent to $476.4m, up from $386.5m in the same period in 1999.

Services specialist ECsoft also suffered a slight drop in profit for the first quarter of 2000 - $1.6m compared with $1.8m in the same period in 1999. Turnover was also down from $29.3m in the first quarter of 1999 to $29.4m in the same period this year.

Terje Laugerud, ECsoft's chief executive, said: "The market conditions for the first quarter of 2000 were challenging, but in the first quarter we saw prospective customers initiate dialogue and we anticipate several of these to close in the second quarter."

First appeared in Computer Reseller News