Informix puts blame on Europe as loss revealed

Informix CEO Phil White has blamed the poor sales performance in Europe for dragging the financial situation down after it announced a $140 million loss.

The vendor announced a loss for the quarter ended 31 March of $140.1 million and a turnover of $133.7 million, down 34 per cent on 1996 revenue for the same period of $204 million.

Licence revenue was more than halved from a 1996 figure of $151.2 million to $71.7 million this year.

White picked out Europe for particular criticism after the region saw revenue fall 57 per cent from $84.8 million to $36.5 million. Northern Europe ? which includes the UK ? was to blame for the majority of this shortfall, according to Ken Coulter, Informix head of worldwide field operations.

But White rejected criticism that Informix? channel strategy was in trouble, despite revelations that 25 per cent of the company?s 1996 revenue came from products that were still in the channel and had not reached customers, creating a bottleneck in the channel.

White insisted that the channel blockage was clearing. ?We burned off as much in Q1 as in all of 1996,? he said.

?When you get more burn-off, then you will see [resellers] re-upping their commitment.?

Following the loss, Sybase also admitted that its plans to open 30 superstore outlets around the globe have had to been scrapped.

The scheme, piloted in the UK, will now be limited to 14 stores, the latest of which will open in New York in June. Informix had to barter licences in return for hardware in order to kit out the stores after its partners refused to donate the kit as the software supplier had hoped.