Informix is on the up but not out of trouble

Informix has declared surprise fourth quarter profits, but warned that its financial troubles are yet to be fully resolved.

The database supplier's chief executive Robert Finocchio admitted he is unable to declare the company's financial problems over, although he believes it now has its expenses under control.

The troubled vendor's announcement of a small fourth quarter profit came a few weeks ago. Informix declared a $9.2 million profit against a loss of $7 million the previous year - as well as higher than expected revenues of $181.2 million, down from $216.8 million a year earlier.

Finocchio said: 'I told the board that if I ever say the company has turned around they should fire me. I don't want to turn the company around because I don't want Informix to be where it was.

But it's very hard to predict top line growth. We still have customers who have put us on hold.'

He added that Informix had discontinued the highly-touted but expensive superstore product demonstration centres and sold off the company's old office building in Silicon Valley.

Informix's survival plan, he continued, was to focus on high-end online transaction processing, data warehousing and Web and content management.

The firm will continue to sell its workgroup products, but will not set itself up as a rival to Microsoft since it is unlikely to win share in the low-end of the market, Finocchio said.