Informix predicts poor profit for Q1

Database management developer Informix was forced to issue a profit warning last week after admitting it had spent too much time promoting its object relational software at the expense of its traditional market.

Informix took Wall Street by surprise when it warned that it expected to report a substantial loss for its Q1, ended 30 March. Turnover for the quarter will be between $130 million and $145 million, down on the $204 million reported for the comparable period last year.

As a result of the profit warning, Informix shares lost a third of their value to $10.25 as eight million shares changed hands on 1 April. The final results for Q1 are expected to be released at the end of the month.

Although the firm put some of the blame for its decline on a slow European market, the results showed that Informix was paying a heavy price for focusing its efforts on its Universal Server object relational database and had neglected its established Unix and NT markets.

Phil White, Informix CEO, said: ?We may have lost momentum as a result of sales and marketing emphasis on emerging object relational technology and the lack of corporate focus on our NT products.?

Universal Server was launched in December 1995 amid bad publicity when its architect, Informix chief technology officer Michael Stonebraker, warned that the database risked crashing if it was run too fast.

The profit warning came at the same time that Informix announced it wanted users to move over to the Universal Server, as it pulled support for its other database products. Informix said it would axe Online Dynamic Server by the end of the year, followed by Online Extended Parallel Server and Online Workgroup Server.