For all you dbms junkies...
This just came this AM from Information Week
- TOP STORIES -
** IBM Buying Informix For $1 Billion
Looking for a boost in its race with archrival Oracle, IBM is
acquiring database-software maker Informix Software for $1
billion in cash. The move will arm IBM with advanced database
technology, a customer base of 100,000, and more than 2,000
Informix employees, not the least of whom are skilled database
engineers.
Once a high-flier in the database industry, Informix has been
struggling in recent years, sometimes losing money and steadily
losing market share to IBM, Microsoft, and Oracle. IBM, in
contrast, has been gaining on market leader Oracle, although a
big percentage of IBM's base of DB2 database customers are
mainframe owners. The buyout would boost IBM's presence in Unix
and Windows markets, according to Steve Mills, IBM group
executive of IBM Software.
IBM plans to maintain and update Informix's database products as
long as users want, says Janet Perna, general manager of IBM's
database-management software solutions division. Giga Information
Group analyst Teri Palanca says IBM will continue developing the
new releases of Informix Dynamic Server and Extended Parallel
Server databases, which are due out later this year. But she does
not expect the continuation of "Arrowhead," Informix's planned
project to meld its multiple databases into a single high-end
database.
Informix Corp. was in the process of splitting into two
companies: Informix Software, which owns the company's database
products, and Ascential Software, which owns the
business-intelligence and digital asset-management applications.
IBM is buying the former. Once the acquisition is completed in
the third quarter, Ascential will be an independent company and
the Informix name, once one of the biggest in the San Francisco
Bay area, will disappear. - Rick Whiting
For the full story:
http://update.informationweek.com/cgi-bin4/flo?y=eDWh0BcwYR0V20NHa0Ai
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