Database holy war

[Craig White]

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