Informix to float units in April

Informix said it plans to float its two independent operating units by April, and that the applications business will unveil its name and strategy on 30 October.

Last month the software vendor announced that it would split itself into two separate companies early next year as part of a strategy to improve its recent lacklustre performance. The companies will initially be wholly owned subsidiaries of Informix, but this week company executives said the vendor plans to float the businesses in the second quarter of next year.

The two companies will be a database vendor called Informix Software and a soon-to-be named, cross-platform ebusiness software developer which currently goes by its internal name, Newco.

The database company, which sells around seven databases, is expected to dramatically reduce this number. Although no further details are available at present, Informix officials said the company is working on merging together the code streams of all its database products.

The applications company will house its data warehouse and business intelligence acquisition, Ardent. Informix chief executive Peter Gyenes had previously admitted to vnunet.com that the merger of Ardent and Informix had not been properly executed.

This week officials from Newco said the breakup would enable it to better target potential customers that were previously concerned about the company's independence. According to Andrew Manby, director of product marketing, 95 per cent of its installed software use non-Informix databases including Oracle and Microsoft SQL Server.

Being a separate company will also enable it to better articulate its applications strategy. "We are going to be more focused and more solutions-oriented," he said.

Betsy Burton, an analyst at researcher Gartner, said Informix has no choice but to split the company because the database side, which has been suffering against rivals Oracle, IBM and Microsoft, "was dragging down the applications business".

She believes the split should enable the database company to be "ruthlessly focused" on the database market, and carve out its speciality, particularly in areas such as data warehousing.

The biggest challenge for Newco is its ability to tie all its products together into a coherent message, added Burton.

Currently Newco is focused on three areas: commerce, content and analytics. iSell is a commerce server aimed at enabling retailers to sell on the web, while Media 360 is a digital management system aimed at the broadcast industry.

Informix officials admitted that it is "trying to rally round a specific vision" in the analytics space where it markets the Datastage business intelligence tool which it inherited from Ardent.