Informix Corp. announced that it would establish two independent operating companies ¿ Informix Software, which will focus solely on database management systems, and Informix Business Solutions, which will focus on providing e-commerce solutions.
Jim Foy was appointed president of Informix Software, and Pete Fiore is the new president of Informix Business Solutions.
"It has been the primary goal of this executive team to take decisive action to bring Informix back into a market leadership position," said Peter Gyenes, president and chief executive officer of Informix. "After in-depth analyses using both internal and external resources, we have concluded that by creating two independent operating companies, we will bring complete focus to bear on every aspect of each business."
Gyenes, who was president and CEO of Ardent Software prior to its purchase by Informix, succeeded Jean-Yves Dexmier in July. He assumed the additional title of chairman in September.
According to AMR Research, the split was necessary. After the purchase of Ardent, Informix hoped to be a one-stop-shop for data warehousing. However, some customers asked if Ardent's integration software would continue to support non-Informix databases (see related stories in the January and April issues of this year). And Informix's database business suffered as the focus shifted to new Ardent products.
According to the company, Informix Software is consolidating the best features of a group of databases ¿ Foundation.2000, Informix Dynamic Server, Informix Extended Parallel Server and Informix Red Brick Decision Server ¿ into one, called Arrowhead, expected to be in production by 2002. Informix will continue to support its current databases, but suggests that customers explore a transition path, according to AMR.
