Informix acquisition of Ardent watched closely by vendors
By Industrial Distribution Staff -- Industrial Distribution, 1/1/2000
The combination of database software powerhouses Informix Corp. and Ardent Software is expected to provide fully integrated data warehouse and e-business applications. Informix, a leader in providing database technology for the Internet economy, agreed to acquire Ardent, which develops data analysis tools, for $880 million in stock in December. The deal should be completed in the first quarter.The transaction is important to the distribution marketplace since several software vendors that provide enterprise applications to distributors -- such as Prelude Systems and Eclipse -- use Ardent's software as the foundation of their systems. The combined Informix-Ardent entity will have revenues of over $1 billion and will focus on business intelligence infrastructure. Ardent provides data integration infrastructure software and is a major provider of data warehouses, which combine information from multiple company sources to form a comprehensive database.
"The combination of Informix and Ardent is so compelling because it creates the market leader for the business intelligence infrastructure that makes this integration possible," says Jean-Yves Dexmier, president and CEO of Informix, of Menlo Park, Calif. "Through the combination with Ardent, we become the first and only software provider that can offer all the components of an end-to-end integrated e-commerce and business intelligence solution."
Both companies have assured their customers that Ardent's key UniVerse and Unidata products will be preserved.
Industry analyst Henry Morris, vice president for data warehousing at International Data Corp., says combining the two companies makes sense.
"Businesses must be able to rapidly analyze and then respond to the latest Web-based data on customers and suppliers, delivering personalized content that impacts future Web transactions," he says. "Ardent's infrastructure initiatives address the new requirements for closed loop systems."
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