The Real Story of Informix Software and Phil White
The Real Story of Informix Software and Phil White should prove to be an interesting book. I was with Informix from August of 1997 until the database business of Informix was bought by IBM in 2001. I joined just after Phil White had left the company under a cloud due to needed restatements of earnings that changed the very positive Informix Software from a big seller to a slow loser. Great products, but something happened to suck its life away.
From the Sterling Hoffman newletter the author Steve W. Martin gives us this tidbit:
If you had bought $32,000 worth of Informix stock at its 1991 low you would have made $1 million in just two short years. The incredible success of Informix Software and its growth to $1 billion in sales by the end of 1996 should rightly be credited to Phil White, Informix's President, CEO, and Chairman of the Board. Although White engineered one of the most stunning turnarounds in Silicon Valley history, he was also the person responsible for its shocking collapse in 1997.
He makes it sound like I joined a sinking ship. However, I believed pretty strongly in Informix's products, and worked to make them even better. Such is life, eh? While there was a shocking collapse before I joined in 1997, it was well on its way to recovering its lost ground. I believe the later collapse had other causes, key of which was the Ascential acquisition.
More on this after I read the book some day. (School is busy again.)
Amazon.com links:
Josh Poulson
Posted Monday, Oct 3 2005 01:46 PM
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