Informix Is Buying Ardent Software, As Sybase Agrees to Acquire Web Firm
Informix Corp. and Sybase Inc., two longtime makers of database software, announced acquisitions to help boost growth.</br></br>Informix said it agreed to acquire Ardent Software Inc., a developer of data-warehousing technology, for $772.5 million in stock. Sybase agreed to buy an Internet financial-services company called Home Financial Network Inc. for $143.3 million in cash and stock.</br></br>Both software companies have been diversifying beyond databases, a market led by rival Oracle Corp. In buying Ardent, of Westboro, Mass., Informix gets a larger position in data warehouses, a comprehensive form of database that can combine information from many sources in a company.</br></br>James Pickrel, senior analyst at Hambrecht & Quist LLC in San Francisco, said some Informix customers already have been using Ardent software to combine data from older computer systems and Web sites dedicated to electronic commerce. "Now they can go to one source" for that technology, he said.</br></br>Jean-Yves Dexmier, Informix's chief executive officer, said "we are going to grow revenue faster" as a result of the acquisition. Under terms of the agreement, Informix will offer 80 million shares, or 3.5 shares of Informix common stock for each outstanding Ardent share, and assume all outstanding Ardent options. At the close of Nasdaq Stock Market trading at 4 p.m., Informix shares fell $1.3438 to $9.6556, while Ardent shares jumped $5.50 to $31.75.