Informix Corporation
| Industry | Computer Software |
|---|---|
| Fate | Purchased by IBM |
| Founded | 1980 |
| Defunct | 2005 |
Informix Corporation was a leading developer of relational database software for computers using the Unix, Microsoft Windows, and Apple Macintosh operating systems located in Menlo Park, California.
Informix Corporation, originally named Relational Database Systems Inc., was created in 1980 by Roger Sippl.
In 1986, The company changed its name to Informix Corporation and went public, raising $9 million.
In 1989, Phillip E. White took over as chief executive.
In 1996, Informix acquired Illustra Information Technologies, an object/relational database company.
In 1997, Informix was rocked by charges of accounting fraud and illegal insider trading.
In 1998, Informix acquired Red Brick Systems, founded by Ralph Kimball, a data warehouse database company.
In 2000, Informix acquired Ardent, a data management company.
In 2001, Informix sold its database subsidiary, Informix Software, to IBM, and renamed itself Ascential Software.
In 2005, IBM acquired Ascential Software.
Informix Software was a software company which sold database products, desktop software and development tools, and information integration products from 1980 until 2005, becoming approximately a $1 billion company in the process. The company was active in the Unix, PC, Linux and Macintosh markets, and grew through both organic development and acquisitions. Its best known products were the Informix databases, of which there were several different families. Other well known products included 4GL, a development environment, Wingz a spreadsheet, and Redbrick a datawarehouse oriented database system, and the Ascential information integration family of products.
The Informix brand and database products were acquired by IBM in 2001, and several of the most popular products remain in market and are continuing to be enhanced by IBM. For information on the current Informix branded database software products see the article IBM Informix.
At the time of the acquisition of Informix by IBM a smaller spin-off company was created, Ascential Software, focused on the information integration and ETL markets. Ascential Software was later acquired by IBM as well, in 2005.
Founders Roger Sippl and Laura King worked at Cromemco, an early S-100/CP/M company, where they developed a small relational database based on ISAM techniques, as a part of a report-writer software package. Sippl and King left Cromemco to found Relational Database Systems (RDS) in 1980. Their first product, Marathon, was essentially a 16-bit version of their earlier ISAM work, made available first on the C8000 from Onyx Systems.
...
Wikipedia