LOS ANGELES -- Oracle Corp. Chairman and Chief Executive Larry Ellison said
Tuesday he doesn't expect rival Informix Corp. to survive as an
independent company
after it said Monday that earnings for the past two years could be reduced
by $250 million
in a restatement of past results.
Ellison's comments came at Oracle's users conference in Los Angeles.
Oracle also went
through a financial restatement in 1990-1991.
``There's no way they can survive this crisis,'' Ellison said. ``The
magnitude of the
problem is ten-fold the problem we experienced in 1990-1991,'' he said.
Informix's problems involve recording sales to its channel partners, or
the companies that
distribute its software, when those companies may not have a buyer.
Informix said in
August that it planned to restate 1996 earnings and said yesterday that
it's extending the
audit to 1995 results.
Ellison said he found ``inconceivable'' that a company evaluating Informix
and Oracle's
products would choose Informix ``when it's fairly certain there will not
be an Informix in
the near future.''
Informix was the most actively traded stock in U.S. markets Tuesday,
falling 13/16 to 6
11/16 on volume of 20 million shares. The shares fell 1 15/16, or 21
percent, Monday.
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