Database Software

Hard hit by the sluggish sales of its latest personal computer database software, Ashton-Tate Corp. said Tuesday that it will lay off at least 260 employees--15% of its work force--beginning next week. The Torrance-based company, which last month announced a second-quarter loss of $19.8 million, also said it expects to report an additional loss of more than $14 million for the current quarter ending Sept. 30.

WASHINGTON  -- On a patch of pavement outside the Canadian Embassy, Jay McGinley is trying to starve himself to death. After drinking nothing but water for more than 30 days, he appears close to achieving his goal. When he stands up, his dark blue sweater hangs from a wasted frame. On the 21st day of his hunger strike, May 15, McGinley was hospitalized briefly when his kidneys almost failed. He returned to his post the next day. Wednesday is his 36th day without food.

The recently announced plans of software giant Microsoft Corp. to buy Fox Software, publishers of FoxPro 2.0, is good news for a large group of database users. It enhances the long-term future of the dBASE-standard of database programs, which account for the majority of personal computing databases. The dBASE standard was developed over the last decade by Ashton-Tate through several versions of its database program, culminating in dBASE IV.

Saturday's settlement of the Microsoft antitrust case, under which the software power agreed to alter some business practices, is not expected to have a dramatic impact on the software business in the short term. But even if Microsoft retains dominance in desktop PC software, it may have trouble extending its success to a number of new, fast-growing markets. Desktop: Microsoft DOS and Windows have more than 80% of the market for PC operating systems, which control basic computer functions.

Oracle Corp. figured its $7.4 billion buyout for Sun Microsystems Inc. could skate through antitrust scrutiny, folding Sun into a technology powerhouse when Sun badly needs the lifeline. Both companies will have to wait. European Union regulators applied the brakes Thursday, launching a formal antitrust probe that shatters Oracle's goal of completing the acquisition this summer. The U.S. Department of Justice has already approved the deal. The investigation is focused on whether Oracle will gain too much power in the market for database software, which underpins most things people do in business or on the Web. It helps companies manage and retrieve data they've stored, such as payroll or sales information.

Apple Computer today will unveil a pair of new programs for the Macintosh personal computer that will considerably broaden the machine's capabilities and, according to analysts, help Apple maintain its 12- to 18-month technological lead over IBM. The first piece of software, known as HyperCard, is essentially a database program that allows Macintosh owners to use and create files that combine information in the form of text, graphics, video, voice, music and animation.

When Bill Berkley and Tim Creagh were introduced to each other through their wives a few years ago, the two San Diegans thought that they had little in common. At first glance, Berkley, a commercial real estate broker, and Creagh, a tennis instructor, seemed an unlikely pair to become business partners. But that's exactly what happened.

Irwin A. Bransky's first experience with computers was a dismal one. It came, he said, when he flunked a course in FORTRAN, the granddaddy of computer languages, while in college in his native South Africa. Bransky's first business venture in the United States also flopped. It was a Pioneer Chicken franchise that he owned in the early 1980s near Beverly Hills, hardly a fried chicken kind of town. Despite those early setbacks, Bransky, 38, a former leftist student leader at the University of Witwatersrand in Johannesburg, has combined computers and business to build his second venture, Kenfil Distribution, into the nation's third-largest distributor of software for personal computers.

Oracle Corp. said profit jumped 76% in its fiscal fourth quarter, but its shares fell as much as 6% in after-hours trading because sales of its flagship database software were lower than expected. Profit from operations grew to $926 million, or 31 cents a share, in the quarter ended May 31, from $527 million, or a split-adjusted 18 cents, a year earlier, as revenue rose 17% to $3.4 billion.

Oracle Corp. on Monday reported higher-than-expected fiscal second-quarter earnings, buoyed by strong sales of its core database software. Executives at the Redwood City, Calif.-based company credited most of the growth to rising optimism among corporate technology buyers, who are beginning to ramp up spending after three years of cutting back. Sales in the quarter ended Nov. 30 were $2.5 billion, up 8% from a year earlier.