New chief promises Ashton-Tate success.New chief promises Ashton-Tate success Ashton-Tate Corp. will deliver at least one software product a month, vowed William P. Lyons, the new head of the troubled Torrance-based computer software company. The 45-year-old former IBM (International Business Machines Corporation, Armonk, NY, www.ibm.com) The world's largest computer company. IBM's product lines include the S/390 mainframes (zSeries), AS/400 midrange business systems (iSeries), RS/6000 workstations and servers (pSeries), Intel-based servers (xSeries) executive last week was named president and chief operating officer Chief Operating Officer (COO) The officer of a firm responsible for day-to-day management, usually the president or an executive vice-president. , in effect replacing CEO (1) (Chief Executive Officer) The highest individual in command of an organization. Typically the president of the company, the CEO reports to the Chairman of the Board. Edward M. Esber Jr., 37, who also resigned his post as chairman after six years with the company. Lyons is Ashton-Tate's first president and COO since Luther Nussbaum took the heat months ago for the company's software snafu, dBASE IV, dBASE IV was an upgraded version of its staple product that fell flat and is blamed for four losing quarters in a row. Its failure and the inability of the company to promptly ship a corrected version of the product made Ashton-Tate, once renowned for its pioneer database product for personal computers, a case study in the decline of software companies. After months of testing the cumbersome dBASE IV, Esber, still unable to deliver the overdue program, resigned in what analysts say was an overdue move. "I don't know Don't know (DK, DKed) "Don't know the trade." A Street expression used whenever one party lacks knowledge of a trade or receives conflicting instructions from the other party. much about Lyons, but I think this company was overdue for a changing of the guard. Mr. Esber's policies were detrimental to the company," said Aharon Orlansky of New York New York, state, United States New York, Middle Atlantic state of the United States. It is bordered by Vermont, Massachusetts, Connecticut, and the Atlantic Ocean (E), New Jersey and Pennsylvania (S), Lakes Erie and Ontario and the Canadian province of & Foreign Securities. "He probably had too much power and too little experience." Ashton-Tate stock, however, remained unchanged after the announcement at $10.875. Taking over as chairman was an Ashton-Tate stockholder and director, Carmelo J. Santoro, CEO of a Tustin-based circuits manufacturer, Silicon Systems. Esber remains on the board as vice chairman. Lyons, in his relatively short time at Ashton-Tate, was a standout replacement, said company managers. He joined the company in October, 1988, around the fateful release date of dBASE IV. His job was to organize an application division, which consisted of everything but dBASE products. He consolidated into one San Jose San Jose, city, United States San Jose (sănəzā`, săn hōzā`), city (1990 pop. 782,248), seat of Santa Clara co., W central Calif.; founded 1777, inc. 1850. location three scattered offices that had been the results of acquisitions - a graphics division in Shelton, Conn., a development center in East Hartford East Hartford, urban town (1990 pop. 50,452), Hartford co., central Conn., on the Connecticut River opposite Hartford; settled c.1640, inc. 1783. East Hartford is a trucking and warehousing center, with bulk oil storage and distribution. , Conn. and a spreadsheet operation in Sunnyvale. |
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