Software producer Ashton-Tate suffers loss for 1989 as revenues drop 14 percent.Software producer Ashton-Tate suffers loss for 1989 as revenues drop 14 percent Ashton-Tate Corp. of Torrance, a computer software company whose profits grew to $47.8 million in nine years and then abruptly turned to losses last summer, reported a year-end loss with revenues down 14 percent. For the year ended Dec. 31, 1989, the company lost $29 million, or $1.09 a share, on revenues of $265 million, compared to a profit $48 million, or $1.83 a share on revenues of $307 million in 1988. Its fourth-quarter loss was $1 million, indicating to analysts that Ashton-Tate is shaping up after losing $19.8 million and $19.4 million, respectively, during the quarters ended June 30 and Sept. 30. "The company is in the midst Adv. 1. in the midst - the middle or central part or point; "in the midst of the forest"; "could he walk out in the midst of his piece?" midmost of a slow but steady turnaround," said David Bayer, an analyst with Montgomery Securities in San Francisco San Francisco (săn frănsĭs`kō), city (1990 pop. 723,959), coextensive with San Francisco co., W Calif., on the tip of a peninsula between the Pacific Ocean and San Francisco Bay, which are connected by the strait known as the Golden . Ashton-Tate stock closed up $0.625 following the announcement to $11.875, but is still far below its $24 range in June. The company's troubles began in late 1988 when it released an updated version of its staple 1. (language) STAPLE - A programming language written at Manchester (University?) and used at ICL in the early 1970s for writing the test suites. STAPLE was based on Algol 68 and had a very advanced optimising compiler. 2. product, dBASE IV, a database or lists management software program. When users complained the program was full of "bugs" or errors, sales fell. "They had increases in salaries and budgets institutionalized in·sti·tu·tion·al·ize tr.v. in·sti·tu·tion·al·ized, in·sti·tu·tion·al·iz·ing, in·sti·tu·tion·al·iz·es 1. a. To make into, treat as, or give the character of an institution to. b. ," said analyst Peter Rogers of Robertson Stephens. "When you have institutionalized increases -- however modest -- and your sales are down, you lose money. Now they have gotten their cost structure in line with current sales." In the fourth quarter, Ashton-Tate sold its interest in Sybase Inc. of Berkeley, another database management software company. The amount of the interest was not disclosed, but Chairman and 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 J. Esber Jr. said the sale was a gain during the fourth quarter. Ashton-Tate also released a new version of MultiMate, a word processing system Noun 1. word processing system - an application that provides the user with tools needed to write and edit and format text and to send it to a printer word processor , and last week began shipping Applause II, a graphics software. "[These new products] should aid our recovery," said Esber in a prepared statement. Two weeks ago, the company also announced an agreement to develop a dBASE product with Sun Microsystems Sun Microsystems, Inc. (NASDAQ: JAVA[3]) is an American vendor of computers, computer components, computer software, and information-technology services, founded on 24 February 1982. Inc., a $2 billion (revenues) computer manufacturer based in the Silicon Valley. |
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