Bachman Information Systems Inc, the incredible shrinking development software company, claims to have entered the third stage of its three-phase return to profit. The first stage saw the repositioning of the Burlington, Massachusetts firm towards client-server and away from AD/Cycle. This included the purchase of Ellipse, the client-server development environment, and increased investment in product development. Ellipse is already shipping as is Terrain, a database-design offering for client-server database designs based on Sybase Inc and Microsoft Corp SQL Server databases. A Windows-based client-server data modelling product, comparable with Analyst for OS/2, is now in beta test. WindTunnel, a performance monitoring tool, is currently being moved from DB2 to Sybase SQL Server and a process management and methodology tool is under development. The second phase required reducing the expense structure generated by the beat the clock mind-set for developing new products. This meant a $2m restructuring charge in the last quarter and cutting staff by 20%. The third phase is to improve Bachman’s lamentable financial performance, and Boni, president of Bachman, has a goal of returning to profitability in the second half of this financial year. In October, Bachman reported first quarter losses exceeding turnover, $7.4m against $6.6m, including a $2m restructuring charge. Bachman recently raised $5.9m in new convertible preferred stock and common share purchase warrants from institutional investors, that represent a 17% cumulative position, and secured a $2.5m credit line (CI No 2,552) and Boni thinks this will be sufficient. Boni previously turned around On-Line Software International Inc, before seeing it taken over by Computer Associates International Inc back in 1991, and believes he can build a strong independent company.
