Netscape Communication Corp yesterday appeared to flip-flop on its 1995 choice of Informix Software Corp as its preferred database supplier, saying it’ll create new versions of its Livewire Pro and SuiteSpot volume server products bundled with Oracle, and that Oracle will be the only database it bundles with its Merchant, Publishing and Community Systems application-specific servers. It was barely a year ago that Netscape forged a wide-ranging agreement with Informix on product integration and packaging (CI No 2,713). At the time Netscape co-founder and SVP technology Marc Andreesson said that it is clear to us that Informix is the technical leader. Caught a bit off guard, it took Infromix a while to get its wits about it, but it responded later in the day claiming the agreement was little but posturing, packaging and repositioning. Netscape sells Informix versions of SuiteSpot and LivewirePro in both development and deployment configurations; its Oracle implementations will be development products only and the customer will have to go back to Oracle for additional deployment licenses, Informix claims. Moreover while Oracle may be the exclusive database offering for the current Netscape Application suite – Merchant, Publishing and Community Systems – Informix says it’s working with Netscape on future Netscape Application servers and that it has 10 engineers on-site at Oracle compared with Oracle’s one. Moreover Informix is one of Netscape’s 21 AppFoundry applications, Oracle isn’t. In addition, Oracle’s decision to bundle Netscape Navigator 3.0 on its forthcoming NC is clearly an indication that Oracle has failed with its PowerBrowser web browser Informix says. Oracle says it sees a $2bn market for database/internet products rising to $4.8bn in 1998. Its agreement with Netscape is seen in many quarters as an attempt to heal a rift which opened when CEO Larry Ellison was quoted questioning Netscape’s chances for survival in the browser business. Netscape CEO Jim Barksdale responded by saying Ellison may have been trying to drive down Netscape’s stock to make it easier for Oracle to buy Netscape. Both executives say they’ve were misquoted. We decided to prefer one another, said Oracle.
