Sybase Inc seems to be continuing its recovery, with second-quarter figures showing profit for the fourth successive quarter, but with revenue down from the same period in the previous year for the third successive quarter, this time from $249.9m to $237.6m. Post tax profits were $4.4m, or $0.06 a share, up dramatically from the second quarter of 1996’s $24.6m loss. Mitchell Kertzman, formerly president and chief executive officer, is also relinquishing the presidency of Sybase to industry veteran John Chen, who comes on board as president and chief operating officer; from August 1st Kertzman becomes chairman and chief executive officer. Kertzman believes the continued improvement to be down to management of expenses and that the company remains ‘on track’ to full recovery from its two year doldrums. The quarter may indeed mask a continued return to good health, as the Emeryville, California based company has yet to ship the next version of its database management system, Adaptive Server Enterprise, the rewritten version of its core relational database offering, now said to be in the second version of its beta program and due for general release before the end of the year. New products and new versions of products also due in the coming quarters include the Jaguar CTS component transaction server, a Java Data Base Connectivity product called jConnect and a rapid application delivery tool called PowerJ, all exploiting Sybase’s move to a Java and ActiveX component future. If all ship on time, Sybase sales people will have more product to sell, and the company may see a return to actual growth, as opposed to all this commendable good housekeeping and focus on cost control Kertzman has had to focus on since becoming head of the company a year ago. Driving that renewed drive for growth will be surely be a major priority for Chen, formerly CEO of Pyramid Technology Corporation, before he sold the company to Siemens Nixdorf Information Systems AG in 1995, an executive with a strong reputation in the Valley.
