It’s all gone pear-shaped over at three-tier OLTP application development company Magna Software Corp which ceases to exist from today. Bringing in Ted Yarnell as CEO in July of last year didn’t halt the slide – founder Kent Lawson said Y2K and packaging problems with the Magna X software were largely to blame. Also the company’s size; what was by the end of last year a 32-person outfit found it difficult to establish credibility with customers. Other sources say it got simply swept down the East River by its New York city neighbor and rival Prolifics, a Jyacc Inc subsidiary which peddles three-tier web-based OLTP application development software. A bunch of former Magna executives have found new homes at Prolifics. The Magna X software – for which there are some 60 customers – is being offered for sale to a bunch of companies, including Microsoft Corp. M8 Corp, a holding company which investors plus Lawson and other backers used to create Magna Software, will continue to service the Magna 8 Cobol application generator for Honeywell/Bull mainframes developed by Lawson through outsourcing deals with French company Viking and an ex-Bull employee in Phoenix, Arizona. Maintenance revenues from Magna 8 funded the development of Magna X. Magna Software supposedly did around $3m in 1997 and was seeking an additional $8m investment to enhance its product and expand marketing.
