PRESS: INFORMIX TO ACQUIRE ILLUSTRA INFORMATION TECHNOLOGIES

INFORMIX TO ACQUIRE ILLUSTRA INFORMATION TECHNOLOGIES Combination to Give Significant Technology Lead In Database Market MENLO PARK, Calif., (December 20, 1995) -- Informix Corporation (NASDAQ:IFMX), the leader in parallel processing database technology, today announced an agreement to acquire Oakland, Calif.-based Illustra Information Technologies, Inc., the leading supplier of dynamic content management database software and tools for managing complex data in the Internet, multimedia/entertainment, financial services and earth sciences and other markets. Approximately 12.9 million shares of Informix common stock will be issued to acquire all outstanding shares of Illustra. An additional 2.1 million Informix shares will be reserved for issuance in connection with the assumption of Illustra's outstanding stock options. Informix currently has approximately 135 million shares of stock outstanding. The acquisition of Illustra will be accounted for as a tax free pooling of interest. The acquisition will enable Informix to integrate Illustra's dynamic content management system into its core parallel database technology, Dynamic Scalable Architecture (DSA). Informix believes that this technology integration will give the combined organization a significant market advantage over competing database vendors in providing a powerful database engine to support the next wave of database applications -- such as Web applications -- which require high-performance and scalability coupled with dynamic content management capabilities. Both companies realize that the Web is driving a large and rapidly-growing new market for information management. This new market, which is driving a shift from static and fixed data types to dynamic and rich content, requires users to interact with three-dimensional graphics, video, audio, HTML, spatial data, and other complex data. To effectively manage this new content, users are demanding a sophisticated database engine that combines the robust, scalable, enterprise solutions offered by relational databases with the flexible, extensible, content management capabilities pioneered by Illustra. The integration of Informix and Illustra products will offer users the ideal solution. "This acquisition gives Informix a significant lead over any other database vendor in capturing the expanding market of content management, especially in the Web space," said Phil White, chairman and CEO, Informix. "In addition to our shared visions and markets, the synergy with Illustra's technology gives us a significant time-to-market advantage. Customers who had a hard time choosing between the two companies now have the clear choice for selecting a database that will take them into the twenty-first century and beyond." "With this agreement, no other database vendor is better positioned in the Web market and the overall information management market today," said Dick Williams, president and CEO, Illustra. "The combination of Informix and Illustra technology will create the database of choice for cyberspace because it is the ideal coupling of unique strengths." About Illustra Headquartered in Oakland, Calif., Illustra Information Technologies, Inc. is the leading worldwide supplier of content management systems and tools for applications in multimedia and entertainment, digital media publishing, and financial services. The company's flagship product, the Illustra Server, allows users to store, manage, and analyze complex multimedia data such as audio, video, and images, in a single database, along with traditional characters and numbers. The company was founded in 1992. For more information on the company and Illustra's products, please visit http://www.illustra.com. About Informix Informix Software, the operating subsidiary of Informix Corporation, is the leading supplier of high performance, parallel processing database technology for open systems. Informix products also include application development tools for creating client/server production applications, decision support systems, and ad-hoc query interfaces, and connectivity software that allows information to be shared transparently from PCs to mainframes within the corporate computing environment. Informix's corporate headquarters is based in Menlo Park, California. More information about Informix is available via the World Wide Web: http://www.informix.com. ### Industry Comments on Informix/Illustra Announcement "In looking for an information management solution to support our Internet products, we surveyed the entire database market and concluded that Illustra was way ahead of the pack in terms of understanding and supporting this emerging class of complex multimedia data types. We needed an architecture that could be adapted and extended to include any type of complex data, both now and in the future. Illustra was the only company able to deliver this kind of extensible, dynamic content management. With the number of online users growing 30% per month, we also needed a high performance, scalable data management solution. Informix is the ideal complement to Illustra because of its proven parallel processing capabilities and ability to deliver very high performance. Together, they are truly the database for cyberspace." Linda Dozier Chief Scientist, NaviSoft division America Online "The emergence of multimedia and other complex data types is driving the need for more processing power, from the home, to the desktop and up through the enterprise. With this comes the need for a database management system that can control all this rich data and facilitate the development and deployment of multimedia. Both companies have been important partners for us because of their technologies. We see Illustra as a primary enabling technology for this next generation of computing applications. Informix has the scalability and parallel processing features essential for making dynamic multimedia content ubiquitous, whether its delivered on an interactive entertainment appliance to the home, or on a massively parallel computer to the enterprise." Dave House Senior Vice President and General Manager, Enterprise Server Group Intel "This announcement is a major step forward for the industry. Historically, relational database companies have done a great job with structured data but haven't addressed unstructured content. The Internet revolution makes handling and manipulating documents, images, video, and a wide range of other unstructured media types extremely important. The combination of Informix and Illustra shows that Informix is really stepping up to the plate on providing state-of-the-art systems for handling unstructured content to its customers and partners. In addition, the Netscape LiveWire Pro visual environment does a great job of connecting Web servers to relational databases such as Informix and Illustra. Netscape LiveWire Pro, in conjunction with the Informix/Illustra database technology, will make storing and manipulating data on the net easier than ever." Marc Andreessen Co-founder and Vice President of Technology