PRESS INFORMIX AND ASCII TO FORM JOINT VENTURE

INFORMIX AND ASCII TO FORM JOINT VENTURE Informix Expands Leadership in Japanese Market TOKYO, Japan (Oct. 3, 1994) -- Informix Corporation (NASDAQ:IFMX) today announced that it has agreed to form a joint venture to acquire ASCII Corporation's database division. The joint venture, to be called Informix ASCII, K.K., will be owned 90 percent by Informix and 10 percent by ASCII. The formation of the joint venture and the acquisition of the division, a part of Informix's continued efforts to expand its leadership in the Japanese market, are expected to be completed in January, 1995. The joint venture will be managed by Norio Murakami, vice president of Informix Software, Inc. and president of Informix Software, K.K. Murakami joined Informix in July, 1994. ASCII, the leading Japanese distributor of open systems products, has had the rights to market, sell, and support Informix's full suite of relational database management system (RDBMS) products throughout Japan since 1984. "Informix and ASCII have had a long and mutually beneficial relationship," said Phillip E. White, chairman and CEO, Informix. "It is now time, as the market matures and expands, for the two companies to join forces to provide wider distribution and better support to our customers." "This joint venture will combine Informix's industry-leading technology with the technical strength and experience ASCII has built up over more than ten years," said K. Nishi, president, ASCII Corp. "I am confident that this new relationship will enable Informix to maintain its number one position in the Japanese market and will enhance service and support for our current and future users." "We are very excited about the combination that will enable us to draw on the strength of the ASCII database division employees and on the reputation and customer relationships that ASCII has developed over the past ten years," added Norio Murakami. Terms of the Transaction The agreement between ASCII and Informix provides that Informix ASCII, K.K. will be owned 90 percent by Informix and 10 percent by ASCII. Informix ASCII, K.K. will acquire the database division assets and software licenses from ASCII Corporation at the closing for approximately 4.6 billion yen, and the database division employees will be transferred to the joint company. From now until the closing, ASCII will operate the database division as a commission agent of Informix Software, K.K. The ASCII database division had revenues of approximately 4.4 billion yen in the fiscal year ended March, 1994. About ASCII ASCII Corporation is the leading software company in Japan and is involved in developing and distributing UNIX-based software, MS/DOS and Windows software and also game software. Since 1984, ASCII has handled Informix products and succeeded in positioning Informix as one of the prominent RDBMS in the Japanese market. ASCII also publishes and sells books and magazines related to the computer and game machine industries, including training manuals and advanced user manuals. ASCII also established a new joint venture company in Japan with Microsoft K.K. to promote Windows NT in 1994. About Informix Informix Software, Inc., the operating subsidiary of Informix Corporation, is the leading supplier of high performance, parallel processing database technology for open systems. The company's database servers are the number one choice of computer hardware manufacturers for publishing Transaction Processing Council (TPC) benchmarks for UNIX-based 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. The company's corporate headquarters is in Menlo Park, California. ### INFORMIX is a registered trademark of Informix Software, Inc. Al other companies mentioned or other names indicated by a (R) or (TM) are registered trademarks of their respective manufacturer. -- %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%% William Daul Advanced Support INFORMIX SOFTWARE INC. 4100 Bohannon Dr. (415) 926-6488 - wk Menlo Park, CA. 94025 uunet!infmx!billd or billd@informix.com