PRESS: An Open Letter to Informix Customers, Partners, and

An Open Letter to Informix Customers, Partners, and Shareholders=20 September 22, 1997=20 Today, Informix announced that we will require additional time to complete the financial audit we started in August, and also that we have some new rough estimates of the amount of the financial restatement. Let me begin by saying that we are all frustrated it is taking this long. Our finance team and auditors are working as hard as they can to complete the restatement. At the same time, it is very important that we do it right.=20 Despite the uncertainty, I decided to make this announcement today because I believe that keeping you, our customers, partners, and shareholders informed is the right thing to do. You can find details about the financial announcement in our press release. Let me emphasize an important point regarding our financial situation. We are continuing to apply our revenue recognition policy very conservatively as we move forward through 1997.=20 There is one point in the press release that has caused some confusion and I would like to clarify the situation for you: The Informix stock has not been de-listed by NASDAQ to date.=20 We acknowledged in the press release that NASDAQ has initiated stock de-listing proceedings. That process is a natural consequence of the fact that the company has delayed in filing its second quarter 10-Q report. It will be some time before any final decision on this is made by NASDAQ. We are hoping to obtain an exception to NASDAQ's de-listing requirements in light of our good faith efforts to restate our 1995 and 1996 financial statements.=20 I also want to assure you that I am very focused on the five priorities I outlined in my first letter to you in August:=20 =B7 Significantly improve the operations and execution performance of the company.=20 =B7 Build the financial stability and strength of the company.=20 =B7 Ensure we articulate a clear, differentiated strategy and position in th= e marketplace.=20 =B7 Build and lead a strong management team.=20 =B7 Build on Informix's foundation of strong partnerships.=20 We have made significant progress against these five priorities, including naming a new Vice President of North American Field Operations, Wes Raffel. Wes will be the architect of Informix's global channels strategy and will have responsibility in North America for all channels of product distribution, including direct to end-user, distributors, value-added resellers, systems integrators, and OEM. I am confident that Wes will help focus our channel strategy.=20 I also wanted to take this opportunity to set the record straight on the underlying issues affecting our financial performance. Of one thing I am sure--the company's performance and operational issues have nothing to do with the performance or customer acceptance of INFORMIX-Universal Server.=20 We are pleased with the customer acceptance of our industry leading INFORMIX-Universal Server product. Customers like Egghead Software and Warner Brothers, as well as German broadcasting companies like Springer and RTL, are already powering their Web sites and electronic-commerce applications with the INFORMIX-Universal Server. Lucent Technologies has based an internet application for sales and marketing support on the technology. They are extremely happy with the product and Lego is one of the several hundred customers in development with it.=20 We are also moving rapidly ahead, furthering our industry leading technology position. Last week we announced that INFORMIX-Universal Server is shipping as an available database for Virage's media asset management systems. And today, we are announcing the worldwide availability of Domain XE, HP's Intranet solution embedded with INFORMIX-Universal Server, Informix's Web products, and Excalibur's DataBlade module. We also showcased the industry's most affordable data warehousing solution today. Informix price/performance results, as measured by the Transaction Processing Performance Council 100 GigaByte (GB) Benchmark D (TPC-D), significantly surpass all competitors in this category, with performance results that clearly exceed such database vendors as IBM, Oracle, and= Tandem.=20 For sure, I am being asked about Informix's financial stability. That is to be expected. But I am encouraged by the loyalty and continued confidence in Informix and our products and services. A great example appeared just this week in Computerworld, which quoted the CIO of Sears as saying, "We will continue to use Informix. We think they'll be OK and that they have one of the best technologies on the market." I am hearing that kind of confidence in our company and technology from many of our customers. And I would like to thank you for your continued support as I work with my management team to build an even stronger Informix going forward.=20 Sincerely,=20 Robert J. Finocchio President, CEO, and Chairman