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Autumn 2001
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Raining Data has recently announced a number of management changes which have come as something of a shock to the MV database community at large.
President and COO Richard Lauer, and Chief Technical Officer Tim Holland, who along with Gil Figueroa were leading lights of the PickAx acquisition consortium, are both leaving the company. Renowned trainer Jonathan Sisk, VP of E-Business Operations, has already been let go, along with over 20 other staff. In addition, Bryce Burns, the interim CEO, has been replaced at the helm although he will continue to serve on the Board of Directors.
The new men in the hot seat are Carlton H Baab, who has been named President and CEO, and Geoffrey P Wagner, who has been named Chairman of the Board. It is interesting to note that Baab, who is described in the official press release as a “broadly experienced technology executive” with over two years as COO and CFO of RemarQ Communities behind him, is (or was) a Managing Principal with Astoria Capital Management, the finance group instrumental in the merger of Pick Systems/PickAx with Omnis to create Raining Data.
Raining Data have been keen to reassure the market that these changes have been necessary for the future prosperity of the company, but many in the market are viewing them with abject dismay. Vendors and end-users alike were hugely encouraged when so many well-known MV advocates stood up to become part of PickAx; to see them all walking away from what they built such a short time later makes us ask distressing questions.
Has there been a change of focus at boardroom level, moving the emphasis away from developing the established database market in favour of a newish technology that has wider appeal but so far, little market penetration?
Was there any ulterior motive in the merger of Pick Systems and Omnis, two
technologies that did not seem ideally suited to each other and did not appear
to address the weaknesses of either? Dare we say cash cow?
What has happened to the various engineering projects that were supposedly under
way: D3 V8.0, for instance, or the much talked-about next-generation database
product based on mvENTERPRISE? What about mvBASE?
When we get right down to it, what does it mean for Raining Data’s customers and distributors, the people at the front line who are depending on this database to run their business?
When a company lets go a large number of staff, it usually means trouble. When that same company goes out of its way to reassure its market that everything is okay, it was necessary, we’re now more focused than ever, there is a tendency to hear the orchestra playing on as the liner sinks that is difficult to ignore.
We at MultiValue News are not trying to write Raining Data off. It is the very last thing we would wish to see. Yet we cannot help but feel that something unpleasant is about to happen, because what we can see does not tally with what we are told. We hope that we will be proved wrong.
Read the latest announcements from Raining Data
Response from jBASE
Last Updated: 29 Nov 2001