http://www.rainingdata.com/company/p...Y05/index.html

for Q4 results - they look good to me. No "real" profit, but adding $2m
to the bank isn't too bad!

Ross Ferris wrote:
How many companies running at a loss can afford to keep cash at bank
equivalent to six month's revenue? There's something very fishy there.

It's all Greek to me, but they're still quoting "loss per share" rather
than "profit per share", so I assume that the cash is encumbered. They
owe a lot to their financiers (how much?), so why aren't they spending
some of that cash to pay down their debt?

I really don't understand these things, but if I had to guess, I'd say
that the problem is that their financiers would rather keep them paying
interest at fixed rates, and those financiers sit on the board.

Just a guess, of course. As I said, I have no idea of the real setup.
RDTA has obviously been in caretaker mode for several years, so you have
to wonder.

Luke

I'm not an accounting expert by any means.. but it would appear that RD
actually makes an operating profit which is only turned into a loss after
depreciation of assets etc.

It still doesn't look like a massive success story to me (with my limited
knowledge).. Revenues from licences and services are down on the previous
year, but costs have been reduced further compared to the previous year.

Looks like RD is doing nothing more than "treading water" to me... The
company looks almost viable now, but doesn't appear to have any signs of
growth...

I guess we will have to watch this space!

Regards
Simon


"Luke Webber" <luke (AT) webber (DOT) com.au> wrote

On Sat, 2 Jul 2005 17:22:57 +0100, "Simon Verona"
<news (AT) aphroditeuk (DOT) com> wrote:

933K per month in operating revenue isn't bad considering the
operating costs. The balance sheet shows no note payable expenses. If
they really have no loan liabilities then this would be accurate. YTD
2004 showed 38K in notes payable. It's really hard to gauge overall
performance of a company quarter by quarter anyway. Second and Fourth
quarters will show a lot more.

Glen

Glen wrote:
http://www.rainingdata.com/company/p...m/astoria.html

Some of it may have been converted into equity
http://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/da...5X02/edgar.xml

But if Baab is buying it may be a good sign.

Patrick <;=)

So, the increase in cash on the balance sheet is probably RD saving up to
pay these back in a couple of years!

Regards
Simon
"Patrick Latimer" <"Patrick Latimer"> wrote

Simon Verona wrote:
A couple more years of interest then. Not smart.

Luke

Well I'm not 100% certain that *anything* RD do is smart...

I should say at this point that I don't, and never have used any products
from RD.

I don't know the "real" figures, but I would suspect that not only is RD not
increasing sales, it would appear that they are loosing marketplace to other
MV competitors... Much of this is due to uncompetitive pricing models and
poor customer support (or impressions of such) ...

If the above is true, and continues, then there will come a point in 2008
when the cash goes - to pay back the loans, and they are living with the
reality of shrinking revenues year on year with the only way of reducing
costs being reducing sales force, or cutting into R+D... Either of these is
suicide in the long term...

I don't feel good about the future of RD!

Though, not being a customer of theirs, I'm not too upset... I feel that the
MV marketplace is still overcrowded... With RD out of the picture, then
hopefully larger sales will take place at the other remaining MV vendors who
will be able to raise R+D to develop their products better to compete with
the database market as a whole... Though maybe I'm looking at this too
simplistically

IMHO the only way that *any* of the MV vendors will survive long term is to
gain new blood from the mainstream database marketplace - this means
attacking software developers, vars and distributors to convince them that
MV products are the way forward for them.. Alternatively, perhaps a "me
too" approach would work - building relational compatiability of some
description right into the database - supporting embedded SQL etc right out
of the box and selling databasic as an advanced language for stored
procedures... with muti-dimensionality being an extra bonus..

Just some more thoughts..

Simon

"Luke Webber" <luke (AT) webber (DOT) com.au> wrote

Simon,

Rather than the mv Market being "overcrowded", perhaps it is simply
"too small" - and that falls back onto people like you, me & the other
VAR's to "sell" --> and for the users to sart singing the praises for
the solutions they use.

That said, looking at the Cache example, perhaps rationalization of the
marketplace to a single vendor WOULD be a good move ... but we (this
market) would still be fractionalized with the different versions -->
just look how long Universe & Unidata have been in the same stable.
Whilst there was initial talk of merging the products, I think this
went off the table years ago - the 'difference gulf' wasn't economic to
bridge --> about the only merging possibility I see on that front these
days is some "smarts" to enable migration to the "mother ship" (DB2)
--> but even that probably doesn't make sense.

I've been "worried" about RD for years (ever since Gil took over ...
and then, er, left) - I think there have been opportunities missed, and
some poor choices along the way, but that is a universal truth with the
benefit of hindsight.

There are still some interesting times ahead --> especially in "our"
space. I think it will be interesting to see how things pan out in the
jBase camp once Jim Idle starts to tout an mv/Cache product, and the
benefits this model has. Revelation seems to be making 'inroads', IBM
seem to be committed to the U2 family and are bringing our new releases
with greater frequency than this market has seen for a number of years
leading up to, and subsequent to, the Ardent/Informix "mix" .... and
RD just keeps on going (OK, so I have given up ever seeing Version 8,
but I didn't like the 50% surcharge anway)

Add in factors like Reality, who seem to be supporting their re-entry
into the US & global market with "smart" enhancements that are
appealing to developers & end users alike, players like Via
Systems/EDP, and open-source 'wildcards' like OpenQM and Maverick, and
whilst we may be down from the 20+ licencees of the 1980's, there are
still choices out there.


Ross Ferris
Stamina Software
Visage - an Evolution in Software Development

Some good thoughts Ross..

Sounds like we are perhaps agreed that RD is going nowhere, so perhaps
spreading the licences it holds across other vendors might actually benefit
the marketplace as a whole.

I too am watching Cache... I have great respect for Jim Idle, and use
jBase currently.. But jBase is in the development hands of an "end user"
(Temenos) so one questions whether it's development favours the in-house
requirements of Temeos at the expense of the "commercial" marketplace...

I guess it will all pan out eventually... My long term plan is to remove my
reliance on any of the MV vendors for supporting my product but I must admit
I'm several years from there... It will be a sad day when and if I do - I'vc
been using MV variants for 20+ years...

regards
Simon

"Ross Ferris" <rossf (AT) stamina (DOT) com.au> wrote