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Ascential plans Malaysia expansion

Following the recent IBM acquisition of Informix Corporation, Ascential Software Corporation which was part of the latter, now plans to expand its presence in Malaysia from its current two-man team.
Written by N. Ismail, Contributor
KUALA LUMPUR--Following the recent RM3.8 billion (US$1 billion) IBM acquisition of Informix Corporation, Ascential Software Corporation which was part of the latter, now plans to expand its presence in Malaysia from its current two-man team.

"We will establish a Malaysian incorporated company, Ascential Malaysia Sdn Bhd and hire more staff in September, when the IBM deal transaction is completed," its business manager for Malaysia Jessica Foong said.

The expansion plans are in line with the company's strategy to capture a significant portion of the business solutions market in the country even though she did not reveal any projected figures. The acquisition exercise by IBM was completed 10 weeks after it was announced on April 24, 2001.

IBM is absorbing nearly 2,500 staff from Informix which was a provider of database management systems for data warehousing, business intelligence and transaction processing.

Ascential Malaysia used to be the business solutions division of Informix Malaysia.

Foong said the company is projecting a 35 percent to 40 percent revenue growth for 2002 in the information asset management sector.

Information asset management turns data and content into reliable, reusable information assets so that better business and operational decisions could be made.

Foong added that Malaysia remains an important market in Southeast Asia because it is situated in a high-growth area. Some of Ascential's local customers are Maxis, Telekom Malaysia and Agilent Technologies.

Meanwhile, Ascential Asia director Patrick Lo said the company in the data integration, content management, information portal infrastructure and analytic applications markets valued at RM7.6 billion (US$2 billion) in 2000.

"These markets are expected to be worth about RM38 billion (US$10 billion) by 2004," he added.

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