Magic Software OEMs DB2 Express Database for eDeveloper Tool

Published: July 24, 2006

by Timothy Prickett Morgan

Magic Software, a provider of development tools and application integration software the i5/OS and OS/400 platform, last week said that it had worked out a deal with IBM whereby it would license the DB2 Express database and embed it inside its eDeveloper V10 development tools.

DB2 Express is a version of the DB2 database that Big Blue created for Windows, Unix, and Linux servers, one that aims at taking on MySQL, PostgreSQL, Ingres, and other open source databases. (DB2 Express is not to be confused with DB2 Express-C, which is a free version based on the database that has some limits in terms of how scalable it is.) While this news was interesting, the executives and employees at the company were somewhat baffled and obviously quite pleased when this IBM OEM deal sent the company's stock rocketing up 65 percent in one day. There was a little profit taking as the stock kissed $2.50 a share, and it settled back down to $1.75 per share by the end of the week.

Just a month ago, Magic sold off its customer relationship management software assets to another company, called eContact Software. And in May, the company reported first fiscal quarter sales of $15.3 million, up 2 percent, with software license sales up 30 percent and iBolt license sales up 70 percent. The company reported a minor loss, which was lot better than the nearly $2 million loss it booked in the prior year's first fiscal quarter ended in March.