Ashton-Tate’s New dBase IV Program May be Delayed

Ashton-Tate Co. Tuesday confirmed rumors that its much-heralded new software program, dBase IV, may hit the market as much as three months late due to errors in the product.

However, the Torrance-based software company stressed to shareholders at its annual meeting at the Century Plaza Hotel that corrections already are being made and that the delay is not expected to hurt sales of other products in its dBase line. Ashton-Tate is the third-biggest personal computer software firm, largely on the strength of its sales of dBase database software, which is used to organize lists of information.

When Ashton-Tate announced dBase IV in mid-February, shipments of the advanced database management program were scheduled to start by the end of July. Although the company still hopes to meet that deadline, President Luther Nussbaum said a more realistic date is sometime in the three-month period ending Oct. 31.

Nussbaum said software engineers are poring over the more than 400,000 lines of code in dBase IV to spot errors that would prevent the program from operating correctly. Nussbaum said that the engineers easily can fix the bugs it already has located, and that the real issue is assuring that the remainder of the program is error-free.

“Debugging, is an art, not a science,” Nussbaum said.

Although rumors of the late shipment contributed a fall in the price of Ashton-Tate stock in over-the-counter trading last week and Monday, the stock rallied Tuesday after the company’s announcement, gaining $1.25 to close at $24.50.

“I’m not worried about the delay,” said Michele Preston, an analyst for Salomon Bros., a New York brokerage firm. “There is no other (major) competing product and other dBase sales are strong.”

Analysts said the earlier decline in the company’s stock probably stemmed in part from fears of serious problems with the new program. Tuesday’s price increase, they said, reflected relief that the problems would not delay shipments for a long time.

Investors in software companies have been especially skittish about postponed product introductions since Lotus Development Corp. announced in March that its new 1-2-3 spreadsheet program would be delayed because significant reworking of the software was necessary.

Lotus’ shares fell by about 25% following that announcement.

At the annual meeting Ashton-Tate also unveiled Framework III, the latest version of its integrated software program, which includes built-in electronic mail for personal computer users. Shipments are expected to start between July 31 and Oct. 31. Prices will range from $695 to $995.