The next major software and computer services company after CSK Corp to emerge from its Japanese fastness and seek to play a role on the world stage looks like being Kay Nishi’s Ascii Corp, the company that helped Microsoft Corp to get started in Japan before Bill Gates fell out with Nishi over future directions. Yesterday, relational database and Unix spreadsheet developer Informix Corp, Menlo Park, California announced that Ascii is to buy 671,833 of its shares, representing 5% of the enlarged equity, paying $6.7m or just under $10 a share, a handsome premium to the $4 a share at which they were trading ahead of the announcement. The ag reement limits the number of shares Ascii can buy in the market without permiss ion from Informix. Ascii distributes the eponymous database and Wingz spread sheet in Japan. Informix reported $6.7m net profit on $130m sales for the first nine months of 1990.
