Lane Resigns From Quest’s Board

Just days away from its expected initial public stock offering, Newport Beach-based Quest Software Inc. said Wednesday that one of its directors has resigned to avoid any conflict of interest.

Raymond Lane, who also is the president and chief operating officer and a director of Oracle Corp., resigned from Quest’s board after reviewing his own company’s internal policies regarding outside directorships with firms in similar markets. Lane had joined Quest’s board just six weeks ago.

The company, which develops custom business software, hopes to raise $60 million in an offering expected to begin as early as Friday.

In a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission, Quest said Lane resigned Aug. 5 and that his resignation “was not precipitated by any disagreement with Quest or its management on any matter related to our operations, policies or practices.”

Quest officials declined to comment further. Officials of Redwood City-based Oracle did not return telephone calls.

Quest develops software that both works with and competes against Oracle’s database and application software. Meanwhile, Oracle is both a vendor to and a customer of Quest. The complex relationship is common in the interconnected information technology industry.

In Quest’s previous regulatory filings, the company on several occasions prominently cited its relationship with Oracle as critical to the firm’s success.

“If Oracle for any reason decides to promote technologies and standards that are not compatible with our technology, or if Oracle loses market share for its database products, our business, operating results and financial condition would be materially adversely affected,” Quest said in its filing Wednesday.

Quest’s products compete with Oracle’s database management products and could prove to be formidable. Oracle had revenue of $8.8 billion last year compared to Quest’s $34.8 million.

Lane will continue to hold 50,000 shares of Quest common stock, the company said.