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 Ashton-Tate Corp. reported a net loss of $19.4 million, or 74 cents a share, for the third quarter,
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 which was burdened by severance costs and the expense 
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of upgrading its database software inventories.
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 The software company said
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 revenue slid 28% to $53.9 million.
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 This contrasts with the year-ago quarter,
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 when the company had net income of $11.7 million, or 45 cents a share, on revenue of $75.7 million.
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 For the nine months, Ashton-Tate had a loss of $27.6 million, or $1.05 a share.
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 In the year-ago period, the company had profit of $34.3 million, or $1.32 a share.
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 Revenue in the period slid almost 8% to $203.2 million from about $220 million last year.
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 Edward M. Esber, chairman, president and chief executive officer, attributed the decline to reduced domestic revenue 
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because of $4.9 million
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 spent
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 to upgrade existing software inventories to the new database IV Version 1.1,
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 and $1.8 million 
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spent on the recent reduction in work force.
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 He said 
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the company was encouraged by feedback
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 it received from selected customers now testing Version 1.1.
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 The red ink came as no surprise to Wall Street,
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 but analysts said 
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they saw ominous hints of a further delay in volume shipments of Version 1.1, a harbinger of continued losses in the fourth quarter.
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 The loss is in line with our expectations, 
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said John C. Maxwell III, an analyst with Dillon, Read & Co. in New York.
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attribution

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 He added
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 gross margins and operating profit eroded quite dramatically from the prior quarter, along with sales of existing software product lines like Multimate and Framework.
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 The success of a new product in the database line is needed.
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 And
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 while the company hasn't made a definite statement,
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 it now looks like that's not going to be anytime soon, 
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Mr. Maxwell said.
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 The company said in a statement
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 that it expects to ship new products during the next two quarters.
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 It now looks like database IV Version 1.1 isn't going to be {widely} available until the first quarter of 1990,
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 said David Bayer, an analyst with Montgomery Securities in San Francisco.
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 This is the second delay now 
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in getting the product out the door.
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 It does prolong the pain somewhat.
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 Mr. Maxwell said 
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unless the company can start shipments of the new product sometime this quarter,
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 the fourth-quarter loss is likely to be comparable to the third quarter's.
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 If the company can start to ship during this quarter,
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 it could stem some, if not all of the red ink,
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 he said.
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 In national over-the-counter trading, Ashton-Tate closed yesterday at $10 a share, up 62.5 cents.
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