RSSCorel: We are not...not for sale
By Tim Conneally | Published August 21, 2008, 6:13 PM
The Canadian software producer published a statement this morning confirming that it is discussing a sale to undisclosed third parties.
Earlier this week, Corel announced that its majority investor Vector Capital had withdrawn its March buyout offer that valued the company at nearly $280 million, in the interest of Corel's pursuit of other "potential strategic third-party alternatives," which would best suit shareholders.
Today, the company announced that yes, these alternatives do include a potential sale of the company, and yes it is in discussions with a third party regarding Corel's sale, but no agreement has been reached.
In light of these announcements, stocks in Corel shot up 11% in NASDAQ trading. Last month, the company reported its Q2 sales had risen 3%, but profits had dropped nearly 60% year-over-year.
It's not apparent how Corel survives. They've taken over products and made them worse. Their own products are a practice in mediocrity.
It's certainly possible that they'll be bought shortly, but who will miss most of what they sell?
Fractal Design/Metacreations/Corel Painter will survive, as it's a great niche creative product. The office products could be sold to another company. Corel Draw, Photo Paint, etc. can go into the dumpster and no one will notice, unless the refuse haulers notice the extra load.
Score: 0
I alwyas thought Paint Shop Pro was a great hobbiest program until Corel got a hold of it. I have used all 3 of the major pro type photo editors. (Adobe PhotoShop, Corel Draw, & Paint Shop Pro) and always thought that PSP had everything I needed. PhotoShop was great, but most of the tools that it had that PSP didn't, where not useful to me. As for Corel Draw, I installed it, tried to use it, gave up and un-installed.
I haven't done much with PSP since Corel took over, mainly due to no time, but would not be surprised if they ruined it.
Score: 0
I am also a PSP user, Adobe is way complicated and PSP does 95% of the functions in a much simpler way.
Corel PSP XI takes forever to load and crashes quite a bit, I'll stick with PSP9 as it does everything I need and starts up in about two seconds flat.
So yes, they redesigned all the icons to look like Corel draw and ruined it.
Score: 0
Perhaps you could try Corel Photo Paint it was basically the same as Paint Shop Pro with a few changes, maybe they didn't want 2 programs beeing to similar.. anyway for casual photo editing Paint Shop Pro 12 is not bad.
Score: 0
With every company I have ever dealt, you were fine during the periods of silence from HQ.
But as soon as the "we will not be bought/sold/whatever under any circumstances whatsoever" announcement to employees was made, it was a foregone conclusion. The deal was all but signed.
I wish I shared the same enthusiasm as the person below.
I still have a version of CorelDraw (v10? ...I think) that no one can figure out how to draw any shapes and polygons other than the ~3 pre-defined...and a triangle was not included. So it lives in a drawer. But it might make a dandy coaster...
Visio is a more flexible & powerful drawing tool than that! Heck, Word is as well! And easier to use... And that is truly scary. ;-~
Score: 0
Exactly! This is equivalent to the star coach saying "I intend to stay at STATE-U forever!" and the next day he signs a contract with State-U's arch rival.
Score: 0
CorelDRAW is the best software I have ever used, used it since version 5! I hope a buy out doesn't hurt the great products produced by a great company
Score: 0
I agree for doing documents and adding some clipart etc you could use word, using CorelDraw instead was just a breeze.
I really like the program and hope it will continue..
Score: 0
I use to work for a domain registrar that is owned by Vector Capital. Vector is a sharp group of investors, the Corel purchase was a nice example of the right way to turn a company around. The other one - not so much.
http://afewtips.com
Score: 0
WP is still far better than MS Word......
how Word got to be #1 is beyond me....
Score: 0
Could it have something to do with MS controlling the OS and packaging their product with OEMs?
Score: 0
No, because Microsoft never forced OEMs to bundle Word or Works?
Score: 0
Havn't used Word Perfect, but does it open files made in MS Word, or can Ms Word open a WP document ?
Score: 0
MS didn't *force* OEMS to bundle MS Office, but they practically gave it it OEM's (and corporations) when they installed Windows on their systems. "And by the way, if you bundle any competing software on your OEMS we won't sell you the OS."
Score: 0
I don't use any Corel products....
Because I don't believe any of them are available for Mac.
Score: 0
They do have products for mac.
Now you have to start believing something else.
Score: 0
Why would anyone want them?
Score: 0
Insert obligatory "back in the day" comment here. But its true..WP and Quattro are still my preference if I have to to do "office" things. Of course, I save everything in Office formats so I don't scare the sheeple.
Score: 0