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Corel: We are not...not for sale

By Tim Conneally, BetaNews

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Earlier this week, Corel announced that its majority investor Vector Capital had withdrawn its March buyout offer that valued the company at nearly $280 million, in the interest of Corel's pursuit of other "potential strategic third-party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.

To be certain, it said, "there can be no assurance that such an agreement will be reached. In addition, there can be no assurance that any transaction will be completed or, if completed, of its terms, price or timing." In the announcement, Corel deferred to its its November 30 filing with the US Securities and Exchange Commission.

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.

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By bousozoku

posted Aug 22, 2008 - 5:52 PM

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

By swattz101

posted Aug 22, 2008 - 6:13 PM

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

By Hollywood__

posted Aug 24, 2008 - 5:48 PM

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

By Andreas2000

posted Aug 25, 2008 - 2:59 AM

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

By foxfyre

edited Aug 22, 2008 - 4:49 PM

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

By zridling

posted Aug 23, 2008 - 2:37 AM

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

By mdotwills

posted Aug 22, 2008 - 5:47 AM

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

By haiden

edited Aug 24, 2008 - 3:48 AM

I love CorelDraw and had been using it for 6 years. Their latest version is infact a lot better than its counterparts. The one from Adobe is just popular because of Photoshop.

WordPerfect is still years beyond Word in serious and complex word processing. No bugs on tables, formulas, footnotes, word count, etc. But yes, Corel had done nothing to improve WordPerfect.

I don't know about Painter and their other products for I never used them.

Score: 0

By Andreas2000

posted Aug 25, 2008 - 3:12 AM

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

By afewtips.com

posted Aug 22, 2008 - 5:44 AM

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

By CyberDoc999

posted Aug 22, 2008 - 1:37 AM

WP is still far better than MS Word......
how Word got to be #1 is beyond me....

Score: 0

By Andreas2000

posted Aug 25, 2008 - 3:16 AM

Havn't used Word Perfect, but does it open files made in MS Word, or can Ms Word open a WP document ?

Score: 0

By skapig

posted Aug 22, 2008 - 9:03 AM

Could it have something to do with MS controlling the OS and packaging their product with OEMs?

Score: 0

By Kushan

posted Aug 22, 2008 - 12:11 PM

No, because Microsoft never forced OEMs to bundle Word or Works?

Score: 0

By al b. darned

edited Aug 30, 2008 - 1:54 PM

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

By gregmlr

posted Aug 21, 2008 - 9:54 PM

I don't use any Corel products....

Because I don't believe any of them are available for Mac.

Score: 0

By xpi3000

posted Aug 23, 2008 - 3:32 PM

They do have products for mac.
Now you have to start believing something else.

Score: 0

By Banquo

edited Aug 21, 2008 - 8:26 PM

Why would anyone want them?

Score: 0

By psycros

posted Aug 21, 2008 - 6:59 PM

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

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