Hi Mauro, I have nothing against Canadian companies, I am a loyal Canadian, but I have been burned more than once by Canadian Technology companies. I did alright in some of the Canadian non-technolgy investments (e.g. Sears Canada, Bema Gold, ...etc.). However, I have been unable to assess Canadian Technology companies properly.
Regarding whether or not Java will solve Corel's problem, to be honest with you, I am not too sure. Remember Java is very much like C++ and moving code written in C++ to Java is not such a big challenge, all it requires is time and man-power, and MSFT has no shortage in this area at all. If MSFT smells profits in this arena it will go in big time and really does not matter who was there first. Remember Wordstar was on the market before WP, and WP was in the market before Word. Now Word dominates the word-processor market. MSFT is capturing the market from Netscape with its internet explorer, hell it is even attracting the limelights away from Sun Microsystems for Java development tools. Bill Gates is smart and has plenty of smart people working for him and has a strategy in running his company that has amazed researchers in corporate studies. He can turn his company on a dime and move it straight to profitabilty in whatever direction or directions he chooses. The biggest mistake that Cowpland is doing is under-estimating the size and ability of his competitor. Borland did that and its share dropped from almost $100 to $4 7/8. Borland is now under new management and the company is slowly turning around and tip-toeing around MSFT, in exactly the same way MSFT tip-toed around IBM when it was a weaker company. Mike Cowpland need to learn that or find seasoned managers respected by Wall Street and Bay Street to run the company for him.
Maher |
