John. I don't disagree with you as far as the Corel products are concerned. WordPerfect has always been my chosen wordprocessor, Corel Draw I have used and I am impressed with its capabilities. Corel the company on the other hand has lost credibility with the investment community and stock analysts. However, this is nothing new with companies that have fallen out of favor with investors because of poor stock performance. The stock will turn around, I have no doubt in that, and maybe in a year or two will climb past $14 or $16. In the meantime the stock price has dropped from a high of $9.70 in 4 weeks to a low of $8.20 and may drop even drop further or climb rapidly to $9 again, depending on the reaction to the latest AGM. One problem that I have experienced with this company is in regard to announcements made by the CEO leading individual investors in raising their earning expectations of Corel that is not realized by the end of the quarter. Cowpland has undoubtedly saved WP and Ventura from demise, he is without any doubt a brilliant person and is hyped about Corel more than any of us, and that gives the investor a sense of security that this share has nowhere to go but up. If you had purchased the stock at $23 and saw it drop to $8.20 you would be really sore. Fortunately, my shares were bought from $11.20 averaged down to $9. Unfortunately, many volume buyers were burned by Corel and therefore will not touch this stock.
In regards to Microsoft's dominance of the OS, suite and development market that is the reality of the market today and may change tomorrow. Microsoft won the PC operating system market over IBM and others. It is a giant running out of control. It has hurted great companies like Borland (whom I realy love their products, I would choose Borland C++ over Visual C++ anytime), Netscape a great company, Apple another victim. All these are licking their wounds and recovering slowly and are great companies to invest in, and so is Corel, except Corel is its own victim.
Maybe I rushed into selling 60% of my Corel holdings. Time will tell.
Again I am sorry if I upset anybody and good-luck to all.
Maher |
