Hello Herb, I guess I'll be the first INPR shareholder to post on the CORL thread. I think the mixed feelings on the INPR thread are more over the price, rather than this being the right thing to do. Inprise/Borland is bringing a lot to the table, with about $175 million in revenue and almost $200 million in cash. Add to that the sprawling Scotts Valley campus (which is bought and paid for). On top of that, Inprise/Borland has some top notch products which include not only the "old Borland" development tools, but also some of the hottest enterprise middleware, namely Visibroker ORB. For price comparison, take a look at IONA which has the Orbix product (similar to visibroker) and take a look at BEAS, which has a lot of the same enterprise products as INPR (BEAS doesn't have the quality or quantity of development tools either). If you look at either of these cases, you might understand the mixed feelings. I think a lot of people were expecting a buyout at twice the price.
Now that our companies have decided to merge, you are going to want to know more about INPR and I've got some studying to do with CORL. I think the combined company is certainly worth more than the two halves. But not having looked at the CORL financial picture, I think you guys got a great deal. What's your take on how CORL shareholders will take this? I'm still not sure how I'll vote on it and I think a lot of other INPR shareholders are in the same boat.
On the bright side, the combined companies have the pieces of a Microsoft in the Linux space. Yet, at $2 billion, the value is but a fraction of what RHAT is worth. Maybe we should structure a shareholder buyout, take the company private, wait 6 months and have an IPO. Maybe then we'd get a real valuation.
Dennis |
