Reasons why
I bought into Corel in the first place because I figured that WordPerfect was worth the salvage. If any company could bring back some of the glory days it was Corel,
Before Novell, WordPerfect was of such a stature that they bought the very good Panasonic bike racing team and drove their name into worldwide attention in the Tour de France. Expensive advertising? Yes. Worth it? Without a doubt, for a raised profile in the European markets. The next season the jerseys read "Novell." The next season the European push was over, and just as well because they had let all the sales force go. Under Novell it was downhill from there and Corel made one sharp buy to pick up the pieces. Purchasing the stock seemed like a no-brainer.
The right moves followed. WordPerfect is again a force with a restored reputation. This time it is the value leader. The specialty versions, legal, medical etc are great products. Penetration of the corporate marketplace is starting to happen. (MSoft left a big window wide open with file compatibility miscues.) A Java Suite made a dizzy kind of sense to me. I could trust Cowpland on that one. Meanwhile the stock's price has been cut in half and only begun to recover. Some software releases weren't quite ready for release. Confidence of analysts and investors remains low.
Now we find pure JAVA abandoned in favor of some Windows crap. New energy won't go into WordPerfect, Draw and other franchise products but into a no-market product that might eventually make money. What kind of relationship is left with SUNW? with NSCP? Will anybody partner again with Corel?
This is no way to run a business. This is how the Lord of the Manor runs the village. My confidance in management took a walk today and has not come home yet. Apparently the confidence of this thread is gone too, because I cannot even provoke any reasonable defense of Corel here. I will stick around for a few more days, try to fathom how the markets react. and then try, gracefully, to unwind my position.
Please bring your thoughts here and share them.
Respectfully
Leo |
