Thanks for pointing out that technically, I should not add $40 million per year for the next four years to recover the cost. However, I think it is useful for illustration purposes alone to see how many copies of the Suite Corel needs to sell to completely break even. Breaking even would require us to add the price of the purchase from Novell, because, first, this asset while appearing as a $160 asset in the balance sheet, would have an unknown worth in a few years. But in any case, I would expect that this figure--the number of copies sold per year needed to recover the purchase price and overhead--would be of useful indication.
As to Microsoft, unfortunately it will soon release a beta of Office 97, which has some advanced technologies built into it. Once again, neither you nor I think this makes a big difference because if there remain in the whole world 7 to 10 million loyal WP users, Corel will benefit and the purchase would be viewed by everyone as a great buy.
I also share your view of bearish analysts, but lets wait for Corel to prove them all wrong.
By the way, did you see the new Corel "picture-on-demand" service on the Web site? It is better than anything like it on the Web. Maybe in the next couple of quarters, it would show a nice profit. |
