Living in the Ottawa area, I am not in the least surprised that Corel had to delay their results. It was really grim here for a few days, and far worse outside the city. Having seen the effects of Hurricanes Hugo and Andrews, and the San Fran earthquake, this was worse. Not as much dramatic devastation, but not nearly as localized as the coastal damage in the Carolinas was - just miles of downed power lines. Based on what I saw in the US, any American state would have been worse, simply because of a stronger cooperative ethic. But then again, maybe that is why the Canadian market doesn't give a damn about the delay, and has been nudging the stock up.
On the rumour side, Corel scuttlebutt suggests the results will be exactly what the new CFO predicts, but that there are indications that revenues are picking up - and that some expenses are going to be cut in Feb. There is a whole class of position -'marketing communications', which is internal communciation only, which everyone else expects to see cut. Also possible are real cuts in the Draw group, because it has become a dumping ground for employees no one has a use for. As a result, Draw is almost 8x larger than Photo-Paint (groups, not the program), despite being roughly similar in complexity as products. Both have about thirty people who are in the value chain, but Draw has another thirty people tasked to keeping the remaining 250+ on Draw out of the value chain, where they just get in the way.
Anyway, I plan on buying. New CFO has a good rep. locally, and Corel doesn't need to be a world-beater to be worth something, it just needs to get value from its assets. If Cowpland can be taught the difference between executing an idea and tilting at windmills, the company could move up dramatically.
Ian |
