Could somebody post that Globe article; I'd like to read it.
Some people here have speculated that one of Geac's acquisitions would be Corel. I hope not; others have tried to make this company work and failed. Here's the latest on Corel:
Friday March 27 10:06 AM EST
Canadian Software Firm Corel Plunges Deeper Into Losses
By Lydia Zajc
TORONTO (Reuters) - Canada's Corel, the little software maker that took on giant Microsoft in the office suite market, reported it had slipped much deeper into losses in the year's first quarter.
Corel lost $21.1 million, or $0.36 a share, in the first quarter ended February 28 against a comparable loss for the same period a year earlier of $11.3 million, or $0.19 a share.
It was the fifth consecutive quarter of losses for Corel.
Even so, Chief Executive Michael Cowpland tried to put a brave face on the result. During the quarter, even though the numbers were negative, we've made substantial progress in terms of restructuring the company going forward," he told reporters on a conference call.
Ottawa-based Corel's sales dropped to $45.5 million from a year-earlier $80.7 million.
Cowpland said the company had cut its advertising budget in half to deal with the drop in revenue, which resulted partly from a new sales strategy of lowering office software prices. Corel hopes a cheaper price for its WordPerfect product will help it compete more effectively with Microsoft's software, Word.
"We've received encouraging signs from the marketplace... and we could get a surge in volume," Cowpland said.
Corel, which formerly viewed Microsoft as its rival, has made WordPerfect fully compatible with Word, executives said.
Cowpland ruled out cutting any staff as a consequence of the losses and said the company was an unlikely target for a takeover. "We haven't had any approaches at all," he said.
However, others are not so sure. "They will likely be having a lot of vultures coming around seeing if there's anything ... of any value and maybe getting some kind of a bid for the company," said one analyst, who declined to be identified.
Corel had $18.9 million in cash at the end of the first quarter versus year-earlier $12.0 million and company executives described the cash position as "stable."
Any comments?
Dale |
