Corel bucks Microsoft trend
...Cowpland is confident his company has turned the corner. In its latest quarter, it showed its first profit in nearly two years -- earning 10 cents a share in the December quarter, compared with a $1.10 loss a year earlier. Cowpland says things only are going up from here.
Chief Financial Officer Michael O'Reilly attributes the recovery to cost controls, such as consolidating engineering teams and chopping advertising expenses in half...
...Despite the positive signs for Corel, outsiders and analysts are skeptical of any potential impact it can have on the software market. Bob Young -- CEO of Red Hat Software, which packages and sells an enhanced version of Linux along with support services -- laments Corel's decline. "I wish they were more important," he says.
Industry analyst David Coursey says he likes what Corel is doing to execute its turnaround but questions whether Corel's new version of WordPerfect for Windows-based PCs will be compelling enough to lure users away from Microsoft Word.
"The key is to slow the bleed, to keep the places that have WordPerfect using it," says Coursey, noting that WordPerfect remains popular in law and government offices.
Cowpland remains undaunted, saying Corel will use the Internet to market to its 50 million customers....
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