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Technology Stocks : Corel - Investors with no Humor -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: A. Reader who wrote (711)	6/28/1998 9:52:00 AM
From: A. Reader	Respond to of 1094

Taken from ( could not link ): Office Rivals Must Act Now to Gain Ground By Paula Rooney June 22, 1998, TechWeb News Just as Apple perseveres in a Windows-centric world, Corel and Lotus are trying desperately to hold their own as Microsoft expands its global stranglehold in the office-suite market. At PC Expo in New York City last week, the two publishers announced upgraded versions of their suites with much fanfare and glitz, only to be upstaged by Microsoft's sneak preview of Office 2000. Corel's fiscal troubles and ongoing rumors that Lotus' "Millennium" version of SmartSuite will be its last underscore Microsoft's grip on the market and the defection of WordPerfect and SmartSuite users to Office. Although Corel president and CEO Michael Cowpland maintains that his company is holding steady with 25 percent of consumer market share at retail, officials this week practically begged its most loyal customer base-the legal community-not to abandon WordPerfect. Talking from both sides of its mouth, Corel warned customers about the risks of converting to Word and then assured them that its next suite will offer full file compatibility with Office documents, as if the .DOC and .XLS formats were industry standards. Lotus doesn't say much. The company accepts its minuscule market share and criticizes Microsoft for ripping off its "Millennium Edition" suite name by coining Office 2000. As if that's original. It appears that Microsoft's monopoly in this arena is unshakable. So much so, in fact, that the government added Office merely as an afterthought in its antitrust case against Microsoft. In the words of one analyst this week: "It's over, and it's been over for a long time." Nonetheless, the antitrust case looming over Microsoft appears to be opening doors normally closed to Corel and Lotus. PC makers, most of which are compelled to preload Windows or bundle Office by contract or discount, are beginning to experiment with alternatives as the government pursues its case against Microsoft. Gateway, which recently announced it will preload the Windows boot-up screen as it sees fit, and not as Microsoft dictates, is leading the way. The growing consumer market offers more opportunities for the No. 2 and No. 3 suite software suppliers-and perhaps some new players-as Microsoft treads lightly with PC makers. Corel and Lotus can grab more market share by hustling more bundling deals. As the government's probe into Microsoft's business takes center-stage this fall, Corel and Lotus should leverage the temporary cease-fire on their own behalf. They also must re-engineer their products for consumers. While Corel and Lotus are busy adding bells and whistles to their suites, Microsoft is busy designing a home version of Office to replace Home Essentials. The product, scheduled to ship this fall, marries FrontPage Web creation technology with Publisher's desktop-publishing features. This may be Corel and Lotus' last window of opportunity to grab Office market share, and it's not going to be open forever. Carpe diem. Copyright r 1998 CMP Media Inc.

To: A. Reader who wrote (711)	6/28/1998 10:04:00 AM
From: A. Reader	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 1094

COREL DRAWS MAP OF FUTURE SOFTWARE FIRM LOOKS FOR WAYS TO DEAL WITH STAFF, REVENUE DEPARTURES ...Faxes screaming "Corel Computer is Alive and Well! ... It is business as usual for Corel Computer Corp." remind watchers of everything from Gandalf and Fulcrum to a failed condom-making venture in Gatineau a few years ago. ÿOther faxes into newsrooms from anonymous employees complain they don't like hearing about Corel's losses and the personal lives of Mike and Marlen Cowpland. canoe.com