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

To: A. Reader who wrote (901)	1/19/1999 7:04:00 AM
From: A. Reader	Respond to of 1094

When editor-in-chief of PC Week talks, everyone in the industry listens ......But that doesn't mean Microsoft's competition isn't in the running. Indeed, Corel remains a vibrant contender, said Mr. Lundquist, noting that the Ottawa company "still has a tremendous installed base using CorelDraw." Those who dismiss the company should remember the example set by Apple Computer Inc., which was "the butt of a tremendous amount of jokes" not long ago, he said. By returning to its roots, however, Apple has been reinvigorated. "The question for (Corel) is did it make sense to jump on the Java bandwagon before it was really a standard, and being in the position of being a pioneer. Pioneering can be fun, but I'm not sure it's a profitable place to be." Had the Java language taken off as quickly as some industry watchers forecast, Corel could have been "the second-largest high-tech company in Canada," he added. Mr. Lundquist said Corel should have placed more emphasis on Web development, where users could have turned to the company as a one-stop access point for graphics. Mr. Lundquist, who met with Corel president Michael Cowpland while he was in Ottawa, said the industry buzz about the company is essentially a waiting game. "People are waiting for them to be successful at a product." One area that holds particular interest is Corel's recent moves to make its WordPerfect line and other products available on Linux, the rapidly evolving open-source operating system. As a result of Corel's moves, Mr. Lundquist expects Linux to grow in influence and use in the near future. Ironically, programming in Linux puts WordPerfect and Corel back in the crosshairs of "Redmondia" and Mr. Gates' flagship word processing package, Microsoft Word. This time, however, the battle between Corel and Microsoft must be waged differently, Mr. Lundquist said. "They always seem to be positioning themselves to go head-to-head with Microsoft. Corel is just not big enough. It's just going to get squashed." He said the next go-around with Microsoft should find Corel joining forces with Linux, "a much larger community."....... ottawacitizen.com