“Microsoft must be regretting that Corel’s home page is able to
quote MSNBC saying last month that ‘Corel Linux is terrific’.
Feelings at Fort Redmond must be less generous this week following
news of the Corel merger with Inprise/Borland. Corel CEO Michael
Cowpland sees his destiny as establishing Linux on the desktop on a
big scale, but triumphalism about a ‘Linux powerhouse’ is dangerous
in an ethos where power sharing is preferred. The deal was
negotiated in less than a month, and is being termed a ‘merger of
equals’. “
“Corel has moved into profit, albeit thanks to a windfall from
the Canadian tax man at a very welcome moment. Borland had expected
to move into profit in Q3 this year, and now thinks this could be
earlier because of savings resulting from the deal. Since the
acquisition is being done with paper, Corel will gain cash as a
result, which should make possible a better marketing
infrastructure and more advertising.”
“There is some truth in Cowpland’s claim that there is no
similar company in the Linux space, but with combined 1999 revenues
of only $418 million, there is a very long way to go before Corel
approaches the Suns or Oracles. Cowpland rightly points to the
tremendous upside potential, but that does not mean that Corel can
easily increase its revenue very quickly because of the low price
of Linux products.”