“Corel is now an obvious target for purchase. It still has a
large user base and its stock continues to struggle near its
52-week low, giving it a market capitalisation of just $200m. A
change of owner could force today’s Corel users into problems with
file incompatibilities and new licensing terms.”
“Corel’s WordPerfect Office suite and CorelDraw illustration and
graphics program are widely used in large organisations. The
WordPerfect wordprocessing program remains popular in law firms and
Corel has recently attempted to provide packages that simplify use
of Linux on the desktop. Also, MetaCreations recently sold its
popular Painter, Kai’s Power Tools and Bryce graphics tools to
Corel.”
“For most industry watchers, it is a case of when rather
than if Corel sells out. However, the changes the firm has
been through over the years make predictions difficult. Corel has
interests in fields including graphics, Linux, productivity
application tools and consumer programs. Adobe could, for example,
be interested in the graphics side, while Red Hat or Caldera could
be interested in the Linux side.”