[ Thanks to Kelly
McNeill for this link. ]
“With the announcement this week of Corel and Microsoft
completing a $135 million dollar deal, it brings into question the
seriousness of the commitment Corel has to Linux. The
Microsoft deal is for implementation of Corel products with Visual
Studio 7 (or as MS wants to call it Visual Studio.net). This is in
clear conflict with the initiative started last year to market
WordPerfect Office on Linux and issue a Linux Debian package under
the Corel logo. This monster deal entitles Microsoft to a very
large stake in Corel, 24 million non-voting shares (a whopping 24
percent of the shares), which to some may border on
conspiratorial.”
“This action should come as no surprise to readers of osOpinion.
The movement of Microsoft away from client/server-centric products,
to Web-centric products, with a major thrust on XML, has been well
documented by this author and others. The deep-pocketed influence
of this mega-giant software maker is obvious each time a competitor
like Corel is either bought outright or a significant stake in that
company is purchased.”
“The Corel deal is not without influence on itself. The company
has invested heavily in the Linux products with poor return on
investment. The sagging stock price has not supplied needed capital
for development costs much less new growth. This new infusion of
capital in one big chunk will no doubt boost the finances of the
Canadian software maker. It has already influenced Wall Street. The
price made a significant bump in price following the news
announcement by Corel this week.”