“Gartner analyst Chris Le Tocq blames Cowpland for Corel’s many
missteps in the marketplace. “All in all, it’s been Cowpland’s
company, and maybe it’s time for him to move on,” he said. Le Tocq
added the company is a good acquisition candidate for a business
that wants to take Corel’s software and rent it over the Web. “The
company that acquires Corel could use the expertise within Corel
and use it to build Web-based services,” he said.”
“At least one analyst said Cowpland’s biggest mistake was his
decision to invest all the company’s efforts on the emerging
desktop Linux market. “Corel essentially bought the farm with
moving applications to Linux, and the Linux desktop marketplace has
not appeared,” Le Tocq said. “And who knows if it will ever get on
stage. The Linux desktop market is a non-starter in the United
States.”
“Cowpland’s resignation comes on the same day Sun
Microsystems announced plans to open the source code of its
StarOffice application suite. … “That really put the capper on
Corel’s opportunity in the Linux marketplace,” Le Tocq said. “That
makes the market for Corel more competitive and a lot lower margin
than it anticipated.”