National Post: Baptism by fire for Corel’s Burney

“Derek Burney’s most dramatic move since being appointed chief
executive of Corel Corp. in October was signing a partnership deal
that month with Microsoft Corp. The touchstone event was supposed
to set him apart from his predecessor, Corel founder Michael
Cowpland, as well as establish the new direction Mr. Burney is
seeking to take Canada’s best-known software company.”

“But rather than garner respect, the pact has attracted scorn
from detractors and scrutiny from regulators: the Ontario
Securities Commission, the Bureau of Competition Policy and the
U.S. Department of Justice….”

“Mr. Burney denies any linkage between the Microsoft money and
the Linux leave-taking.”

“‘Linux is a great operating system, but it was impossible to
use unless you had a hat with a propeller on it. It doesn’t fit
with the vision that we have now, which is to create software
applications that exercise people’s creativity. We’ve been
evaluating this possibility for a long time. It had nothing to do
with Microsoft. One of the things that I’ve found through the years
is that companies have certain reputations, earned or not. People
can apply meanings to all kinds of things that happen. Microsoft is
one of those companies where they’ll find some link to some
conspiracy theory.'”

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