A New Buyer for Corel?

Last week I told you that Corel Holdings had withdrawn their offer to purchase all outstanding shares of Corel Corporation. Well, it seems as if the offer was withdrawn because at least one other interested buyer is out there.

Go ahead and read the article. You'll probably ask the same question as everyone else I've talked with. Who is it? I certainly have no inside information so I can only guess at who it might be and who it won't be. Let's talk about some of the names that have come to mind.

I'm sure two of the names that immediately came to mind were Microsoft and Adobe. Microsoft would be a great fit. Unfortunately there is one large problem, WordPerfect. Government forces would not allow Microsoft to take out their largest (albeit, small) competitor. Adobe would also be taking out their biggest competitor. Not to mention that there would be huge overlap between the product lines.

Quark is on an upswing after the latest release of Xpress. I just don't think they have a big enough checkbook.

Google has the checkbook. They don't have the overlap. Then again, I'm not sure what they would do with packaged software. Then again, maybe technology from WordPerfect could be used to give Google Docs more features. The Ulead video products could be given away so people could develop better video for YouTube. CorelDRAW and Corel DESIGNER could be developed to work with Sketchup. I definitely would love Google to buy Corel simply because I know they would get the word out about the products. OK, so I doubt this is likely.

Autodesk has AutoCAD and Maya. I'm really not sure how they would do with consumer products since most of their products are very high-end. They definitely have the checkbook and there is no overlap of product lines.

There are certainly more names that come up to me though I can't think of a good reason for them to purchase Corel and/or they are companies that can't afford to buy Corel. I'm sure I've missed some possibilities and would love to hear your thoughts. Leave a comment and let me know who you think it might be and why. Please don't e-mail me comments directly as I would be the only one to see it.

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Buy CorelDRAW X4 From Corel and Save 10%

I've been talking with the folks who run the Corel estore in hopes that they would give a special deal to loyal Unleashed visitors. They responded with a special coupon code for 10% off of your purchase. This code is valid for purchasers in the US and Canada. Sorry, I lobbied for a way to help those of you outside of North America.

There are several steps you need to follow in order to get the discount. Nothing difficult, I just don't want you to miss out by missing a step.

Step 1: If you are in the US, click here to go to the CorelDRAW X4 shopping page. Canadian customers should click here.

Step 2: Select the product you want and press the Add to Cart button. Note: I highly recommend you purchased the Boxed version so you get the manuals and the DVD with all the clip art, fonts, photos, etc. You should get a serial number right away so you can download and use the software before the box arrives.

Step 3: When you get to the shopping cart, enter the coupon code "unleashed10" (see box in lower left marked in red). Click Apply and the discount should show up on the right side as marked in red below.

Step 4: Continue the checkout process and you'll be all set.

This code also applies to other Corel software such as Corel DESIGNER Technical Suite 12, Paint Shop Pro Photo X2 + FREE T-Shirt, WordPerfect Office X3 , InterVideo WinDVD 8 Platinum HD/BD, WinZip 11.1, and Corel Painter X. Enjoy the software!

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Auto FX Sale Extended

A couple of months ago I told you about a big sale on AutoFX plug-ins. The bad news is that the sale ended at the end of 2007. The good news is that the sale was so successful that AutoFX has agreed to extend the sale until the end of January, 2008. Surf on over to AutoFX and find the plug-ins that meet your needs before the sale ends!

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CorelDRAW Workplace Ready Training On Sale

I never knew that folks in Australia celebrated American Thanksgiving. At least that is the only explanation I have for this sale. Scott Georgeson, the voice of Click N' Learn video training dropped me a note and said we should put the Click 'N Learn Workplace Ready Training for CorelDRAW 11, 12, X3 on sale for only $39.95. That's over 80 individual video lessons totaling more than five hours of training. I have no idea how long this sale will last so get your copy now before Scott asks me to end the sale!

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