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© 2003 by Rick Altman. All Rights Reserved.
Two years ago, on this very day, we wrote an April Fools story about Corel having been acquired by Adobe. The report that we air on this April 1 is not a joke. Many of you have heard the news by now, and if you haven’t, it’s time that you did. On Monday, March 24, Corel Corp. put itself in a position to be acquired, either by Vector Capital, the investment group that bought Microsoft’s stake in Corel, or by another suitor.
The details of all of this are long and complicated, and we won’t try to regurgitate them back to you, instead referring you to several lucid reports:
All we know for sure is that nothing at all will happen throughout the month of April, as Corel and Vector have declared it a “quiet time,” in which both sides will evaluate but take no action. After that, the range of potential scenarios ranges from:
Nothing happening at all, not unlike the Borland/Inprise aborted merger of almost three years ago...
...to a complete disintegration of the company, its assets, and its legacy.
Many say that this has been in the offing for quite some time. In fact, we are of the opinion that Corel’s fall from the top began in 1996 with its fateful decision to purchase WordPerfect. Prior to that, Corel was an extremely focused company; since then, the company and its leaders have never had the same focus. With its pre-1996 focus came a keen eye and energy for marketing its graphic products; since that time, Corel has succeeded with very few of its marketing initiatives.
We said it in June of 2000 and it bears repeating today: The breaking up of Corel might not be such a bad thing for its users; in fact, it could be a very good thing. We identify three specific issues that could be resolved if Corel is sold:
Corel just does not know how to market its own software. No amount of leadership change has helped with that deficiency. It has either lost sight of its markets, been unable to define them in the first place, or delivered the wrong message to them.
In the last several months it has been a moot point, because the company has had virtually no marketing dollars to spend anyway.
We have to be careful here, because we are one of those third parties and we don’t want to sound like whiners. But the facts are inescapable: Corel now actively competes with the firms that chose to place Corel software at the center of its business.
If 50 people buy courseware for CorelDRAW 11, that is smaller than chump change for Corel; it is a nice month for someone like Tom Anzai. And if five people sign up for a training seminar, that wouldn’t even register on Corel’s balance sheet, but it would be a good week for Foster Coburn. And we stage what is arguably the largest event on the Corel community calendar with CorelWORLD, yet you have never seen a single mention of it on Corel’s website since 1999.
Most companies see value in fostering enthusiasm among its users and in bolstering the efforts of those who are seen as leaders in the community. By its actions, Corel says that it does not.
Version 11 of the Corel Graphics Suite needed a good SP1 and didn’t really get it. It needs an SP2 but there is no telling when it will surface. Ventura Publisher 10 was a welcome addition after years of silence, but there is no evidence of any forward development. And it’s obvious why: not enough manpower, not enough money, not enough resources, and not enough continuity of personnel.
Answering this question depends upon which program you hold nearest and dearest, not to mention a bit of slick crystal-ball work. But most analysts agree that company assets exceed their market valuation (i.e. the stock price is not worth as much as the perceived or implicit value of the products). When that happens, a company rarely goes all at once, but rather would see its various programs split out and sold separately.
WORDPERFECT USERS deserve our deepest sympathies, not because of some terrible fate that awaits them, but because they have been jerked around the most. They deserve a bit of stability in their lives and need a good custodian. Hmm, Dell just branched out into printers...maybe its next move will be software. Perhaps it would see value in owning the product that it already offers as standard on many of its PCs and optional on the rest.
CORELDRAW USERS have much to look forward to. Its leader, Tony Severenuk, has been on the DRAW team for over 10 years and wants to stay on the team no matter what happens. If a more nimble, community-minded, and graphics-savvy company took the reins, we can see great things happening to this still-wonderful suite of programs. Clearly, there is ample critical mass to ensure that DRAW will live on—it just needs an infusion of new resources and new energy.
VENTURA USERS face their usual roller coaster ride into the future. It does not enjoy critical mass, only critical acclaim. And Corel’s mishandling of it could scare off potential suitors. It is not altogether clear what type of company would be a good match for it, but this much is clear:
Someone could get it for an absolute song.
Based on what it was once worth (even based on what Corel paid for it), Ventura could represent the bargain of the century to a group with good connections into retail channels and a clear sense of who uses and who should use the product. We asked one independent analyst if Ventura’s potential sale price would be in the low- or high-six figures, and he said, “Five figures. Maybe four...work the deal right, and you could get it for hundreds.”
PAINTER USERS have to know that their favorite creation tool will find a good home. It is just way too cool of a product, and has engendered way too much loyalty, not to wind up in good hands.
THE MICROGRAFX PRODUCTS...who knows. We never completely understood Corel’s reasoning for wanting a second illustration tool in the first place. We think it would have been wiser to treat Designer like a plug-in to DRAW, or just take the best parts of it and roll it into DRAW. But we readily admit to not having a good handle on the dynamic of that product or the deal that was behind it.
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From our selfish point of view, is the timing perfect or horrible, just two and a half months before our annual CorelWORLD User Conference? As we said the last time we wondered aloud about Corel divesting of its graphics programs, in times like these, CorelWORLD becomes more important than ever. There is no more important time for a user community to stay informed and gather strength from its members. If Corel holds onto DRAW and Ventura, there will be plenty of questions about how it will recover from its current predicament. The communication between the community’s most vested users (i.e. those who attend CorelWORLD) and Corel officials will be extraordinarily vital. Corel will need to hear from not only the outspoken members of our staff (from whom, in some cases, they have grown weary of hearing), but also the loyal users who have made career-long investments in the software. The CorelWORLD channel becomes more urgent than ever.
And if Corel divests itself of these programs, bet the bank that we’re going along for the ride. As we said two years ago, we’ll be the first ones knocking on the new door, and our podiums will be ready to receive the new owners of the software. We’re not exactly sure what we will call the conference, but what’s in a name, anyway—we would continue to be the beacon for users who, en masse, might be wondering where to turn. As long as there are users using the software, our mantra remains the same.
Please Is Corel’s invitation to be taken over the worst thing that could possibly happen to DRAW and Ventura, or the best possible thing? One way or the other, we just might found out soon...
Copyright 2003, All rights reserved. Have an opinion? Share it with the Corel community at the CorelWORLD Forum. There is already quite a bit of discussion about this story. Join in.
May 2007: As simple as possible, but not simpler... · April 2007: Killer Keystrokes · March 2007: Resolution Confusion · January 2007: Fearless Forecasts for 2007 · November 2006: Epiphanies at PowerPoint Live 2006 · August 2006: Escaping Death by PowerPoint · July 2006: Notes from the Floor of InfoComm · June 2006: Beyond PowerPoint--Making Movies for Business and Pleasure, Part II · May 2006: Beyond PowerPoint--From Photos to DVDs · April 2006: It’s Your Music!--Overcoming the oppressive restrictions of iTunes · March 2006: CorelDraw X3—A few must-haves and a few missed opportunities, all in all, a credible upgrade · February 2006: Making Windows Inhabitable · January 2006: Fearless Forecasts for 2006 · September 2005: Just What is a Background Anyway? · August 2005: Meet David Dobson, Corel's New CEO · July 2005: Community, Blind Dates. and Albert Einstein: An Interview with the PowerPoint Live Conference Host · June 2005: CorelWorld 2005: Image Editors, Executive Appearances, and Krispy Kremes · May 2005: As Adobe's Shadow Grows, Is Corel Better off or Worse? · March 2005: Delivering Your Presentation: How Close to the Source Can You Get? · February 2005: Digital Photography: The Killer App of this Generation Part II · January 2005: Digital Photography: The Killer App of this Generation · November 2004: A Killer Deal for Corel Or Another Distraction? · September 2004: The Scourge that is Kazaa and AOL Instant Messenger · August 2004: The Golden Triangle: Presenter, Audience, and Slides · July 2004: A Blast from the Past: How Fast is Fast Enough? · June 2004: Guilty Pleasures · May 2004: A Personal Wish List for PowerPoint 12 · April 2004: Eyedropping: Version 12 makes a good tool even better... · March 2004: Deadly Sins Of Modern PowerPoint Usage · February 2004: Is the even-numbered curse finally over? · January 2004: Another take on Achieving Absence of Ugliness · November 2003: What can we do it again??--Debut of PowerPoint Live Leaves Unquenchable Thirst with the Host · September 2003: Corel Corp. Has a New Custodian · July 2003: Candor and Contrition at CorelWORLD · June 2003: What a Long, Great Trip It’s Been! · May 2003: The Boat that Corel is Missing · April 2003: No Fooling...Is Corel Breaking Up? · March 2003: The Annual Design-a-Brochure Contest · February 2003: Symbolism is Everything · January 2003: Mania, Our Semi-Annual Pilgrimage to Holland · October 2002: On Creativity, Problem-Solving, and Paper Bags · July 2002: CorelDRAW 11: Surprise, Surprise... · May 2002: The Sound of Silence: What does it mean when a company plays its cards so close to its chest? · April 2002: The Art and Science of Presentation Graphics--Creating for the Screen Has its own Challenges · March 2002: CorelDRAW 11: What kind of personality and attitude should a software program have today? · February 2002: Oy, my aching fingers... · December 2001: Digital Photography · November 2001: Can we say goodbye to the Rolls Royce Mentality? · October 2001: An Unforgettable Week: The drama that unfolded around CorelWORLD · August-September 2001: The Art of Paragraphics: New-age ingredients for success with Corel VENTURA · July 2001: Your Very Own Interface: How to make Corel applications read your mind · June 2001: Fighting the Font Wars: How to stay sane with your sans · May 2001--Turning the Key at Nicholas-Applegate · April 2001--A Modest Proposal for Reviving VENTURA Publisher
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