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Corel Cuts 220 Jobs to Save $12M
Cecil writes "Just saw this story on the City of Ottawa's website:
'The Software maker Corel Corp. is cutting 220 jobs - more than a fifth of its workforce - in a bid to reduce costs and return to profitability amid weak technology spending.'" Of course, this stinks for those who are laid off, but hopefully Corel can turn things around.
I think that Corel's failure was the fact that people pirate MS Office, and don't care to try out less expensive office suites.
In my opinion Corel Office was much more intuitive, yet, in my school, there is not one person excluding myself who doesn't pirate software. In fact teachers indirectly encourage students to get MS Office off Kazaa or "to borrow it from a friend"
It is really really sick.
We must stop piracy in the education system, it'll save good companies like Corel.
I've always thought that an economic slump is the BEST time to agressive hire the best workers so that when the times change, they are in a great position by having the best on staff in place. People without money (cause they lost jobs) won't buy half ass products (due to having smaller staffs working on them). It's as simple as that. Times like this is when companies should be MORE aggressive and buy every good idea and worker, because they will sell for less and be more likely to be grateful when times turn around.
Whatever, it's not like I studied economic theory...
Burn Hollywood Burn
Draw, Wordperfect, Office, etc etc. All the while they're creating ports of .Net to FreeBSD (that won't generate any revenue) and other various frivolous projects. This is a little bit like the plight of Sonic Foundry; getting into video and creating five different audio suites really dilutes the manpower to create great applications.
What Corel needs to do is concentrate on one product and make sure it's the best in the business. Go after Photoshop. Go after Office (well, on second thought, don't). But don't go after both at the same time.
This is a prime example of a company getting into a business they really didn't understand (Corel),
Getting into businesses they don't understand is the norm for Corel. In the last 10 years, they have jumped on every single bandwagon that has come along (and been burned every time):
- WordPerfect (it's been through so many hands, it deserves its own bandwagon)
- Java (e.g. the ill fated WP port)
- Network Appliances (a.k.a. Internet Toaster)
- Linux
- The Silicon Valley lifestyle ($50 million company Christmas parties)
I was offered a job there about 10 years ago. They bragged about the office suite strategy in the interview. I thought it sounded like a pipe dream.
-a
How to rationalize theft.
Part of the problem is that all of the young hotshot twenty-somethings don't yet realize that they're on the block next.
These kids went to school, got headhunted, got a $40k salary and got stock options just like that without ever really having to think about anything. Sure, they think they're working hard, but there's just no comparison, for example, to the much more grim and realistic world experienced by kids graduating from college during the Carter years (to chose an epoch at random). The economic slide hasn't hit the current group of young adults hard enough yet; they still believe it's the nature of existence to have cash in hand and food on table and they basically consider anyone who doesn't to be a lazy bum or an idiot. They have no connection whatsoever to the concept that one can be qualified, willing, and actively searching for work and yet still end up starving.
Give it a few years. If this economic downturn starts to hit enough dotcom kids, you'll begin to hear Athese same anti-union love-Bush American kids begin to cry like babies and maybe even have some sympathy not only for laid off Americans but also for other peoples around the world, who even today in the first world are struggling much harder in many places.
STOP . AMERICA . NOW
The anti-union attitudes of /. editors is astouding sometimes
A company is not a social program. Once more, a company is not a social program.
A company, any company, exists to provide a product or service that results in what most folks hope is a positive cash flow. If that is the result, it will grow. In that growth will certainly be newer jobs.
The reverse is also true. If a company has proven that it cannot make money, it will shrink. In it's shrinking, fewer employment opportunities exist.
No union, legislation, or any other happy thoughts can change this basic economic fact. When a company, like Corel, is no longer producing products that customers wish to buy, fewer jobs will result. How can you maintain staffing rates of old when you no longer have the cash to pay them?
The US has gone from a "right to work" country to a "right to get fired" country, almost within a few years. The focus on "keeping corporations profitable EVERY SINGLE YEAR" is absurd.
Nevermind the fact that we're actually talking about CANADA here. There has never been, in ANY nation a "right to work". Oh sure, there have been lofty attempts with subsequent failures, but the concept simply doesn't exist in the wild.
First off, a "right" is not what someone does for you. A "right" is what the government can not do to you. Just as true in Canada as the US, or any other country for that matter. At most, something a government does for you could only be described as a "social program".
Please refer to the beginning of this post... repeat as needed.
The line must be drawn here. This far. No further.