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Corel Goes Private

Posted by CowboyNeal on from the taking-things-underground dept.

prostoalex writes "Ottawa-based Corel, known for its CorelDRAW, WordPerfect, Painter and Bryce products, has been acquired by Vector Capital Corp. for $124 mln. with the intent to get de-listed from Nasdaq and Toronto stock markets and go private. 80% of shareholders approved the deal, according to the story. At certain points of its corporate history Corel was a Linux vendor and even partially owned by Microsoft. Microsoft paid $135M for 25% of the shares, so Vector Capital paying $124M for 100% stake looks like a pretty good deal." It's been over a month since this was first announced, but it's actually come to pass now.

4 of 145 comments (clear)

  1. context by RobertTaylor · · Score: 5, Insightful

    "Microsoft paid $135M for 25% of the shares, so Vector Capital paying $124M for 100% stake looks like a pretty good deal."

    Microsoft paid that in 2000, the year when anyone with an understanding of Frontpage Express could get zillions in venture capital.

    $124 million in 2003 however is a fair whack!

  2. Well lets hope. by jellomizer · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Now that Corel is no longer under the whims of stockholders they can actually get to making a really good product and focus on other platforms and finally declaired that they loss the Windows Market. Including a Good modern version of WordPerfect for linux (Not that crappy windows emulated version) and I hope they will be more Mac friendly.

    --
    If something is so important that you feel the need to post it on the internet... It probably isn't that important.
    1. Re:Well lets hope. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

      It's sad to say, but as a company that is prone to jump on every band wagon and falling off - Corel simply lacks the direction needed to set the company strait. They take in good products, and they watch them spiral into oblivion.

      If I were Corel, I would be setting up a relationship with Novell like yesterday. Novell will move to a Linux solution - and with the purchase of Ximian they seem to have some end user software package in mind as well. So why not try to get Word Perfect in there? If the Novell thing takes off they'd be sitting pretty well off as an office suite distributed with a buisness package where Microsoft can't touch them.

      Word Perfect has better name recognition, but if they don't get their ass in gear, then open/star office will be the last nail in the coffin.

  3. A Pretty Good Deal by Waffle+Iron · · Score: 5, Funny
    Microsoft paid $135M for 25% of the shares, so Vector Capital paying $124M for 100% stake looks like a pretty good deal.

    If you've think that's a good deal, I've got some great deals on stock. I'll sell you shares of pets.com, PanAm airlines, 3dfx, and hundreds of others for a mere fraction of what they used to cost! You can't go wrong!