Corel plans IPO of 8 million shares

The Canadian software maker files with the Securities and Exchange Commission to go public.

The story "Corel plans IPO of 8 million shares" published April 4, 2006 at 2:08 AM is no longer available on CNET News.

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[Manfred Levy]

More case of WallStreet screwing Min street :(

So this Vector group bought Corel shares at 20 Cents per share few years ago and now they are dumping this useless companies shares on the public at $20 per share!
Talk about screwing the public :(
Well I guess it is not as bad as Google insiders (VCs) buying Google shares at 5 Cents per share and dumping them on the public at $100 per share!
At least Google has some merits, although certainly not worth $100 per share set aside current $380 per share!
But Corel! Give me a break, who ever uses their products anymore!!!
But hey you can dump useless shares on public at $20 per share, why not, Hey

[Stan Johnson]

Why take this company public?

Where's the beef? Why invest?

[jer2eydevil88]

Losses led to investing solution

They need money to curb the losses & they hope to raise this money from investors.

Frankly its like putting your money in a sinking ship though, when was the last time you heard of an exciting product from Corel? My experience has been they make all their profit by bundling handicapware with Dell's.

[KsprayDad]

Yikes

These guys justify a P/E of 20? Microsoft has a P/E of 23!!! Hmm...who has a better pipeline and will pay you a dividend while the stock goes sideways?

WP came with my Dell...it was immediately erased for OpenOffice and I got WP for free!

I'd be selling this short in an instant. (not financial advice...do your own DD!!)

[Pop4]

Diversity is a broad term that has been coilated into a glass ceiling&sofa.

There is so many flavors of Ice Tea East of Berlin and down in the Wild West (of TWO); this could fill an empty slot for a New face in managment. I'm surprised commodities and futures haven't lowered the trade numbers on the QQQ.

Just goes to show that there is one more retired Hebrew family making the grade in America.

Check the UK Trade scene; they're hitting some GNP overflow representative in their mobility.

[The Harper]

Why?

Corel hasn't had a compelling offering in YEARS. Their market share is nonexistent. Their operating costs are obviously fairly high, given the recent $8.8m loss on $164m revenue.

Obviously this 'Vector Capital' outfit wants out.

Short it.

[MGSPhilly]

On the Other Hand

In March, Lenova-IBM announced a deal with Corel bundling their "productivity" suite with their PCs. Dell is already doing so. I remember the days when Wordperfect was THE word processor and Quattro Pro (Borland...the merger fell through some years ago)had a strong following.Times change, open source Star Office is a competent replacement, and we need not bring Microsoft into the picture (who actually lost quite a bit of money on their investment in Corel a few years ago). No...I don't see a resurrection of Corel..
Their programs are buggy, support is poor...and that's the key word poor...a poor replacement for what is currently free to consumers.

[KsprayDad]

Risk factors listed in the prospectus.

They basically admit that future growth is ONLY through acquistions!!

Quote:

" except for the last two fiscal years, we have experienced declines in our revenues since the mid-1990s, from a high of $334.2 million in fiscal 1996 to our current level of $164.0 million (combined) in fiscal 2005, have experienced net losses in all but two fiscal years from 1996 to 2005, and had a net working capital deficit of $24.3 million (combined) at November 30, 2005;

" we face competition from companies with significant competitive advantages, such as Microsoft, which has in excess of 97% of the North American Market for productivity software, and Adobe, which has in excess of 70% of the global packaged graphics and digital imaging software market;

" as an increasing number of companies with advertising or subscriber-fee business models seek to offer competitive software products over the Internet at little or no cost to consumers, it may become more challenging for us to maintain our historical pricing policies and operating margins;

" the proliferation of open source software and open standards may make us more vulnerable to competition because new market entrants and existing competitors could introduce similar products quickly and cheaply;

" our relationships with Ingram Micro and Dell, which accounted for 4.6% and 13.5% respectively, of our fiscal 2005 revenues, can be terminated at any time;

" the manner in which packaged software is distributed is changing rapidly, which presents challenges to established software companies such as us and presents opportunities for potential competitors;

" our future growth is largely dependant on the execution of our acquisition strategy, which may fail for various reasons including our inability to find suitable acquisition candidates, complete acquisitions on acceptable terms or effectively integrate acquired businesses; and