If you've been paying attention the tech headlines, Corel has been
making a lot of noise lately.
With its big Linux push, purchase of a number of MetaCreations
products, failed negotiations with Inprise, and recent announcement
that they may go bankrupt, Corel has been making waves (or at least
thrashing about wildly).
It shouldn't be news to anyone that Corel is a basket case. Losses
year after year, a pummeling from Microsoft in the Office suite
market, and a drubbing in the graphics market from Adobe, adds up to
a company that lurches from one crisis to the next.
Corel is a company with some pretty great products and very lousy
management that could probably be picked up for a song. Should Apple
take the bait?
At the very least, Apple would gain control of a company that,
while mismanaged, turns out great products. Corel graphic packages
and the Corel Office suite remain excellent products that are worthy
alternatives to Microsoft and Adobe offerings. Corel's stable of
products is strong. Apple could easily take advantage of these
products to assist Apple's acceptance in the business market.
A huge stumbling block for Apple is that Corel produces mostly
Windows software. Various versions of WordPerfect, CorelDraw, and a
few other titles have made it to the Mac, but the majority of Corel's
business remains on the Windows side. To put it bluntly, Corel Mac
support sucks. While this changed somewhat with the MetaCreations
purchases, the focus remains on Windows.
With the recent verdict in the Microsoft case, Apple has an
excellent opportunity to look elsewhere for support in the office
suite market. A less powerful (or more closely watched) Microsoft
would have less leverage if Apple decided to back another office
suite. Less dependency on Microsoft Office would also help Apple shed
the chain that Microsoft tugs when Apple gets too far out of
line.
There are, of course, a few problems that would make an Apple
purchase of Corel less than sensible.
No matter how good Corel office software is, it's still so far
behind Microsoft in terms of market share that owning this
software would do little to help push Apple forward.
Apple would be purchasing a very troubled company that would
drain their resources.
These problems would be very real. Solutions exist, however. If
Apple could revive WordPerfect for the Mac, port the entire Office
suite over, and ensure that the products could work seamlessly with
MS Office products, users would have a compelling reason to make the
switch. There are already many
word processors available for Mac users. This clearly indicates
that there is a market for competing products. Mac users are also
anticipating the port of Star
Office, indicating that there is interest in the business
community for an alternative professional office suite.
There's no doubt, however, that pushing Corel Office anywhere
would be a huge job. Corel Office sells on the PC side, and Apple
would have to gain market share there as well. Now that's a
Herculanean task if I ever saw one! Excellent support of existing Mac
products such as the Bryce line may help stem the blood from the
Office market in the short run.
While Apple would be purchasing a very troubled company, Mr. Jobs
has made it quite clear that turning a company around is something he
can do. If all else failed, Apple could sell the software off to the
highest bidder to recoup its losses.
The ultimate question is, I suppose, why bother? Apple is now
stable, has great potential and is completely focused on OS X. Why
muddy the water with Corel's troubles?
I guess it's just how much they want to break their dependency on
Microsoft Office.
So what's your take? Should Apple buy Corel and gain a great
company that could help turn it into an even more powerful software
vendor?
Stephen Van
Esch is the founder and president of
the
E-learning Foundry, an online training
resource for Mac users. Steve loves the Mac and is doubly bilingual,
since he's also fluent in Windows and French.
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