Corel Acquires WordPerfect Software Products
Ottawa, Canada -- Jan. 31, 1996 -- Corel Corporation today announced that it, together with its Irish and U.S. subsidiaries, has entered into an agreement to acquire from Novell Corporation of Orem, Utah the WordPerfect family of software programs and other related technologies.
Both Dr. Michael Cowpland and Robert Frankenberg, the chief executive officers of Corel and Novell respectively, see new opportunities arising from the partnering of their technologies that will ultimately enhance their core businesses. "We think that the public will be excited by the new potential of the WordPerfect products as they are combined with the graphics and multimedia strengths of Corel," said Dr. Michael Cowpland.
The agreement brings several key benefits to Corel and its customers. These include the following:
"Corel is the right company to take these software products and their users forward," said Robert J. Frankenberg, Novell chairman and CEO. "Corel brings to today's PerfectOffice and WordPerfect customers a proven track record in developing and marketing superb products of a similar kind, strong knowledge of application software channels worldwide, and a commitment to continued development and technical support. In addition, Novells new partnership with Corel will benefit both companies customers through greater integration of application products with Novell's GroupWise family of groupware products and entire infrastructure of network services."
Dr. Michael Cowpland is very enthusiastic about prospects for the software and the impact on Corel's existing product offerings. "Like our own products, WordPerfect is an award winning product that has won all the major word processing reviews in publications including PC Magazine, PC/Computing, Windows Magazine and Windows Sources. In addition, PerfectOffice was named the Analysts' Choice in PC Week and has won nearly every major industry review. With our position as a world leader in graphics and multimedia, we have the right skill set to promote and develop these outstanding products in the marketplace."
Corel will assume technical support responsibilities for all of the products as well as assuming and receiving the rights to all of the technology necessary for the WordPerfect 7 and PerfectOffice 7 releases scheduled for later this spring.
Additional Marketing Opportunities
Corel will license the GroupWise client software and Envoy electronic publishing software for inclusion in the PerfectOffice suite with other Corel offerings such as its flagship offerings, CorelDRAW 6 and Corel VENTURA 6.
As Dr. Cowpland pointed out, "We have only begun to explore the scope and breadth of the opportunities that are created by this transaction. The GroupWise product, when combined with CorelVIDEO, will provide a very useful management and communication tool internally in any organization. The ability to communicate through desktop video is clearly enhanced by an interface which allows for schedule planning and automatic functions for distribution of information using this new medium.
This transaction is multi-dimensional for us. With this transaction, we have affiliated ourselves with an industry leader in network solutions with a very strong corporate MIS presence."
The companies will also enter into other licensing arrangements relating to technologies such as linguistics and QuickFinder which will allow Corel to incorporate these technologies owned and developed by Novell into existing Corel applications for further enhancement and development of Corel products.
Dr. Cowpland had these additional comments about the WordPerfect products, "During the course of our due diligence, we have had an opportunity to observe the beta releases of WordPerfect and PerfectOffice 7 for Windows 95 and they reach a new level of power and ease of use.
"Combined with the current product offerings of Corel, the PerfectOffice software can be substantially enhanced both in functionality and application. Our graphics programs have always been industry leaders and will form an important component in combined product offerings designed to meet every need of the office user. A substantial portion of the current registered user base for WordPerfect is in professional organizations for whom presentation and graphics skills are critical elements of successful communication tools. The family of products arising as a result of combining PerfectOffice, WordPerfect and Quattro Pro with the graphics ability evident in the Corel family of products and the publishing capacity of Corel VENTURA will lead the industry in quality production and competitive pricing."
Corel Corporation
Incorporated in 1985, Corel Corporation is recognized internationally as an award-winning developer and marketer of PC graphics and multimedia software. CorelDRAW™, Corel's industry-leading graphics software, is available in over 17 languages and has won over 230 international awards from major trade publications. Corel ships its products through a network of more than 160 distributors in 60 countries worldwide and has an on-line presence on the Internet at http://www.corel.com. Corel is traded on the Toronto Stock Exchange (symbol: COS) and the NASDAQ--National Market System (symbol: COSFF).
All products mentioned are trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective companies. Corel is a registered trademark of Corel Corporation and CorelDRAW is a trademark of Corel Corporation.
Corel Press Contacts:
Carrie Bendzsa
Phone: 613-728-0826 x1524
Fiona Rochester
Phone: 613-728-0826 x1172
Corel Investor Relations Contact:
John Hladkowicz
Phone: 613-728-0826 x1194
Novell Press Contact:
Liz Tanner
Phone: 801-228-6160
Novell IR Contact:
Peter Troop
Phone: 408-577-8361