Corel's stock jumps on Microsoft deal

Struggling applications vendor Corel Corp. secured $135 million in funding from Microsoft and saw its stock price advance more than 50% on Tuesday.

The Microsoft influx of capital, part of a strategic relationship that will see the companies do joint development work on Microsoft's .Net Internet initiative, helped Corel's stock price jump to $6.12 a share in mid-afternoon trading, up 66%, or $2.44 a share, from its Monday closing price. Corel's stock price has faltered in recent months and slumped to as low as a closing price of $2.90 a share on Aug. 7.

Ottawa-based Corel has endured a number of shakeups in the past year as it struggled to turn around a string of poor financial quarters. On Tuesday, Corel also announced that Derek J. Burney, who was acting as interim president and chief executive officer, has been named to the position of president and chief executive officer and also been appointed to the company's board of directors.

In August, the company's long-time chief executive officer, Michael Cowpland, resigned to be replaced by interim CEO and President Derek Burney. The vendor has also laid off a number of employees in the course of 2000, including the recent elimination of 139 jobs at its engineering operation in Dublin, Ireland.

Corel said Microsoft purchased 24 million nonvoting convertible preferred shares of Corel stock at $5.62 per share. The companies valued the deal at approximately $135 million and said it signals the start of increased collaboration between the erstwhile rivals.

Corel and Microsoft said they plan to develop, test and market products related to Redmond, Washington-based Microsoft's .NET platform - a broad initiative to supply products and services that should enable new types of Web-based services. Trade shows, product launches, and joint marketing efforts are examples of the companies' shared plans for the future.

The announcement will come as a surprise to some industry watchers. The two companies have been fierce rivals in the productivity applications market, and Cowpland has been one of Microsoft's more vocal critics. Part of Monday's deal involves settling outstanding various outstanding legal disputes between the two companies.

In September, Corel revealed that an unnamed investor would purchase 14.7 million shares of the company over the course of the next two years. At that time, the deal represented almost 20% of Corel's total number of shares and would have been worth close to $56 million.

While the company could not be reached to identify the unnamed investor, Monday's deal with Microsoft represent nearly 25% of Corel's total outstanding shares of common stock.

Corel, in Ottawa, Canada, is at www.corel.com. Microsoft, in Redmond, Wash., is at www.microsoft.com.