Corel trims headcount to reflect sales

Canadian software company Corel Friday said it is cutting 9% of its staff, or 66 people, to reflect its expected revenue performance.

For the second quarter of 2003, Corel reported a net loss of $5.6 million or 6 cents per share, on revenue of $32.2 million. That compares to a net loss of $574,000 or 1 cent per share on revenue of $28.3 million in the first quarter of the year, and to a loss of $6.3 million or 7 cents on revenue of $30.8 million in the same quarter last year, Corel said in a statement.

Corel launched four new products during the quarter – WordPerfect Office 11, Corel Designer 10, Corel Painter 8 and Corel Smart Graphics Studio – and said that the launch of the office suite had caused a slight increase in revenue. However, revenue growth is a challenge for the company as it tries to move from older graphics products to new XML content management products, it said.

By category, Corel said revenue from graphics solutions fell 5.6% year on year to $14 million, while revenue from office productivity products rose 33% to $15 million. Office productivity revenue jumped 66.6% quarter on quarter, reflecting the launch of the Office suite, Corel said.

XML product revenue grew 46.6 percent compared to the year-ago quarter, to $456,000, but dropped 60% from the previous quarter, when it hit $1.1 million, the statement said.

The cuts to Corel’s workforce will reduce payroll costs by about $4.2 million per year, the company said.

Corel in Ottawa announced earlier this month that it had agreed to be acquired by Vector Capital of San Francisco for $97.5 million.