Corel draws up plans for recovery

Struggling software vendor Corel has released its results for the third quarter ended 31 August, which show a loss of $10m.

Struggling software vendor Corel has released its results for the third quarter ended 31 August, which show a loss of $10m.

The figures were a slight improvement on the loss of $23.6m in the previous quarter, which the vendor blamed on staff reduction at the company's Dublin office. About 140 workers lost their jobs.

Corel also attributed a drop in overall costs to "decreases in expenditures related to advertising, marketing and market development costs, sales and product-related expenses".

Losses from operations included about $6.2m in one-off expenses, such as $2.6m in settlement charges, $2.5m in employee severance charges and $1.1m in asset write-offs, as well as expenses associated with the company's cost-restructuring plans.

Only last month, Corel was offered a lifeline of $50m from an anonymous benefactor to help it stay afloat. Corel has suffered financially since a proposed merger with Inprise/Borland - a company with $240m in cash reserves - fell through.

John Blaine, chief financial officer at the company, said the results demonstrated the positive impact of the company's cost-restructuring scheme.

"Our turnover held firm from the previous quarter, our costs are down and we continue to make progress towards putting the company on a more solid financial footing," he said.

Derek Burney, interim chief executive at Corel, who succeeded founder Michael Cowpland after the latter's resignation in mid-August, has announced a plan to regenerate the company.

"We recognise that we have a lot more work to do to return the company to profitability," said Burney. "However, these figures are encouraging. They show that we are on the right track."

Despite the poor results, the company enjoyed "notable accomplishments" during the third quarter, Burney said, referring to the launch of Corel Draw for Windows and Linux, and the Corel Linux second edition operating system.

"This company is putting the elements in place to improve our financial position so that we can continue to deliver the products and services that our customers expect," he said.