Cascade Parent Limited,
doing business as
A trade name, trading name, or business name, is a pseudonym used by companies that do not operate under their registered company name. The term for this type of alternative name is a "fictitious" business name. Registering the fictitious name w ...
Alludo (pronounced like "all you do"), is a Canadian
software
Software is a set of computer programs and associated software documentation, documentation and data (computing), data. This is in contrast to Computer hardware, hardware, from which the system is built and which actually performs the work.
...
company headquartered in
Ottawa,
Ontario
Ontario ( ; ) is one of the thirteen provinces and territories of Canada.Ontario is located in the geographic eastern half of Canada, but it has historically and politically been considered to be part of Central Canada. Located in Central C ...
, specializing in graphics processing. Formerly called the Corel Corporation ( ; from the abbreviation "Cowpland Research Laboratory"), the company is known for producing software titles such as
CorelDRAW, and for acquiring
AfterShot Pro,
PaintShop Pro
PaintShop Pro (PSP) is a raster and vector graphics editor for Microsoft Windows. It was originally published by Jasc Software. In October 2004, Corel purchased Jasc Software and the distribution rights to Paint Shop Pro. PSP functionality can b ...
,
Painter,
Video Studio and
WordPerfect.
History
Corel was founded by
Michael Cowpland in 1985 as a research laboratory. Michael Cowpland was CEO of
Mitel
Mitel Networks Corporation is a Canadian telecommunications company. The company previously produced TDM PBX systems and applications, but after a change in ownership in 2001, now focuses almost entirely on Voice-over-IP (VoIP) products. Mitel ...
. Mitel needed writing and creative design programs to enhance the company product line. Corel products were born. Additional products were added. The company had great success early in the
high-tech boom of the 1990s and early 2000s with the product
CorelDRAW, and became, for a time, the biggest software company in Canada. In 1996, it acquired
Novell WordPerfect and started competing with the thought of being "
Pepsi
Pepsi is a carbonated soft drink manufactured by PepsiCo. Originally created and developed in 1893 by Caleb Bradham and introduced as Brad's Drink, it was renamed as Pepsi-Cola in 1898, and then shortened to Pepsi in 1961.
History
Pepsi wa ...
to Microsoft's
Coke" as
Microsoft Word
Microsoft Word is a word processor, word processing software developed by Microsoft. It was first released on October 25, 1983, under the name ''Multi-Tool Word'' for Xenix systems. Subsequent versions were later written for several other pla ...
was the top-used word processing software at the time. Corel was in a difficult position as Microsoft pushed
pre-loaded copies of its software onto new computers. This mainly consisted of
Microsoft Works office applications, but a variant called Works Suite also bundled the Microsoft Word software.
The company held the
naming rights
Naming rights are a financial transaction and form of advertising or memorialization whereby a corporation, person, or other entity purchases the right to name a facility, object, location, program, or event, typically for a defined period of t ...
to the home arena for the
NHL's
Ottawa Senators
The Ottawa Senators (french: Sénateurs d'Ottawa), officially the Ottawa Senators Hockey Club and colloquially known as the Sens, are a professional ice hockey team based in Ottawa. They compete in the National Hockey League (NHL) as a membe ...
from February 1996 until January 2006 as the "Corel Centre", a venue currently known as the
Canadian Tire Centre.
In 1996, Corel created a
Full motion video game called
Mode.
In 1997, Corel sold its Corel ChemLab studio and its "CD Home Collection" consisting of over 60 multimedia titles to Hoffmann + Associates, a Toronto-based company. As part of the deal, Corel acquired a minority interest in Hoffmann + Associates and received royalties.
In August 2000, Cowpland was accused of
insider trading and left. A new board of directors was then appointed and
Derek Burney Jr., announced that the product line would be split into several brands—DeepWhite, ProCreate, and Corel. However, these plans were scrapped, and only the Corel brand remained. Corel acquired the graphics software company
Micrografx in late 2001.
In August 2003, Corel was bought out by the
private equity
In the field of finance, the term private equity (PE) refers to investment funds, usually limited partnerships (LP), which buy and restructure financially weak companies that produce goods and provide services. A private-equity fund is both a t ...
firm Vector Capital for $1.05 a share (slightly more than the cash in the company). The company was voluntarily
delisted from the
NASDAQ and
Toronto Stock Exchange
The Toronto Stock Exchange (TSX; french: Bourse de Toronto) is a stock exchange located in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. It is the 10th largest exchange in the world and the third largest in North America based on market capitalization. Based in the ...
s. Some U.S. shareholders alleged the management benefited from the buyout personally while the buyout price was too low. A lawsuit was filed in the U.S. to stop the buyout and was unsuccessful.
In March 2005, Corel announced that the
United States Justice Department purchased 50,000 licenses of WordPerfect (adding to the worldwide user base of 20 million) and that WordPerfect was adding 4 million new users per year thanks to bundling deals with
Dell. Corel contended that WordPerfect was the only viable alternative to Microsoft Office, with sales 70 times more than
Lotus' SmartSuite. On April 26, 2006, Corel completed its return to the public market with an
initial public offering
An initial public offering (IPO) or stock launch is a public offering in which shares of a company are sold to institutional investors and usually also to retail (individual) investors. An IPO is typically underwritten by one or more investme ...
on NASDAQ, the same day finalizing the acquisition of
WinZip, an archiving software title.
On December 12, 2006, Corel completed its acquisitions of
InterVideo
InterVideo was a software publisher specializing in multimedia-related programs. InterVideo's products include video capturing, video editing, DVD authoring, CD/DVD recording, film distribution, and video playback. Its best known product was Win ...
and
Ulead
Ulead Systems () is a Taiwanese computer software company headquartered in Neihu district in Taipei, Taiwan. It is a subsidiary of Corel.
History
Ulead was founded on 5 August 1989 by Lotus Chen, Lewis Liaw and Way-Zen Chen. They founded Ule ...
. The InterVideo acquisition was valued at around $196 million. In May 2008, CEO David Dobson announced that he was leaving the company to take a senior strategy role at
Pitney Bowes
Pitney Bowes Inc. is an American technology company most known for its postage meters and other mailing equipment and services, and with expansions into e-commerce, software, and other technologies. The company was founded by Arthur Pitney, who ...
. Dobson was replaced on May 8 by former Symantec executive
Kris Hagerman. In November 2009, it was announced that Vector Capital would be purchasing the remaining shares of common stock in Corel Corporation. Upon completion, this made Corel once again privately owned. On January 29, 2010, the shareholders of Corel approved its previously announced stock consolidation, completing the transfer to Corel Holdings, L.P., a limited partnership controlled by an affiliate of Vector Capital.
In January 2012, Corel acquired
Roxio
Roxio is an American software company specializing in developing consumer digital media products. Its product line includes tools for setting up digital media projects, media conversion software and content distribution systems. The company formed ...
from
Rovi Corporation
TiVo Corporation, formerly known as the Rovi Corporation and Macrovision Solutions Corporation, was an American technology company. Headquartered in San Jose, California, the company is primarily involved in licensing its intellectual property ...
for an undisclosed amount. Subsequently, on July 2, 2012, Corel announced its acquisition of
Pinnacle Systems
Pinnacle Systems, Inc. is a California-based American manufacturer of digital video hardware and software for the mainstream and broadcast markets. The company was founded in 1986 by Ajay Chopra (CEO), Mirek Jiricka and Randall Moore.
The compa ...
, a developer of consumer-oriented video editing products (such as the
Pinnacle Studio series) owned by
Avid.
Having suffered layoffs in 2003 and 2008, Corel began a near yearly culture of restructuring beginning in 2010, when in the latter part of that year the company's finance department was restructured and moved to their Taipei office, resulting in significant layoffs at its Ottawa HQ. Restructuring in 2012 resulted in more layoffs. In December 2013, the company's restructuring resulted in the layoffs of the Taipei locations engineering and quality assurance team. Corel's Taipei office was the core development centre of
PaintShop Pro
PaintShop Pro (PSP) is a raster and vector graphics editor for Microsoft Windows. It was originally published by Jasc Software. In October 2004, Corel purchased Jasc Software and the distribution rights to Paint Shop Pro. PSP functionality can b ...
and
VideoStudio, one of the company's most well-known photo- and video-editing bundles. The 2013 restructuring led to a partial handover of product development to outsourced companies, resulting in more rapid, low-cost development across its product lines. The company continued with layoffs in 2014 and once again at the beginning of 2015 with the change of the company's CEO to Patrick Nichols, previously the head of Corel's WinZip business unit.
In August 2016, Corel announced the acquisition of the
Mindjet
Mindjet is a mind mapping and innovation management software company headquartered in San Francisco, California. Mindjet's software products, including its flagship product MindManager and SpigitEngage, are designed to visually and collaborative ...
MindManager business from Spigit.
In June 2018, Corel announced the acquisition of Gravit GmbH.
In December 2018, Corel announced the acquisition of
Parallels.
On July 3, 2019, Corel was acquired by
KKR.
In September 2020, Christa Quarles was named the CEO of the company.
In 2021, Prashant Ketkar was named the Chief Technology and Product Officer of the company.
In September 2022, Corel is rebranded to Alludo (wordplay on the phrase "All You Do").
Products
* Corel Chess using a chess engine developed by
Don Dailey
Don Dailey (March 10, 1956 – November 22, 2013) was an American longtime researcher in computer chess and a game programmer. Along with collaborator Larry Kaufman, he was the author of the chess engine Komodo. Dailey started chess programmi ...
and
Larry Kaufman
*
Corel Designer
Corel DESIGNER is a vector-based graphics program. It was originally developed by Micrografx, which was bought by Corel in 2001.
The last version developed by Micrografx was 9.0 in 2001. This program was later sold as Corel DESIGNER 9. There ar ...
Formerly
Micrografx Designer, professional technical illustration software.
* Corel Digital Studioa set of four applications: PaintShop Photo Express (a light version of
Paint Shop Pro
PaintShop Pro (PSP) is a raster graphics editor, raster and vector graphics editor for Microsoft Windows. It was originally published by Jasc Software. In October 2004, Corel purchased Jasc Software and the distribution rights to Paint Shop Pro. P ...
), VideoStudio Express (video-editing software), DVD Factory (DVD burning and converting software), WinDVD (DVD player software).
*
CorelDRAWA
vector graphics editor.
*
Corel Graphics Suite
CorelDRAW is a vector graphics editor developed and marketed by Corel Corporation. It is also the name of the Corel graphics suite, which includes the bitmap-image editor Corel Photo-Paint as well as other graphics-related programs (see below) ...
Combination of CorelDRAW, PhotoPaint, and Capture.
* Corel Home Office an office suite based on
Ability Office
Ability Office is an office suite developed by Ability Plus Software and distributed and marketed by Ability Software International and which consists of a word processor, spreadsheet, database, modules for presentation and photo or image editing ...
5 and also bundling Corel's WinZip software. It is incompatible with Corel's own WordPerfect file formats.
* Corel KnockOutProfessional image masking plug-in.
* Corel Paint It! TouchDrawing and painting software created specifically for the
Windows 8
Windows 8 is a major release of the Windows NT operating system developed by Microsoft. It was released to manufacturing on August 1, 2012; it was subsequently made available for download via MSDN and TechNet on August 15, 2012, and later to ...
touchscreen
A touchscreen or touch screen is the assembly of both an input ('touch panel') and output ('display') device. The touch panel is normally layered on the top of an electronic visual display of an information processing system. The display is ofte ...
PCs.
*
Corel Painter
Corel Painter is a raster-based digital art application created to simulate as accurately as possible the appearance and behavior of traditional media associated with drawing, painting, and printmaking. It is intended to be used in real-time by ...
a program that emulates natural mediapaint, crayons, brushes ''etc'' (formerly Fractal Painter).
* Corel Photo AlbumA sophisticated program for organizing digital photographs, inherited from Jasc Software.
*
Corel Photo-Paint
Corel Photo-Paint is a raster graphics editor developed and marketed by Corel since 1992. Corel markets the software for Windows and Mac OS operating systems, previously having marketed versions for Linux (Version 9, requiring Wine). Its primary m ...
A
bitmap graphics
upright=1, The Smiley, smiley face in the top left corner is a raster image. When enlarged, individual pixels appear as squares. Enlarging further, each pixel can be analyzed, with their colors constructed through combination of the values for ...
program comparable to
Adobe Photoshop, bundled with the CorelDRAW Graphics Suite.
* Corel SnapFireA digital photo management suite, positioned to compete with Google's
Picasa offering, later developed and marketed as ''Corel MediaOne''.
*
Corel VenturaDesktop publishing software that had a large and loyal following for its
DOS
DOS is shorthand for the MS-DOS and IBM PC DOS family of operating systems.
DOS may also refer to:
Computing
* Data over signalling (DoS), multiplexing data onto a signalling channel
* Denial-of-service attack (DoS), an attack on a communicat ...
version when Corel acquired it in the early 1990s. It was briefly revived in 2002.
*
Corel Linux OS (discontinued) One of the first GUI-based distributions of Linux incorporating an automatic installation program in 1999.
*
CorelCAD2D and 3D computer-aided drafting software.
Acquired products
*
AfterShot ProPhoto management software, based on
Bibble after the acquisition of Bibble Labs in 2012.
*
Avid StudioA video and audio editor specializing in production technology. Avid Studio was renamed
Pinnacle Studio in September 2012.
*
BryceSoftware for creating 3D landscapes. Sold in 2004 to DAZ Productions.
*
Click and CreateA
game development tool
A game development tool is a specialized software application that assists or facilitates the making of a video game. Some tasks handled by tools include the conversion of assets (such as 3D models, textures, etc.) into formats required by the g ...
created by
Clickteam that was also sold as
The Games Factory
Clickteam is a French software development company based in Boulogne-Billancourt, Hauts-de-Seine. Founded by Francis Poulain, François Lionet and Yves Lamoureux, Clickteam is best known for the creation of Clickteam Fusion, a script-free progra ...
. Click and Create 2 was sold to IMSI who released it as
Multimedia Fusion.
*
MindJet MindManagerIn August 2016, Corel purchased
Mindjet
Mindjet is a mind mapping and innovation management software company headquartered in San Francisco, California. Mindjet's software products, including its flagship product MindManager and SpigitEngage, are designed to visually and collaborative ...
as pe
announcement
*
PaintShop Pro
PaintShop Pro (PSP) is a raster and vector graphics editor for Microsoft Windows. It was originally published by Jasc Software. In October 2004, Corel purchased Jasc Software and the distribution rights to Paint Shop Pro. PSP functionality can b ...
In October 2004, Corel purchased
Jasc Software
Jasc Software, Inc. was an Eden Prairie, Minnesota-based company founded by Robert Voit, the creator of Paint Shop Pro, a popular graphics editing program. Jasc Software also created other popular software titles, including:
*Image Robot
*Animati ...
, developer of this budget-priced
bitmap graphics
upright=1, The Smiley, smiley face in the top left corner is a raster image. When enlarged, individual pixels appear as squares. Enlarging further, each pixel can be analyzed, with their colors constructed through combination of the values for ...
editing program.
*
Paradox
A paradox is a logically self-contradictory statement or a statement that runs contrary to one's expectation. It is a statement that, despite apparently valid reasoning from true premises, leads to a seemingly self-contradictory or a logically u ...
A relational database acquired from
Borland and bundled with WordPerfect Office Professional Edition.
*
Parallelsa range of virtualization products, sold as
Parallels Desktop for Mac,
Parallels Server for Mac,
Parallels Workstation, and
Parallels RAS.
*
Quattro Pro
Quattro Pro is a spreadsheet program developed by Borland and now sold by Corel, most often as part of Corel's WordPerfect Office suite.
Characteristics
Historically, Quattro Pro used keyboard commands close to those of Lotus 1-2-3. While i ...
A spreadsheet program acquired from
Borland and bundled with WordPerfect Office.
*
VideoStudioA digital video editing program originally developed by
Ulead Systems which remains a distribution of Ulead Systems. The software was rebranded Corel VideoStudio since Corel acquired Ulead and it became a working division of Corel.
* MotionStudio 3DA 3D text and animation program originally called
Ulead COOL 3D
Ulead Systems () is a Taiwanese computer software company headquartered in Neihu district in Taipei, Taiwan. It is a subsidiary of Corel.
History
Ulead was founded on 5 August 1989 by Lotus Chen, Lewis Liaw and Way-Zen Chen. They founded Ule ...
and was developed by
Ulead Systems. It was rebranded after Corel acquired Ulead.
*
WinDVD
WinDVD (owned by Corel Corporation which bought InterVideo in 2006) is a commercial video player and music player software for Microsoft Windows. It enables the viewing of DVD-Video movies on the user's PC. DVD-Video backups stored on hard dis ...
A video and music player software, acquired in 2006 from Corel's purchase of InterVideo.
*
WinZipAn American computer optimizer software company acquired by Corel in 2006.
*
WordPerfectA word processing program acquired from Novell, and originally produced by
WordPerfect Corporation.
*
XMetaL
XMetaL, or XMetaL Author, is a software application people use to create and edit documents in XML and SGML. It has some features common to word processors, but is a native XML editor that can be configured to work with various standard and custom ...
An
XML
Extensible Markup Language (XML) is a markup language and file format for storing, transmitting, and reconstructing arbitrary data. It defines a set of rules for encoding documents in a format that is both human-readable and machine-readable ...
editor acquired in the takeover of
SoftQuad in 2001 and then sold to
Blast Radius in 2004.
* Gravit Designer A cross-platform vector graphics editor acquired in the takeover of Gravit GmbH in 2018.
* ClearSlide - Sales Engagement Platform, Sales Enablement + Engagement
Reviversoft, an American computer optimizer software company acquired by Corel in 2014.
Simplestar, an American computer optimizer software company.
Corel World Design Contest
The annual Corel World Design Contest first ran from 1990 through 1998. The competition intended to recognize and encourage an international community of graphic artists from over 50,000,000 registered Corel users. Two finalists for each of the eight categories were awarded a trip to Ottawa, Canada to participate in the Corel World Design Contest gala and awards ceremony. The finalists from each of the eight categories received an issue of the "Corel Crystal Award". The collection of artworks were later released in a catalogue with bundled CD, under the name of "Corel Artshow". The contest was reinitiated in 2009 on the 20th Anniversary of CorelDRAW's launch and now runs every two years. The 2013 and 2015 contests each had a prize pool with a total value of US$100,000.
See also
* ''
Bridgeman Art Library v. Corel Corp.''
References
External links
Corelwebsite
CorelDRAWwebsite
{{Authority control
Canadian brands
Companies based in Ottawa
Multinational companies headquartered in Canada
Software companies of Canada
Privately held companies of Canada
Software companies established in 1985
Canadian companies established in 1985
1985 establishments in Ontario
2006 initial public offerings
Kohlberg Kravis Roberts companies
2019 mergers and acquisitions
Companies formerly listed on the Toronto Stock Exchange
Companies formerly listed on the Nasdaq
Office suites