Software Industry Announcements and News
Shareholders Approve Consolidation of Corel Corporation Shares
[ Comments Off ] Posted on 01.28.10 under Desktop Publishing
OTTAWA–(BUSINESS WIRE)–Corel Corporation (NASDAQ:CREL; TSX:CRE, “Corel”) announced today that the shareholders of Corel approved its previously announced stock consolidation. The consolidation represented the second and final step in the acquisition of Corel by Corel Holdings, L.P., a limited partnership controlled by an affiliate of Vector Capital. Following approval of the Consolidation, Corel filed articles of amendment to effect the consolidation with the result that Corel is now wholly-owned by Corel Holdings, L.P. and its affiliates.
Shareholders other than Corel Holdings, L.P. and its affiliates will receive cash consideration of U.S.$4.00 in respect of each pre-consolidation share held by such holder.
Corel’s common shares will be delisted from the NASDAQ stock market and the Toronto Stock Exchange promptly following the consolidation, and thereafter Corel will cease to be a reporting issuer under Canadian law and its reporting obligations under U.S. securities laws will be suspended.
Further information about the consolidation and how shareholders may receive the cash consideration for their pre-consolidation shares is available in Corel’s proxy statement filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission and the Canadian securities regulatory authorities on December 29, 2009.
About Corel
Corel is one of the world’s top software companies with more than 100 million active users in over 75 countries. We develop software that helps people express their ideas and share their stories in more exciting, creative and persuasive ways. Through the years, we’ve built a reputation for delivering innovative, trusted products that are easy to learn and use, helping people achieve new levels of productivity. The industry has responded with hundreds of awards for software innovation, design and value.
Our award-winning product portfolio includes some of the world’s most widely recognized and popular software brands, including CorelDRAW®Graphics Suite, Corel®Painter™, Corel DESIGNER®Technical Suite, Corel®Paint Shop Pro®Photo, Corel®VideoStudio®, Corel®WinDVD®, Corel®WordPerfect®Office, WinZip®,and the recently released Corel®Digital Studio™2010. Our global headquarters are in Ottawa, Canada, with major offices in the United States, United Kingdom, Germany, China, Taiwan and Japan.
© 2010 Corel Corporation. All rights reserved. Corel, Corel DESIGNER, CorelDRAW, Paint Shop Pro, Painter, WinDVD, WordPerfect, WinDVD, WinZip and the Corel logo are trademarks or registered trademarks of Corel Corporation and/or its subsidiaries. All other product names and any registered and unregistered trademarks mentioned are used for identification purposes only and remain the exclusive property of their respective owners.
Corel Streamlines Global Operations
[ Comments Off ] Posted on 01.09.10 under Desktop Publishing
OTTAWA–(BUSINESS WIRE)–Corel Corporation (NASDAQ:CREL) (TSX:CRE) today announced that it is reducing its global workforce by approximately 20% worldwide. The Company is taking these actions to appropriately align its cost structure with its FY2010 operating plan while providing additional flexibility to fund investments in new product development.
“For 25 years, Corel has demonstrated an ability to adapt and evolve in order to meet new consumer demands and an ever changing competitive landscape,” said Kris Hagerman, Corel CEO. “In building our operating plan for 2010, we are aligning our cost structure so that we have the financial flexibility to continue to innovate and deliver new products to the market, drive broad awareness of our products and global brand, and ensure we are making the best use of our global teams and resources.”
Forward Looking Statements:
This news release includes forward-looking statements which are based on estimates and assumptions made by us in light of our experience and our perception of historical trends, current conditions and expected future developments, as well as other factors we believe are appropriate in the circumstances including but not limited to general economic conditions, product pricing levels and competitive intensity, and new product introductions.
Such forward-looking statements involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other important factors that could cause actual results, performance or achievements to differ materially from any future results, performance, or achievements discussed or implied by such forward-looking statements. Such risks include the recent disruption in the overall economy and financial and credit markets, which may adversely impact our operations and financial results as well as our ability to obtain financing required to grow our business and make acquisitions. We may experience fluctuations in our operating results depending on the timing and success of product releases. Our core products have been marketed for many years and the packaged software market in North America and Europe is relatively mature and characterized by modest growth. Accordingly, we must successfully complete acquisitions, penetrate new markets, establish relationships with new original equipment manufacturer customers, or increase penetration of our installed base to achieve revenue growth. The long-term trend in our business reflects growth in revenues from acquisitions, which give rise to their own risks and challenges, rather than from our existing products, and that recent growth may not be representative of future growth. We face competitive threats from well established software companies that have significantly greater market share and resources than us and from online services companies that are increasingly seeking to provide software products at little or no incremental cost to their customers to expand their Internet presence and build consumer loyalty. We rely on a small number of key strategic relationships for a significant percentage of our revenue and these relationships can be modified or terminated at any time. In addition, we face potential claims from third parties who may hold patent and other intellectual property rights which purport to cover various aspects of our products and from certain of our customers who may be entitled to indemnification from us in respect of potential claims they may receive from third parties related to their use or distribution of our products. Any resulting litigation costs, settlement costs or royalty requirements could affect our profitability.
These and other risks, uncertainties and other important factors are described in Corel’s Annual Report dated February 9, 2009, filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and the Canadian Securities Administrators (CSA) under the caption “Risk Factors” and elsewhere. A copy of the Corel Annual Report and such other filings can be obtained on Corel’s website, on the SEC’s website at http://www.sec.gov./ or on the CSA’s website at http://www.sedar.com. These factors should be considered carefully, and readers should not place undue reliance on our forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements speak only as of the date of the document in which they are made. We disclaim any intention or undertaking to provide any updates or revisions to any forward-looking statement to reflect any change in our expectations or any change in events, conditions or circumstances on which the forward-looking statement is based, except as required by law.
About Corel
Corel is one of the world’s top software companies with more than 100 million active users in over 75 countries. We develop software that helps people express their ideas and share their stories in more exciting, creative and persuasive ways. Through the years, we’ve built a reputation for delivering innovative, trusted products that are easy to learn and use, helping people achieve new levels of productivity. The industry has responded with hundreds of awards for software innovation, design and value.
Our award-winning product portfolio includes some of the world’s most widely recognized and popular software brands, including CorelDRAW®Graphics Suite, Corel®Painter™, Corel DESIGNER®Technical Suite, Corel®Paint Shop Pro®Photo, Corel®VideoStudio®, Corel®WinDVD®, Corel®WordPerfect®Office, WinZip®,and the recently released Corel®Digital Studio™2010. Our global headquarters are in Ottawa, Canada, with major offices in the United States, United Kingdom, Germany, China, Taiwan and Japan.
Photo Collage Creator: Impressive Scrapbooks and Collages for Any Occasion
[ Comments Off ] Posted on 11.29.09 under Desktop Publishing, Home & Hobby
AMS Software has announced the release of a new version of Photo Collage Creator. This solution enables the user to create photo collages and original greeting cards in a quick and convenient way. It is possible to make each composition original and impressive due to numerous templates, frames, clipart images and advanced effects such as halo effect and perspective correction. Photo Collage Creator also features fully automatic collage creation, which can prove useful if there is not enough time to make an elaborate composition.
Photo Collage Creator is just the right tool for digital scrapbooking: it allows creating original greeting cards for any occasion, posters, collages and scrapbook pages. The key words in the description would be Quickness, Convenience and Quality. Why?
The program allows to create collages really quickly, as there are a lot of pre-designed templates of all imaginable kinds. All the user should do is to choose the composition template, set the size of the canvas and load photos. It would not take more than a couple of minutes. Moreover, fully automatic collage creation allows getting nice compositions almost instantly.
If the collage needs some adjustments, the user can move, rotate and resize photos very conveniently thanks to advanced layering technology – just click-and-drag. The supported photo effects such as Noise, Invert, Mosaic, Wave, etc. can be previewed and applied via Effects Browser. To the right there is a window with tabs of properties (background, color and opacity), advanced effects (mask effects, perspective correction, atmosphere correction) and clipart images. It is also easy to add appropriate captions. To cut a long story short, everything is conveniently arranged for the user to express his ideas freely and creatively.
Photo Collage Creator offers a wide range of tools and effects for creation of peculiar, remarkable and high quality compositions. When a collage is finished, it can be saved in any standard image format, such as JPG, BMP, and TIF, or as an editable project.
The favorable price together with a great number of features makes Photo Collage Maker an optimal solution for creative self-expression. It does not require long training, as its intuitive interface will never cause any troubles even for a novice user.
Features:
- Pre-designed collage patterns (including Scattered Photos)
- Perspective and atmosphere correction
- Ancient photo effect
- Captions and ornaments, more than 50 frames
- Simple positioning, resizing and rotating of collage pieces
- Advanced layering technology
- Convenient printing out
Pricing and Availability
Photo Collage Creator costs 29.00 USD. Further information about the product, as well as its free trial edition, is available at http://ams-photo-software.com/products/product_6.html
About AMS Software
Founded in 2003, AMS Software specializes in photo enhancement software. Among its major products are Frame Maker Pro, Photo Effects Studio, Media Show Pro, Beauty Studio and Auto Collage Studio. The products by AMS Software have got various awards from the Internet’s most respectable software download sites. For more information, please visit the company’s website at http://ams-photo-software.com/
Corel Corporation Directors Approve U.S.$4.00 per Share Tender Offer
[ Comments Off ] Posted on 11.28.09 under Business, Desktop Publishing
OTTAWA & SAN FRANCISCO–(BUSINESS WIRE)–Corel Corporation (NASDAQ:CREL; TSX:CRE) and Corel Holdings, L.P. (“CHLP”), a limited partnership controlled by an affiliate of Vector Capital, today jointly announced that the directors mandated by the Board of Directors of Corel Corporation (the “Company”) to act as the Board have unanimously determined to recommend, on behalf of the Company, that shareholders tender their shares pursuant to the CHLP tender offer.
The Company announced that the directors mandated to act on behalf of the Board have carefully reviewed the CHLP tender offer with the assistance of their financial and legal advisors. In addition, the Company announced that based on that review, the directors have unanimously determined that the U.S. $4.00 per share price offered by CHLP in its tender offer is fair to the minority shareholders and to recommend, on behalf of the Company, that shareholders tender their shares pursuant to the CHLP tender offer.
“We are delighted that the directors have resolved to support the tender offer” said Amish Mehta, partner at Vector Capital. “We have arrived at an outcome that will provide the minority shareholders with a significant premium for their shares and allow Corel to benefit from being an private company.”
The tender offer is scheduled to expire at midnight, New York City time on Wednesday, November 25, 2009.
The offer is conditioned upon, among other things, there being validly tendered and not withdrawn on or prior to the expiration of the offer a number of common shares of Corel Corporation representing at least a majority of the aggregate number of the outstanding common shares (calculated on a fully-diluted basis as of the date the shares are accepted for payment pursuant to the offer), excluding the common shares beneficially owned by CHLP and its affiliates, and the votes attaching to which shall be qualified to be included as votes in favor of any Subsequent Acquisition Transaction (as defined in the offer to purchase relating to the offer) in determining whether minority approval (as construed under applicable Canadian securities law) has been obtained in respect thereof (the “Majority of the Minority Condition”). The Majority of the Minority Condition is not waivable. The offer is not subject to a financing condition.
If the tender offer is successfully completed, CHLP will take steps as necessary to acquire all common shares not tendered in the offer at the same price per share as it paid in the offer, to de-register Corel as a public company and to thereby cause Corel to become a private company owned by CHLP.
Advisors
The Board has retained Genuity Capital Markets as its financial advisor and Bennett Jones LLP and Kaye Scholer LLP as its legal advisors. The Company has retained Woodside Counsel, P.C. as U.S. counsel, and Bennett Jones LLP, as Canadian legal counsel.
Innisfree M&A Incorporated is serving as information agent for the tender offer. Davis Polk & Wardwell LLP and Osler, Hoskin & Harcourt LLP are acting as legal counsel to Vector Capital and CHLP.
About Corel
Corel is one of the world’s top software companies with more than 100 million active users in over 75 countries. We develop software that helps people express their ideas and share their stories in more exciting, creative and persuasive ways. Through the years, we’ve built a reputation for delivering innovative, trusted products that are easy to learn and use, helping people achieve new levels of productivity. The industry has responded with hundreds of awards for software innovation, design and value.
Our award-winning product portfolio includes some of the world’s most widely recognized and popular software brands, including CorelDRAW(R) Graphics Suite, Corel(R) Painter(TM), Corel DESIGNER(R) Technical Suite, Corel(R) Paint Shop Pro(R) Photo, Corel(R) VideoStudio(R), Corel(R) WinDVD(R), Corel(R) WordPerfect(R) Office, WinZip(R), and the recently released Corel(R) Digital Studio(TM) 2010. Our global headquarters are in Ottawa, Canada, with major offices in the United States, United Kingdom, Germany, China, Taiwan and Japan.
About Vector Capital
Vector Capital is a leading private equity firm specializing in spinouts, buyouts and recapitalizations of established technology businesses. Vector Capital identifies and pursues these complex investments in both the private and public markets. Vector Capital actively partners with management teams to devise and execute new financial and business strategies that materially improve the competitive standing of these businesses and enhance their value for employees, customers and shareholders. Among Vector Capital’s notable investments are LANDesk Software, Savi Technology, SafeNet, Precise Software Solutions, Printronix, Register.com, Tripos and Watchguard Technologies. For more information, visit www.vectorcapital.com.
Your Digital Camera Knows Much More!
[ Comments Off ] Posted on 11.25.09 under ASP Member Companies, Desktop Publishing, Graphic Apps
Two Pilots has released a new version of Exif Pilot. With Exif Pilot, you can see not only your photo image but also the accompanying metadata. You can view, edit, and create EXIF data.
Flash energy, aperture, exposure time, ISO, focal length… You may or may not be familiar with these technical characteristics, but you can adjust these camera settings, or you can simply photograph in automatic mode. In either case, these parameters define the quality of the photo images. Each time you take an image, your digital camera records date and time information along with technical parameters. This information is stored in a special format called EXIF. That is one of the advantages of digital photography.
In the new version of Exif Pilot, the list of supported image formats is significantly expanded. Now the program allows reading and editing the following file formats: JPEG, TIFF, PNG, DNG, NEF, PEF, CRW, and JP2. Read-only support is provided for these formats: PSD, RAF, CR2, MRW, ARW, and many others.
You can edit the date and time of your images. A necessary feature for crossing time zones while traveling, for instance. EXIF data are shown in a simple table without the need for difficult adjustment. The program also allows you to export data to an Excel table for analysis and storage. Batch editing is available with the Pro version.
With Exif Pilot, you can see what your digital camera knows and change the data as well.
Exif Pilot product line includes Exif Pilot Lite (free version), Exif Pilot, and Exif Pilot Pro. Exif Pilot Pro price is 39.95.
More about Exif Pilot: http://exifpilot.com/exif-software.html
Download free trial version of Exif Pilot Pro: http://www.exifpilot.com/load/exifpro.exe
The programs work on Windows 98/ME/2000/XP/Vista/7 platforms.
Image Comparer Is Getting Smarter in Assisting Photographers with Photo Duplicates Detection
[ Comments Off ] Posted on 10.16.09 under Desktop Publishing, Graphic Apps
Bolide Software announces version 3.7 of Image Comparer, its groundbreaking image comparison software. This new version of Image Comparer offers even greater opportunities in terms of accuracy, functionality, speed.
Since the moment of the first release Image Comparer has become mature and sophisticated. Plenty of great features have been introduced and have significantly added to its performance and quality.
Thanks to multicore CPU optimization added, Image Comparer is getting much faster and efficient. The ability to mark images with lower quality automatically in addition to automarking images with higher quality accelerates operating with the files found. The whole process now takes up even less time than before, whereas the quality gets even higher.
What makes Image Comparer different from most of its competitors is that it uses the breakthrough content-based comparison approach, the mechanism implying that the search will analyze and recognize the actual content of the image – shapes, colors, textures. So, the program analyzes image content, not metadata such as captions or keywords. This mechanism makes it possible to search for resized, rotated and even flipped images.
Read the rest of this entry…