Corel Corp reported third quarter losses of $3.2m and yesterday outlined a rebuilding plan that includes new products in nearly all of its divisions. The Canadian firm, which offers everything from games to office suites to a Java-based PDA, reported third quarter net losses of $3.2m on revenues of $84.9m. The firm blamed the loss on its inability to include $15m of sales from Office Professional 7 in its third quarter results because the product shipped late (CI No 3,001). Corel seems to have ever-expanding product areas and said it spent $19.6m on research and development in the quarter ended August 31, compared to $7m in the same quarter last year. The firm predicted its fourth quarter revenues would be $120m to $135m with earnings per share at $0.9 to $0.18. Although Microsoft Corp has been trouncing on Corel’s WordPerfect Suite in the corporate market, Corel says a new bundling deal with NEC Corp’s Packard Bell and several smaller bundling deals will propel them further as the Microsoft suite alternative. The firm said it’ll take advantage of Microsoft Office shipping in January – three months late. Corel’s WordPerfect Suite 8.0 will ship in February. Corel also says it’s negotiating with Oracle Corp and IBM Corp to bundle its Corel Office for Java, which will be available for download at the end of September. Corel also said it initially only expects to ship about 2,000 of its Java personal digital assistants, and will look at licensing the design after that.
