Softkey International Inc, the Cambridge, Massachusetts result of the three-way merger that took in WordStar International Inc and assumed its Nasdaq quote, reported a second quarter profit of $4.3m against a year ago loss of $12.9m, but sales were static at $26.7m – but the company reckons that it’s cooking now that its back in the black: chief executive Michael Perik told Dow Jones & Co that the company, which aims its products at small businesses and home-computer users, and prices them at around $30, puts them out in droves so that No single title accounts for more than 10% of our business – and there’s safety in numbers – historically in this business, a software program was written to last two or three years, but with more and more multimedia entertainment and education titles, the model is becoming more like selling records – the retail consumer buys a title, enjoys it maybe two or three times, then adds to his collection; and then he wants to buy another, Perik said.
