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Alludo

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"Corel" redirects here. Not to be confused with Coral.
Cascade Parent Limited
Alludo
FormerlyCorel Corporation
Company typePrivate
Industry
Founded1985; 39 years ago (1985)
FounderMichael Cowpland
Headquarters
Ottawa, Ontario, Canada
Key people
  • Christa Quarles (CEO)
Products
RevenueIncrease 298 million USD (2016)[1]
OwnerKKR
Number of employees
1,205 (2023)
Subsidiaries
Websitewww.alludo.com

Cascade Parent Limited, doing business as Alludo (/əˈluː.doʊ/ ə-LOO-doh[2]), is a Canadian software company headquartered in Ottawa, Ontario, specializing in graphics processing. Formerly called the Corel Corporation (/kəˈrɛl/ kə-REL;[3] from the abbreviation "Cowpland Research Laboratory"), the company is known for producing software titles such as CorelDRAW, and for acquiring AfterShot Pro, PaintShop Pro, Painter, Video Studio and WordPerfect.

History

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Corel wordmark used from 2001 to 2022

Corel was founded by Michael Cowpland in 1985 as a research laboratory. Michael Cowpland was CEO of 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 to Microsoft's Coke"[4] as Microsoft Word 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 to the home arena for the NHL's Ottawa Senators from February 1996 until January 2006 as the "Corel Centre", a venue currently known as the Canadian Tire Centre.[5]

In 1996, Corel created a full motion video game called Mode.[6]

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.[7]

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.[citation needed]

In August 2003, Corel was bought out by the private equity firm Vector Capital for $1.05 a share (slightly more than the cash in the company).[8] The company was voluntarily delisted from the NASDAQ and Toronto Stock Exchanges. 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.[9] 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 on NASDAQ,[10] the same day finalizing the acquisition of WinZip, an archiving software title.

On December 12, 2006, Corel completed its acquisitions of InterVideo and Ulead. The InterVideo acquisition was valued at around $196 million.[11] In May 2008, CEO David Dobson announced that he was leaving the company to take a senior strategy role at Pitney Bowes.[12] Dobson was replaced on May 8 by former Symantec executive Kris Hagerman.[13] In November 2009, it was announced that Vector Capital would be purchasing the remaining shares of common stock in Corel Corporation.[14] Upon completion, this made Corel once again privately owned.[15] 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.[16]

In January 2012, Corel acquired Roxio from Rovi Corporation for an undisclosed amount.[17] Subsequently, on July 2, 2012, Corel announced its acquisition of Pinnacle Systems, a developer of consumer-oriented video editing products (such as the Pinnacle Studio series) owned by Avid.[18]

Having suffered layoffs in 2003 and 2008,[19] 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[20] resulted in more layoffs. In December 2013, the company's restructuring resulted in the layoffs of the Taipei location's engineering and quality assurance team. Corel's Taipei office was the core development centre of PaintShop Pro 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 MindManager business from Spigit.[21]

In June 2018, Corel announced the acquisition of Gravit GmbH.[22]

In December 2018, Corel announced the acquisition of Parallels.[23]

On July 3, 2019, Corel was acquired by KKR for a reported $1 billion.[24]

In September 2020, Christa Quarles was named the CEO of the company.[25]

In 2021, Prashant Ketkar was named the Chief Technology and Product Officer of the company.[26]

In September 2022, Corel was rebranded to Alludo (wordplay on the phrase "All You Do").[2][27][28]

Products

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  • Corel Chess  – using a chess engine developed by Don Dailey and Larry Kaufman.[29]
  • Corel Designer – Formerly Micrografx Designer, professional technical illustration software.
  • Corel Digital Studio – a set of four applications: PaintShop Photo Express (a light version of Paint Shop Pro), VideoStudio Express (video-editing software), DVD Factory (DVD burning and converting software), WinDVD (DVD player software).
  • CorelDRAW – A vector graphics editor.
  • Corel Graphics Suite – Combination of CorelDRAW, PhotoPaint, and Capture.
  • Corel Home Office – an office suite based on Ability Office 5 and also bundling Corel's WinZip software.[30] It is incompatible with Corel's own WordPerfect file formats.[31]
  • Corel KnockOut – Professional image masking plug-in.
  • Corel Paint It! Touch – Drawing and painting software created specifically for Windows 8 touchscreen PCs.
  • Corel Painter – a program that emulates natural media – paint, crayons, brushes etc (formerly Fractal Painter).
  • Corel Photo Album – A sophisticated program for organizing digital photographs, inherited from Jasc Software.
  • Corel Photo-Paint – A bitmap graphics program comparable to Adobe Photoshop, bundled with the CorelDRAW Graphics Suite.
  • Corel SnapFire – A digital photo management suite, positioned to compete with Google's Picasa offering, later developed and marketed as Corel MediaOne.[32]
  • Corel Ventura – Desktop publishing software that had a large and loyal following for its DOS 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.
  • CorelCAD – 2D and 3D computer-aided drafting software.[33]

Acquired products

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Reviversoft, an American computer optimizer software company acquired by Corel in 2014. Simplestar, an American computer optimizer software company.

Corel World Design Contest

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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.

Corel's Historical Logo
  • Corel First Logo
    Logo for Corel's short-lived ProCreate brand
  • Corel Second Logo
    Corel's current logo
  • Corel Third Logo
    Corel's second logo
  • Corel's third logo, launched February 2001
    Corel's third logo, launched February 2001

See also

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References

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  1. ^ "The Company's New Executive Team Takes Charge And Restarts Corel; There's More Than Hot Air In That Balloon". Graphics Speak. 10 December 2021. Retrieved 2023-06-15.
  2. ^ a b Corel (2022-09-13). "Corel is reimagining the future of work—and its own historic brand—as it fully rebrands as Alludo". GlobeNewswire News Room (Press release). Retrieved 2022-10-21.
  3. ^ Wells, John (3 April 2008). Longman Pronunciation Dictionary (3rd ed.). Pearson Longman. ISBN 978-1-4058-8118-0.
  4. ^ Powers, Jeffrey (31 January 2014). "January 31, 1996: Corel Acquired WordPerfect". Day In Tech History.
  5. ^ "The Canadian Tire Centre: Not 20 years old and already over the hill? | Metro Ottawa". metronews.ca. Archived from the original on 2017-10-06. Retrieved 2017-10-06.
  6. ^ "Archive.Org link to Mode website". Archived from the original on October 31, 1996.
  7. ^ "Moby Games summary of Hoffmann + Associates Inc". Retrieved 19 December 2015.
  8. ^ "Corel agrees to takeover bid from Vector Capital". The Globe and Mail. 7 June 2003.
  9. ^ "DOJ Drops Microsoft Office for Corel". betanews.com. 8 March 2005. Retrieved 2017-10-06.
  10. ^ Kawamoto, Dawn (2006-04-26). "Corel IPO stumbles out of the gate". CNET. Retrieved 2015-09-05.
  11. ^ Dobson, David (2006). "Corel's letter to customers on the InterVideo Ulead acquisition". Corel. Archived from the original on 2008-10-09. Retrieved 2015-09-05.
  12. ^ "David Dobson blurb". Money 2020. 2015. Archived from the original on 2015-04-14. Retrieved 2015-09-05.
  13. ^ "Corel welcomes Kris Hagerman as permanent CEO". Business Wire. 2009-07-29. Retrieved 2015-09-05.
  14. ^ Wauters, Robin (2009-11-26). "Corel buys out Corel". Tech Crunch. Retrieved 2015-09-05.
  15. ^ Corel Holdings Announces Successful Tender Offer and Commencement of Subsequent Offering Period Archived 2009-11-28 at the Wayback Machine, URL accessed on 26 November 2009.
  16. ^ "Shareholders Approve Consolidation of Corel Corporation Shares". Business Wire. 2010-01-26. Archived from the original on 2011-06-05. Retrieved 2015-09-05.
  17. ^ Muchmore, Michael (7 February 2012). "Corel Buys Roxio from Rovi, Releases First Product". PCMag.com. Retrieved 13 February 2012.
  18. ^ "Corel Acquires Pinnacle Products from Avid". Corel press release. Retrieved 7 September 2012.
  19. ^ "WordPerfect publisher to lay off 90 employees". Silicon Beat. 2008-09-10. Archived from the original on 2015-09-24. Retrieved 2015-09-05.
  20. ^ Symons, Courtney (2012-03-07). "Corel confirms layoffs". Ottawa Business Journal. Archived from the original on 2015-09-24. Retrieved 2015-09-05.
  21. ^ "Corel Acquires MindManager". Mindjet. Archived from the original on 2017-03-21. Retrieved 2017-03-20.
  22. ^ "Welcoming Gravit to the Corel family". Medium. Retrieved 2018-06-26.
  23. ^ Corel (20 December 2018). "Corel Acquires Parallels, Further Accelerating its Growth in Global Software Market". GlobeNewswire News Room. Retrieved 20 December 2018.
  24. ^ "KKR confirms it has acquired Canadian software company Corel, reportedly for over $1B". TechCrunch. 3 July 2019. Retrieved 2019-07-03.
  25. ^ Lashinsky, Adam; Pressman, Aaron (2020-09-29). "You should know the new CEO of this software company". Fortune. Retrieved 2020-09-29.
  26. ^ "Prashant Ketkar joins Corel as Chief Technology and Product Officer". Glocomp Systems. 2022-05-24. Retrieved 2023-05-03.
  27. ^ Greiner, Lynn (14 September 2022). "Corel rebrands to Alludo". IT World Canada. Retrieved 22 October 2022.
  28. ^ "Corel Rebrands as Alludo But Product Names Will Live On". PCMAG. Retrieved 2022-10-21.
  29. ^ Wolff, Patrick (1997). The Complete Idiot's Guide to Chess. Alpha Books. p. 282. ISBN 9780028617367.
  30. ^ "Corel Introduces New Netbook-Ready Office Suite". PR Web. 2009-06-17. Archived from the original on July 1, 2009. Retrieved 2015-09-05.
  31. ^ Dolcourt, Jessica (2009-06-16). "Corel Home Office review". CNET. Retrieved 2015-09-05.
  32. ^ Butler, Peter (2007-09-18). "Corel snaps off MediaOne Plus". Archived from the original on 2007-11-01. Retrieved 2018-10-25.
  33. ^ CAD Software for Mac and Windows – CorelCAD 2013. Corel.com. Retrieved on 2013-07-17.
  34. ^ Chastain, Sue. "Corel Acquires Jasc Software". About.com. Archived from the original on May 22, 2007.
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