Corel Corp is re-branding as "Alludo"

[Bobby H]

Story Link: Corel Rebrands as Alludo

Apparently product names, such as CorelDRAW or WinZIP will remain the same. But I get the feeling this act is a bit like rearranging the deck chairs on the Titanic. Maybe the cost of this rebranding exercise will give the bosses at KKR and Corel, or Alludo, an excuse to increase CorelDRAW subscription prices even more (all while doing hardly anything to actually improve the application).

 

[Notarealsignguy]

Aren't they owned by a private equity firm now? The whole goal is to spin it to another one, and then another. There is no real investment once this starts. They don't run a business, they gut it, paint the walls, change the drapes and increase prices. It's all short term shenanigans to make it look better on paper until the next group of assholes comes along thinking they will do the same thing but better. It's like a game of hot potato until someone finally kills the company. But they still get their management fees so no skin off of their back.

 

[WildWestDesigns]

Seems like they are trying to make a silk purse out of a sow's ear.

I imagine that, like was mentioned, this would make a good segue into other changes, not just in price though. This would be a fine time to kill off the perpetual license (may have done that already though, I stopped paying attention to what Corel was doing (I do still follow Adobe) a long time ago). I have to really wonder how much longer they are going to be around in any recognizable fashion.

I have to wonder what Corel does, if that would affect programs that directly interface with Corel as well (and they aren't cheap either).

Brave new world out there, at least it better be.

 

[Johnny Best]

Thats like Fellers being sold to an investment group from San Francisco.
Of course they will raise the price on Corel. I am wondering when Affinity will be sold.

 

[CanuckSigns]

Yeah I believe the writing is on the wall for corel, the engraving industry has been using coreldraw for almost 20 years as the standard, as a result when we started in signage we understood corel and just kept using it. I'm now concerned I'm going to have to switch to something else and also train my employees on something else, which will be a major PITA.

 

[WildWestDesigns]

Yeah I believe the writing is on the wall for corel, the engraving industry has been using coreldraw for almost 20 years as the standard....

Same with embroidery. The last commercial program that I used directly interfaced with Draw, in fact, one got a copy of Draw when you bought the digitizing program.

That was the only reason why I had Draw. Hardly ever installed it, used Ai instead.

Its a mess.

 

[DL Signs]

Haven't touched Corel in years, I'm down to only one single license for Illustrator for some file and device plugin support, but even dropped the rest of the Adobe suite... I went outside the box, been using Affinity for the past couple years for most everything design-wise. I've been trying to get Mimaki interested in working with Serif on printer/ plotter plugin support for Affinity, powers that be at Serif are down with it.

Not sure that Affinity will go subscription, if they do it won't be until they get a lot more mainstream, and then they'll have to offer device support before most would even consider it. Long way to go there.

 

[White Haus]

Meh. I just bought another license for 2021 and don't really plan on signing up for the never ending SAAS model.

It does what I need it to do, don't really care about all the new "features" they add to supposedly justify upgrading.

 

[WildWestDesigns]

Not sure that Affinity will go subscription, if they do it won't be until they get a lot more mainstream, and then they'll have to offer device support before most would even consider it. Long way to go there.

They could get around that by having plugin support (despite how "hacky" all plugins appear to be) and have device support handled that way. That would take some of that burden of them.

I would suspect in the end that they do go subscription, but I agree, they would need more market to do so. I remember when Corel used the fact that they still had a perpetual license option when Adobe went all in with SaaS, now just a few short years, here we are.

Meh. I just bought another license for 2021 and don't really plan on signing up for the never ending SAAS model.

It does what I need it to do, don't really care about all the new "features" they add to supposedly justify upgrading.

Just got to hope those servers stay active for activation when needing to move to other computers or have to do a fresh install.

 

[Notarealsignguy]

C'mon, they aren't that stupid. They'll just chop the monthly subscription into a 2 week sub, at the same current monthly price, then they can squeeze 26 payments out of ya every year. Next year they'll move to 5 day periods at double price. Eventually the cost will hit ∞ and the whole company will be able to retire after a few minutes...

View attachment 161516

Equipment rental months are 28 days which gives you 13 cycles a year. You might be on to something here

 

[Bobby H]

Aren't they owned by a private equity firm now?

Yes, KKR (as I mentioned earlier). Corel was owned by Vector Capital (another private equity firm) since the early 2000's. This was not long after Corel's founder, Michael Cowpland was accused of insider trading and left the company. Vector Capital sold Corel to KKR in 2019.

 

[Jim Hill]

Vector Capital sold Corel to KKR in 2019.

Private equity firms usually do not keep any companies they purchase more than 4 or 5 years because of the way they structure their finance agreements.

They will spin Corel off to another Private Equity firm will mild the company for another 4 or 5 years and then they will spin it off again.

The reason they do this is simple when they buy these companies they never want to use more than 33% of their own money in the deal.

The rest is either from concessions or property tax reductions from the town or city where the company is located.

The company they are purchasing agrees to take out a loan for the balance and then the new company agrees to transfer the loan which come due in about 5 years which is the reason they always sell before 5 years.

Jim

 

[Bobby H]

Vector Capital owned Corel for roughly 18 years, from 2003 to 2019.