Inprise Merger Off - 'Things Change,' Corel CEO Says
Corel Corp. said today it is calling off a proposed merger with California-based programming tools maker Inprise Corp., but offered few details on its plans to recover from the failure of an engagement that just recently was seen as critical to the company's financial health.
When the deal was announced in early February, Corel's stock was trading at more than US$20 a share and the transaction - 0.747 Corel shares for every Inprise share - would have been worth some $2.4 billion to Inprise shareholders. But Inprise investors soured on the deal as excitement waned over Corel's entry into the open- source Linux market and the Canadian company's stock tobogganed.