Given the turmoil occurring behind the scenes at Corel over the past year or so it would be easy to think that at the end of the day what we are really watching is Corel’s slow demise.

In a recent press release they have announced development on new 3D Blu-ray playback software for the consumer which seems to indicate there is life in the old dog yet.

Key personnel losses that seemed to take forever to be handled set the scene late last year and into this year. That was more recently followed by  buyout rumors. That culminated in the Board recommending the existing shareholders relinquish their holdings to a VC company that already had a 67% stake in the company and plans to take it off the market and totally back into private ownership.

There has been no obvious discussion as to what the plan is after the company goes private although I would have speculated that the two obvious routes would have been to either break the software assets up and flog the lot or, take the company into a room full of mirrors, have it take a good look at itself and emerge renewed, refreshed, reorganized and ultimately… re-floated!

Given that the VC company in question made a pretty good offer on a company that was limping heavily I kind of guessed it would be the second scenario of restructuring the company for a fresh attack on its markets.

This latest press release listed below strongly indicates that yes, there are signs of life at Corel and they are most definitely looking to the future and future products with their latest R & D product.

Obviously the press release contains the usual rah, rah, gushing language PR people seem so fond of (does anyone REALLY talk like that?) but the fact that Corel seem to be already well down the path of development on 3D Blu-ray playback technology for the consumer bodes well for the future of the company.

Corel Corporation – Corel Reveals 3D Software for the PC with New WinDVD(R) Prototype

There has been some interesting movement over at Corel recently that would indicate not all is well. A while back they bought out Intervideo who had in turn bought out the original Ulead company from Taiwan.

Most likely the reasoning behind this was to get a hold of Intervideo’s playback software as well as the Ulead stable of very good video editing software and DVD authoring software.

Subsequently they have released a few products and have discarded a few others. Ulead’s Media Studio Pro was probably the one most sorely missed by it’s users as it had built up quite a rabid following over the years. Most likely Corel couldn’t see the value in continuing the line given it’s small sales figures.

They did manage to successfully continue the VideoStudio line which is now at the VideoStudio Pro X2 version and is still a very good editor for the consumer user.

However Corel have built a reputation over the years of taking great software and making it very ordinary! They also lost a CEO last year and took forever to replace him. All in all one can’t help but get the sense that Corel has been a bit of a rudderless ship for a while and that combined with the economic downturn seems to have tipped the scales.

A venture capital company that already holds a 67% stake in the comapny has tendered an offer to but out the remaining shares which as you can see from the press release below the board of Corel has agreed to.

Apparently the VC company want to take Corel off the stock market and back into private hands.

I can’t help but think this is a good idea as the company would benefit greatly from some restructuring and redirection in both their technology development and marketing strategies.

You can read the reasoning behind accepting the offer and read between the lines at the link below.

Corel Corporation – Corel Corporation Directors Approve U.S.$4.00 per Share Tender Offer