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