Re: [TCLUG:22619] Corell Linux

[Kent Schumacher <kent@structural-wood.com>]

"John R. Sheets" wrote:
> 
> On Friday, October 13, 2000, Chris Opp <cop7586@hotmail.com> wrote:
> >
> > In the news recently Corel has made plans to be bought out by Microsoft. I
> > was just wondering what people thought about that? Do you think that they
> > are sell outs?
> 
> Err, not even close!  Microsoft invested in Corel with "non-voting"
> shares.  MS does not want Corel to die (just like it doesn't want Apple
> to die), or even to buy it out.  The fewer major competitors MS has, the
> more likely it'll get nailed for monopolistic behavior.
> 
> One theory is that MS's investment in Corel is an under-the-table
> settlement of their past lawsuits against MS.
> 
> John
> 
> 
I suspect it is a combination of several reasons, no single one of which
would be enough to justify the purchase alone.

Non-voting stock is a pretty silly concept when the company will go bankrupt
without the capital the stock represents.  "I think your company is becoming
a bad investment because of your focus on Linux, I think I'm going to
need to sell your shares short..."