[Geoff chuckles to himself, feeling smug.]

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   Corel's bad roll of the dice
   By Margaret Kane
   December 18, 1997 1:55 PM PST
   ZDNN

   Corel's bad roll of the dice

   Corel Corp. warned investors today that it would declare a net loss
   during the fourth quarter of about $95 million, and sales of only $44
   million.

   In a conference call, company officials said Corel was hurt by a move
   to lower the amount of inventory in the sales channel. The company
   took a $12 million write-off for "obsolete" inventory -- mainly
   discontinued versions of CorelDraw. Worse, about $50 million of the
   loss was due to channel returns, the largest portion of which came
   from returns of WordPerfect Suite 7, designed for Windows 3.x.

   "Although our information was that there was still a significant large
   installed base of Windows 3.1 users, it appears that the market wasn't
   prepared to absorb an upgrade on that," said Chief Financial Officer
   Michael P. O'Reilly.

   CEO Michael Cowpland remained positive on the call, saying that Corel
   had already recorded new sales worth $102 million, mostly from new
   products.

   In response to a question, Cowpland said he would not be bringing in
   anyone to serve as president, a position he now holds. Some analysts
   have suggested the company could use new blood at the top, given a
   string of three consecutive quarterly losses.

   A year-ago, Corel posted sales of $125 million, and net income of $6.5
   million. This quarter's results will be posted on January 13.

   Corel's stock had dropped almost 10 percent by midday, trading at
   $1.81, down from a close of $2 on Wednesday.

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