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Commentary: Inprise/Borland looking for better fit than Corel

The merger of Corel and Inprise/Borland would have created limited synergy that could have been fully leveraged by only a small niche of enterprises and consumers.

See news story: Can Inprise perform as a soloist?

By Mark Driver, Gartner Analyst

The merger of Corel and Inprise/Borland would have created limited synergy that could have been fully leveraged by only a small niche of enterprises and consumers--specifically, those able and willing to adopt Linux as a strategic front- and back-office IT platform.

We advised Corel and Inprise/Borland customers to view this acquisition neither as an immediate threat to continued viability nor as a significant advantage over competing vendors. The termination of the proposed merger leaves both Corel and Inprise/Borland free to pursue more appropriate financial and partnership opportunities.

Although Corel has announced that it will seek other financing opportunities and realign its cost structure to support revenue expectations, Inprise/Borland has not made an immediate announcement regarding alternate plans. However, we believe that Inprise/Borland will aggressively pursue another merger or acquisition opportunity.

It is in Inprise/Borland's long-term interest financially to find a partnership that can create more value than was possible with the proposed Corel merger. If Inprise/Borland does not return to sustained profitability on its own within this fiscal year (ending Dec. 31, 2000), or if an appropriate merger candidate is not found, Inprise/Borland customers and partners should consider moving to a vendor better positioned and capable of providing long-term presence in the e-business application development tool and middleware market.