Corel, GraphOn extend software pact

Corel today took a 25 percent stake in privately held GraphOn in exchange for GraphOn taking over responsibility for jBridge, Corel's Java programming language-based software that lets Window's applications run on other platforms.

"As our companies worked together following our strategic alliance announced this past August, we realized it made little sense for two companies to devote separate engineering resources to products that were naturally made for each other," said Walt Keller, president and chief executive of GraphOn.

GraphOn, which makes products that allow Unix software to run on other operating systems, and Corel signed an agreement in August in which the companies would link jBridge with GraphOn's Unix thin client products.

But Corel is getting more than just GraphOn as a partner. GraphOn earlier this month agreed to merge with Unity First Acquisition Corporation, a New York firm with revenue of about $6 million. The deal calls for Unity First to issue 6.79 million shares of its common stock and change its name to GraphOn.

The merger would give GraphOn and Corel stockholders a combined 78 percent interest in Unity First.