STOCKS TO WATCH: Corel, Intraware and Osicom Technologies

Corel posted a smaller-than-expected loss in its first quarter since the departure of founder and CEO Michael Cowpland.

The Canadian software developer lost $10.7 million, or 15 cents a share, on sales of $36.4 million.

Analysts were expecting a loss of 28 cents a share in the quarter.

The $36.4 million in sales marked a 49 percent decline from the year-ago quarter.

"These numbers are encouraging," said Derek Burney, interim president and CEO, in a prepared release. "They show we’re on the right track."

Corel shares closed off 0.03 to 3.59 ahead of the earnings report.

Intraware topped analysts' estimates in its second quarter, but still lost $11.6 million, or 44 cents a share, on sales of $32.6 million.

First Call Corp. consensus pegged the software developer for a loss of 54 cents a share in the quarter.

Its shares closed off 0.38 to 8.38 ahead of the earnings report.

The $32.6 million in sales marks a 69 percent improvement from the year-ago quarter when it lost $5.4 million, or 23 cents a share, on sales of $19.3 million.

In the quarter, online service and technology sales rose to $6.5 million, up 117 percent from the $3 million it recorded in the year-ago quarter.

Last quarter, Intraware beat the Street estimate when it lost $10.1 million, or 40 cents a share, on sales of $41.5 million.

Osicom figures to gain ground Thursday after announcing that its board of directors had approved the distribution of a quarter of a share of a recently acquired subsidiary for each Osicom share.

Osicom, which develops and markets optical networking systems, said it would distribute 0.25 share of storage area networking technology firm Entrada Networks (Nasdaq: ESAN) common stock on Dec. 1 for each share of Osicom held as of Nov. 15.

Entrada, a publicly traded subsidiary of Osicom, merged with Sync Research Inc. in late August.

Osicom shares closed off $1.63 to $25.75 ahead of the news.