Day in Tech History

January 31, 1996: Corel buys WordPerfect

1996 - Corel not only gets WordPerfect form Novell, but also Quattro Pro for $180 million in stock and cash. Michael Cowpland (Founder of Corel) called WordPerfect the “Pepsi to Microsoft’s Coke”. I guess that was not the case as OpenOffice (RC maybe?) surpassed WordPerfect users.WordPerfect and Corel have been in flux since 2006, when Vector Capital purchased 72% of the company. Just this last year, they bought up the remaining stock and became privately held once again.

Wikazine – Full show notes for January 31

• Mistrial in WordPerfect antitrust case against Microsoft (seattletimes.nwsource.com)
• January 15: Ralph Baer Patents First Video Game (dayintechhistory.com)