Corel Corp. relaunches as independent company backed by Vector Capital

Corel Corp. announced it has relaunched as an independent company following the completion of Vector Capital Management, L.P.’s acquisition of Corel’s portfolio of creativity and productivity software and related brands from KKR. Funds managed by KKR will continue to own Corel’s Parallels cross-platform and virtualization software softare business. After the deal is completed, expected in May, Corel CEO Christa Quarles will be CEO of Parallels and Prasannaa Ganesan, former COO of Corel, will become CEO of Corel. After purchasing Corel for $133 million in 2003, Vector Capital took Corel private in 2010 ; during that time, it acquired companies like WinZip, Roxio, and Parallels. In 2019, KKR acquired Corel from Vector Capital in July 2019 for over $1 billion. The comp

Corel’s portfolio of desktop and digital tools includes CorelDRAW, WinZip, MindManager, PaintShop Pro, VideoStudio, Pinnacle, Roxio, and WordPerfect. Corel and Vector plan to pursue an active acquisition strategy, leveraging Corel’s established brands and global go-to-market platform as the foundation for building a broader portfolio, the company said.

“I spent more than a decade with this business, and I know what it is capable of,” said Ganesan. “We have the team, the customer relationships, and a partner in Vector that knows Corel as well as we do and has partnered with us through multiple phases of growth. We are not starting from scratch – we are starting from a position of strength.”

According to a press release, the company said “Corel will benefit from a more agile operating structure that will allow it to pursue three core business priorities:

1. Customer experience: Enhancing the end-to-end customer journey across Corel’s global user base, from first interaction through ongoing support;
2. AI Integration: Embedding AI across the product portfolio from intelligent creative tools in CorelDRAW to workflow automation in MindManager and WinZip; and,
3. Strategic M&A: Executing a deliberate acquisition strategy targeting businesses with loyal user bases and strong retention that can benefit from investment and Corel’s global go-to-market platform. Corel’s established brands will serve as the foundation for that strategy, with an eye toward both complementary products and expansion into new verticals over time.”

“Vector is deeply familiar with Corel’s business, product suite, underlying technology, and long-tenured management team,” said Alex Slusky, Founding Partner of Vector Capital. “We share a clear vision for the company’s next phase of growth and are excited to build on its strong global installed base by advancing product innovation and embedding AI capabilities directly into the workflows customers rely on every day.”

“Corel is a compelling platform, with a collection of iconic, trusted brands with deep customer loyalty and a long history of generating durable value,” said Tom Smith, Principal at Vector Capital. “We see significant opportunity to build on that foundation, both by continuing to invest in the existing portfolio and by identifying businesses whose customers and capabilities would benefit from Corel’s scale and go-to-market strength.”