WORDPERFECT
Corel has agreed to purchase WordPerfect from Novell for $10.8 million in cash and $113.2 million in common stock. The sale is expected to close in 30 days pending regulatory approval. If the sale is approved, look for Corel to release a new software suite that would have WordPerfect, Quattro Pro, Corel's graphics and desktop-publishing software. In 1995, PerfectOffice captured only 5.5% of the $800 million suite market trailing Microsoft which had a market share of 89.9%. (Sources: Wall Street Journal, 2/1/1996 and InfoWorld, 1/29/1996).

APPLE
Talks between Apple and Sun Microsystems have broken off. Sun was offering $23 per share, less than the stock is currently selling for. Gilbert Amelio, Chairman of National Semiconductor replaces President Michael Spindler who was fired on Friday. The bad news continues. 17 top executives have left Apple in the last six months. Some vendors have reported that sales of Apple computers is off about 5% of what in expected for January. One vendor reported that an educational customer has postponed a purchase of 800 computers. Standard and Poor dropped its ratings of Apple bonds to that of "junk" status. Moody's also downgraded its rating of the debt to a low investment grade of Baa3. On a brighter note: Apple is planning to announce a number of new products in March. New products include its newest Power-Book system and a 150MHz PowerPC. (Sources: Wall Street Journal, 1/31/96 & 2/2/1996; InfoWorld, 1/8/1996; Chicago Tribune, 2/4/1996).

INTEL
Intel dropped the price of it's Pentium CPU chips on January 29. The 75MHz chip dropped 37% to $99 and the top of the line 166MHz dropping to $159 (21%). Intel also announced that it was ending production of the 90MHz chip. Look for the price cuts to be reflected in the retail prices in the next two to three months. (Source: PC Week, 1/15/1996).

WEB SITE OF THE MONTH
The Library of Congress. Help the Library of Congress celebrate its 195th birthday by stopping by and viewing any of its 70 million documents. The LOC site also offers access to the U.S. Patent Office and Thomas, the Web version of the Congressional Record. The LOC address is: www.loc.gov (Source: PC Magazine, 2/6/1996).
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Technology Tidbits is published monthly by Jerry Price, Eau Claire, Wisconsin.
© 1996 Jerry W. Price

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