HIGH-POWERED COREL READY TO ROLL INTO UTAH

Here comes Corel!

Utahns will have a new high-tech company to get to know as of Friday. Corel Corp.'s acquisition of Novell's business applications division is expected to be completed by next week.The Ottawa-based company will waste little time in taking over operations.

Corel CEO Michael Cowpland and other company officials will meet with employees of the business applications group Friday at the Scera Theater in Orem. A press conference is scheduled that afternoon at Novell's Orem campus.

During those meetings, Corel will introduce itself to its new employees and describe its plans for the future.

The company will call the new division Corel USA and intends to keep operations in Utah County. In fact, Corel will bring its Ventura division, which makes a desktop publishing program, to Utah.

The division has about 50 employees, said spokeswoman Fiona Rochester.

"People are really excited about the potential synergies between Ventura and WordPerfect," Rochester said. "That's why we wanted to make sure those products being developed are in close proximity."

Windows 95 versions of both Corel VENTURA and WordPerfect will debut this spring. Corel plans to roll out the new edition of WordPerfect in May during a "big event" in Utah, Rochester said.

But other details about what the future may hold are fuzzy. There are rumors that some jobs in Novell's business applications group will be trimmed in the coming month. It's also unclear how many buildings Corel intends to occupy at Novell's Orem campus.

Rochester said Corel officials will likely be able to answer such questions Friday as they introduce the company to Utah.

So who is Corel? Cowpland started the company in 1985 as a systems-integration business. Corel introduced the first version of its flagship product Corel-DRAW in 1989, and graphics software quickly became the company's focus.

Corel has introduced an updated version of the graphics program every year since then - an achievement it is committed to so customers have the latest, greatest graphics capability. Corel bought Ventura Publisher and DataBase Publisher, desktop publishing programs, in 1983. In the past year the company has launched a line of general consumer computer programs. The Corel CD HOME titles include games such as Wild Cards, the Corel All-Movie guide, Adventures with Edison and other children's programs.