 |
Michael Cowpland | |
|---|---|
| Born | April 23, 1943 Bexhill-on-Sea, Sussex, England |
| Occupation(s) | Entrepreneur and business executive |
| Known for | Founder of Corel |
Michael Cowpland (born April 23, 1943 in Bexhill-on-Sea) is a British-born Canadian businessman. He is the founder and one-time president, chairman and CEO of Corel, a Canadian software company. [1]
Cowpland worked for Bell Northern Research (later part of Nortel Networks), then MicroSystems International. In 1973, Cowpland and Terry Matthews founded Mitel Corporation, a company that developed and sold electronic PBX systems. Initial success made both founders millionaires. [2] Sales peaked at $250 million, but over-expansion and development problems saw the company bought by British Telecom. Both Cowpland and Matthews left the company in 1984 amid disagreements with the owners.[ citation needed ]
Matthews went on to found Newbridge Networks, while Cowpland launched Cowpland Research Laboratory (soon Corel) in Ottawa in 1985. At first, the company sold DTP workstations, but success did not arrive until the launch of the graphics software CorelDRAW in 1989.
In 1996, he offered a challenge to Microsoft with a move into productivity software, acquiring WordPerfect from Novell for $158 million. However this was unsuccessful as Microsoft managed to get many new computers loaded with Microsoft Word along with Windows. [3] The company also made unsuccessful forays into CAD, videoconferencing, Java, Linux and other developments.
He was investigated by the Ontario Securities Commission (OSC) in 1999–2000 regarding allegations that he had used insider information to sell $20 million in Corel shares at $8/share shortly before the company posted disappointing results. The two sides settled the case in 2003, with Cowpland agreeing to pay $575,000. [4] Subsequent to Cowpland's alleged insider sale at $8, Corel shares hit a peak of $60/share around November 1999, during the height of the Linux boom when Corel's Desktop Linux was seen to be a potential rival to Microsoft Windows. [5]
Michael resigned as Corel's CEO in August 2000. [5]
After an unsuccessful attempt to buy Borland with a view to creating a critical mass for Linux, Cowpland left Corel in August 2000, and moved on to buy control of ZIM corporation, a database and mobile content company which is listed on the NASDAQ bulletin board (ZIMCF).
He was married to his first wife Darlene until 1991 when they divorced. They have two daughters, Paula and Christine. In 1992, he married his second wife, Marlen Cowpland. The couple live in a $14-million 1,800-square-metre mansion in Rockcliffe Park, Ontario. [6] [7]
Borland Software Corporation was a computing technology company founded in 1983 by Niels Jensen, Ole Henriksen, Mogens Glad, and Philippe Kahn. Its main business was developing and selling software development and software deployment products. Borland was first headquartered in Scotts Valley, California, then in Cupertino, California, and then in Austin, Texas. In 2009, the company became a full subsidiary of the British firm Micro Focus International plc. In 2023, Micro Focus was acquired by Canadian firm OpenText, which later absorbed Borland's portfolio into its application delivery management division.
Microsoft Corporation is an American multinational technology conglomerate headquartered in Redmond, Washington. Founded in 1975, the company became highly influential in the rise of personal computers through software like Windows, and the company has since expanded to Internet services, cloud computing, video gaming and other fields. Microsoft is the largest software maker, one of the most valuable public U.S. companies, and one of the most valuable brands globally.
Steven Anthony Ballmer is an American businessman and investor who served as chief executive officer of Microsoft from 2000 to 2014. He is the owner of the Los Angeles Clippers of the National Basketball Association (NBA). He is a co-founder of Ballmer Group, a philanthropic investment company.
WordPerfect (WP) is a word processing application, now owned by Alludo, with a long history on multiple personal computer platforms. At the height of its popularity in the 1980s and early 1990s, it was the market leader of word processors, displacing the prior market leader WordStar.
Cascade Parent Limited, doing business as Alludo, is a Canadian software company headquartered in Ottawa, Ontario, specializing in graphics processing. Formerly called the Corel Corporation, the company is known for producing software titles such as CorelDRAW, and for acquiring AfterShot Pro, PaintShop Pro, Painter, Video Studio and WordPerfect.
Novell, Inc. was an American software and services company headquartered in Provo, Utah, that existed from 1980 until 2014. Its most significant product was the multi-platform network operating system known as Novell NetWare. Novell technology contributed to the emergence of local area networks, which displaced the dominant mainframe computing model and changed computing worldwide.
Caldera International, Inc., earlier Caldera Systems, was an American software company that existed from 1998 to 2002 and developed and sold Linux- and Unix-based operating system products.
Mitel Networks Corporation is a Canadian telecommunications company. The company previously produced TDM PBX systems and applications, but after a change in ownership in 2001, now focuses almost entirely on Voice-over-IP (VoIP), unified communications, collaboration and contact center products. Mitel is headquartered in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada, with offices, partners and resellers worldwide.
Zarlink Semiconductor was a fabless semiconductor company specializing in the design and manufacture of communication and medical semiconductor integrated circuits, modules, and other devices. In 2011, Microsemi acquired Zarlink in a hostile takeover and merged it into its own operations.
Kanata is a suburb and former city within Ottawa, Ontario, Canada. It is located about 22 km (14 mi) west of the city's downtown core. As of 2021, the former City of Kanata had a population of 98,938, with the population centre having a population of 137,118. Before it was amalgamated into Ottawa in 2001, it was one of the fastest-growing cities in Canada and the fastest-growing community in Eastern Ontario. Located just to the west of the National Capital Commission Greenbelt, it is one of the largest of several communities that surround central Ottawa.
Sir Terence Hedley Matthews is a Welsh-Canadian business magnate, serial high-tech entrepreneur, and Wales' first billionaire. He was the richest man in Wales until 2012, when he was surpassed by Sir Michael Moritz.
Microsystems International Limited (MIL) was a telecommunications microelectronics company based in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada, founded in 1969. MIL was an early attempt to create a merchant semiconductor house by Nortel Networks.
Corel Linux, also called Corel LinuxOS, was a Debian-based operating system made by Corel that began beta testing on September 21, 1999 and was released to the public on November 15, 1999. It mainly competed against Windows 98 and Windows 2000 by Microsoft, plus Mac OS 9 by Apple. Corel later discontinued the distribution, but did not remove the former Corel Open Source Development website until March 2002.
Newbridge Networks Corporation was an Ottawa, Ontario, Canada company founded by Welsh-Canadian entrepreneur Sir Terry Matthews. It was founded in 1986 to create data and voice networking products after Matthews was forced out of his original company Mitel. According to Matthews, he saw that data networking would grow far faster than voice networking, and he had wanted to take Mitel in much the same direction, but the 'risk-averse' British Telecom-dominated Mitel board refused and effectively ousted him. The name Newbridge Networks comes from Sir Terry Matthews' home town of Newbridge in south Wales.
Copernic Inc. is a company based in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada, producer of Copernic Desktop Search and Copernic Server Search, desktop search software for home and business, running on Microsoft Windows. There is a free edition and paid editions with free trial.
Microsoft is a multinational computer technology corporation. Microsoft was founded on April 4, 1975, by Bill Gates and Paul Allen in Albuquerque, New Mexico. Its current best-selling products are the Microsoft Windows operating system; Microsoft Office, a suite of productivity software; Xbox, a line of entertainment of games, music, and video; Bing, a line of search engines; and Microsoft Azure, a cloud services platform.
Roderick M. Bryden is a Canadian businessman. He served as a prominent Ottawa business executive. He is best known as the former owner of the Ottawa Senators of the National Hockey League from 1992 until 2003.
Geeknet, Inc. is an American company that is a subsidiary of GameStop based in Fairfax County, Virginia. The company was formerly known as VA Research, VA Linux Systems, VA Software, and SourceForge, Inc.
Datto, Inc. is an American cybersecurity and data backup company. In 2017, it was acquired by Vista Equity Partners. In 2022, it became a subsidiary of Kaseya.
Michael Edelson is a Canadian criminal defence lawyer based in Ottawa, Ontario. He has represented numerous high-profile clients in Canada.