Corel, the Canadian software company that acquired Seattle-area Parallels this past December, has a new owner.
New York-based global investment equity firm KKR announced Wednesday that it acquired Corel, taking ownership from Vector Capital. Terms were not disclosed.
TechCrunch initially reported the deal Tuesday. Earlier reports pegged the deal at more than $1 billion.
Founded in 1985, Corel had early success with its flagship CorelDRAW graphics software for Windows. The company also competed against Microsoft and went through various tribulations but managed to stay afloat. It has acquired a bevy of other firms and products, including Micrografx, WinZip, Roxio, InterVideo, and Parallels, the Bellevue, Wash.-based company founded in 1999 and best known for its Parallels Desktop for Mac virtualization software. Corel said it has 90 million users worldwide.
There will be no layoffs as a result of the KKR deal, according to an internal email from Coral CEO Patrick Nichols that TechCrunch reported. We’ve reached out to Parallels to learn more about the acquisition and will update this story when we hear back.
Everyone at Corel remains excited about and committed towards the continued innovation and opportunities for growth from the Parallels products, technologies, and teams. Our offices around the world remain the same after today’s announcement.
Update: A Coral spokesperson provided this statement:
“Today’s news is very positive for Corel’s products and its global teams, including those who joined through the acquisition of Parallels in December. Everyone at Corel remains excited about and committed towards the continued innovation and opportunities for growth from the Parallels products, technologies, and teams. Our offices around the world remain the same after today’s announcement. As a private company, Corel doesn’t share information on company size.”
