Corel separating into two new companies and other tech news from around Ottawa
David Sali, OBJ
March 2, 2026
The company behind one of the most iconic brands in Ottawa tech history is splitting up. Corel Corp. announced last week it has agreed to separate into two independent companies. As part of the agreement, San Francisco-based private equity firm Vector Capital Management, which previously owned Corel, is acquiring Corel’s portfolio of creativity and productivity software and related brands. That company will operate under the Corel name, offering products such as CorelDRAW, MindManager and WindZip.
Meanwhile, Corel’s Parallels suite of products, which includes software that allows Mac users to run Windows applications on their devices, will be spun off into a separate business called Parallels. The company will continue to be owned by global investment firm KKR, which acquired Corel from Vector Capital for a reported $1 billion in 2019. Financial terms of the transaction, which is expected to close in May, were not disclosed. Under the deal, current Corel CEO Christa Quarles will serve as chief executive of Parallels and Prasannaa Ganesan, former chief operating officer of Corel, will become Corel’s CEO. Corel said splitting into two separate organizations will allow the businesses to better serve their specific markets and customer bases. “Becoming an independent company will allow Parallels to sharpen our focus while continuing to deliver even greater value to our customers,” Quarles said in a news release. “We are excited to reunite with the Corel team and look forward to leveraging our deep familiarity with Corel’s business to drive growth through strategic M&A, product innovation and operational enhancement,” Vector Capital founding partner Alex Slusky said in a release. “We are pleased to welcome Prasannaa back to the helm and are eager to work with him and Corel leadership to focus on disciplined execution and long-term value creation opportunities.” Founded in 1985 by flamboyant entrepreneur Michael Cowpland, Corel was among the city’s leading software enterprises over the next two decades, with a name that adorned Ottawa’s NHL arena and its prominent Carling Avenue office building. The firm made headlines for buying WordPerfect in 1996 in an ill-fated bid to take on Microsoft. Over the years, Corel went public twice before being taken private again, both times in acquisitions by Vector Capital. Corel’s products, such as CorelDRAW and WinZip, fall largely into the creativity and business utilities space. But over the years the company expanded its offerings through a series of acquisitions, including the purchase of Seattle-based Parallels in 2018. In 2022, the company rebranded to Alludo in a move it said was meant to reflect its evolution into a more broad-based software provider. But the firm recently abandoned the Alludo moniker and reverted to its familiar Corel branding.
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https://obj.ca/corel-separating-into-two-new-companies/
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