Corel's Cowpland
embattled, but upbeat...
OTTAWA,
Canada -- A lavish lifestyle and his wife's infamous
body-baring fashions have secured a spot of honor in the
tabloids for Corel Corp. CEO Michael Cowpland. But the man now
facing four charges of insider trading is marked more by
shyness than showiness.
The ever-optimistic entrepreneur, who has
taken his Ottawa-based software firm on a roller-coaster ride
of shifting fortunes since founding it in 1985, is confronting
one of his most daunting challenges.
Late Thursday, Canada's most powerful market
regulator charged Cowpland with three counts of violating
securities law and laid another charge against his personal
holding company. If guilty, he faces up to two years in jail,
a fine of up to C$1 million, and also possible payment of
three times any profit made.
"Obviously it's upsetting,"
Cowpland told Reuters Friday. "And that's why I've been
putting a lot of energy into proving my side is right in this
situation. But, nevertheless, it's not distracting because I'm
convinced there's nothing been done that's wrong -- and that
will show up."
Ottawa stakeout
Considered a consummate showman, Cowpland
has taken an uncharacteristically low profile in the wake of
the charges. Friday morning, media had even staked out his
mansion, which is clad in gold glass and comes complete with
an underground parking lot and car wash. Some consider the
home more in keeping with Las Vegas than its well-heeled
Ottawa neighborhood, where it draws a stream of curious
onlookers.
Cowpland said the market has demonstrated
the case will not hurt the company. Corel (Nasda:COSFF),
known for its graphics Draw program and WordPerfect software,
dropped 75 Canadian cents on the Toronto Stock Exchange Friday
to end at C$8.70 while it dipped 5/8 on the Nasdaq to close at
$5-7/8.
The charges relate to Cowpland's 1997 sale
of 2.4 million shares for C$20.4 million dollars just one
month before the company released an unexpected $32-million
third-quarter loss. The stock, sold between Aug. 11 and Aug.
14 when it was trading between C$8.20 and C$8.80, dropped by
40 percent to a low of C$5.35 in September after the results
were released.
The news made major headlines, underscoring
the undeniable fascination with one of Canada's premier
high-tech pioneers.
A shy man -- almost
"What motivates entrepreneurs is partly
ego -- a healthy dose of ego," said a well-connected
Ottawa public relations executive, who asked not to be named.
"He is shy and yet at the same time he really, really
wants his name stamped everywhere."
Those who know Cowpland agree he is defined
by contradictions.
"Michael Cowpland is a character of
Shakespearean proportions in that his tragic flaw is also his
greatest strength -- the fact that he has the capability of
... thinking outside of the box, of looking at things in a way
which other people don't. That is genius, but it is also
occasionally folly,'' said Duncan Stewart, fund manager at
Tera Capital Corp. in Toronto.
Renowned for pinning sunny projections on a
stream of new technologies and presenting nothing but positive
corporate outlooks, Cowpland has scored success.
Smitten with Linux
Alongside his firm's graphics and word
processing software, the company is now riding a wave of
enthusiasm for its upcoming operating system for Linux, an
open source operating system that is seen as a competitor to
Microsoft Corp.'s (Nasdaq:MSFT)
Windows NT.
"He brings a vision to the company that
I don't think I see in anybody else there right now,"
said Jean W. Orr, analyst at Nutmeg Securities Ltd. in
Westport, Conn. "He's a risk taker, yes. A gambler,
no."
Still, Cowpland's endless enthusiasm has
been proven wrong sufficient times for analysts who follow the
firm to take such predictions with large grains of salt.
Still, enthusiasm is the very trait that
garners support from employees, who drop in unannounced to
talk with the boss in his small cubicle office.
Despite his public push, Cowpland has an
undercurrent of shyness, often accompanied by fidgeting and
fussing as he carries on conversations.
One employee who stopped by to say goodbye
after several years with Corel got a curt hand shake and was
thanked for their help. "I could have been giving him a
stamp," said the employee, who asked not to be named.
"He wouldn't make eye contact."
His bravado, the employee said, has less to
do with personal glory than corporate promotion.
"His ambition has created a whole other
industry in this town," said the public relations
executive. "He wants the common man to think, 'There goes
Michael Cowpland.'"
The Marlen factor
Those who know Cowpland suggest his
flamboyant persona gathered steam with his 1992 marriage of
Marlen Therrien.
In staid Ottawa, the Cowplands enjoy
celebrity status, leaving a trail of whispers and turned heads
when they turn up in public. The big draw is Corel's design
gala, a forum for wife Marlen's outrageous fashion alongside
the launch of a new version of Draw graphics software.
Known for her dyed blonde locks and
revealing outfits, her most recent splash was a $1 million
(Canadian) lambskin outfit, complete with a gold breastplate
topped by a diamond-studded nipple.
Corel
shares rocket after MS bailout - By Mary
Jo Foley, ZDNN October 2, 2000 4:30 PM PT,
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