But in this new version, the companies live happily ever after and lead the transition to the new platform. In the happy ending, the companies involved were privately held, without any of those nettlesome shareholders, analysts or institutional investors. This was a case of two owners having a common vision, and selling their respective boards on the upside of the agreement. Apex and VideoSoft are dominant tool providers for the Visual Studio development environment. Meanwhile, in the case of that other merger that fell apart, Corel Corp. continues to have cash woes, even after securing a bailout in late June.
Analysts expect third-quarter results to be just as weak.
With interest rates no longer a concern, at least through the summer, the focus has turned to earnings. Wall Street, which proclaimed that fundamentals would again be the measuring stick for stock success, took a decidedly dim view of underachievers, and companies such as BMC Software Inc., Computer Associates International Inc., Entrust Technologies Inc. and Informix Corp. paid a heavy price for missing their numbers. Informix announced expected earnings of between 1 cent and 3 cents per share, down from the 6 cents per share earned in the same quarter last year. CA fell more than 40 percent on news that its earnings will fall short of the 55 cent estimates, and BMC lost about 40 percent of its value when it announced earnings of 33 cents, lower than the 39 cents earned a year ago. E-mail your comments to Dave Rubinstein Click here for a complete listing of Money Watch Columns Click here to see a complete Column Archive.