Corel Corporation Responds to Media Reports On Insider Trading Activity.

OTTAWA--(BUSINESS WIRE)--March 26, 1999--Corel Corporation (NASDAQ:COSFF) (TSE:COS.) It is generally not Corel's policy to take issue with particular media coverage of its business affairs. However, in the Company's view, certain recent reports respecting insider trading filings made by Corel executives have failed to present sufficient facts to permit a fair interpretation.

The transactions in question occurred only during an open trading window as prescribed in the Company's formal policies, which apply to all Corel employees. These policies clearly describe the windows during which trading is allowed and blackout periods when trading is prohibited. Further, these rules set out the basis for restrictions on trading even during open windows when individuals may possess information not publicly available at the time. The Company believes these rules have been strictly observed in all cases. The most recent open window was quite narrow due to it following the Company's fiscal year end. The window opened on January 25, 1999 and closed on February 12, 1999. During this period, certain members of Corel's Executive Leadership Team, or ELT, exercised options and sold shares. None of the president and chief executive officer, Dr. Michael Cowpland, executive vice president of finance and chief financial officer, Michael O'Reilly, or the executive vice president of sales at the time, Don Sylvester, exercised any options or sold shares. No members of the Board of Directors exercised options or sold shares during this period. ELT members who sold shares continued to maintain substantial option positions as set out in the included chart.

It should be noted that the price of Corel stock on the day that the open window period closed, at which time the Corel executives listed continued to hold almost 1.9 million options, was $7.55. The company firmly believes that the sales which did occur and which have been duly reported are moderate and reasonable transactions in the circumstances. The Company is concerned with the quality of reporting of these transactions based on the use of selected details. Corel hopes that full disclosure of all of the facts surrounding this matter will serve to clarify the situation.

                      Options     Illustrative  Actual number
                      Owned       value         of options
                      1999-01-25  of options    realized
                                  at $7.50

Dr. Michael Cowpland  1,308,794   $ 1,237,500
Michael O'Reilly        131,800       578,108
Don Sylvester           131,800       179,108
Derek Burney            109,023       396,100      95,800
Carey Stanton           116,215       328,900      31,200
Jim Orban                31,652       126,400       8,800
Kerry Williams          105,300       140,400      31,200
Tony O'Dowd              70,663       215,800      31,200
Sandra Gibson            26,943        70,200      15,600
Kim Dixon                64,287       140,400      31,200

Totals                2,096,477   $ 3,412,916     245,000


                      Actual      Options       Actual
                      value of    owned         value of
                      options     1999-02-12    options
                      realized                  1999-02-12

Dr. Michael Cowpland              1,308,794     $ 1,251,250
Michael O'Reilly                    131,800         584,698
Don Sylvester                       131,800         184,698
Derek Burney          $ 358,884      13,223
Carey Stanton           124,200      85,015         191,000
Jim Orban                36,960      22,852          87,800
Kerry Williams          132,630      74,100
Tony O'Dowd             115,440      39,463          76,400
Sandra Gibson            63,180      11,343
Kim Dixon               102,960      33,087

Totals                $ 934,254   1,851,477     $ 2,375,846

Corel Corporation

Corel Corporation is an internationally recognized developer of award-winning graphics and business productivity applications. Development of market-leading products such as the CorelDRAW(r) line of graphics applications and the Corel(r) WordPerfect(r) Suite of business tools is continually evolving to meet the demands of the corporate, retail and academic markets. Committed to performance, compatibility, value and open standards, Corel develops products for the Windows(r), Macintosh(r), UNIX(r), Linux(r) and Java(tm) platforms. Corel's common stock trades on The NASDAQ Stock Market(sm) under the symbol COSFF and on the Toronto Stock Exchange under the symbol COS. For more information visit Corel's Web site at www.corel.com. Corel, WordPerfect, CorelDRAW and the Go Further logo are trademarks or registered trademarks of Corel Corporation or Corel Corporation Limited. Linux is a registered trademark of Linus Torvalds. UNIX is a registered trademark of The Open Group. All other product and company names are trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective companies.