1. QUARK TO ATTEMPT TAKEOVER OF ADOBE
5. RECIPROCALS REVISITED
6. HINTS
1. QUARK TO ATTEMPT TAKEOVER OF ADOBE
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Quark Inc. has announced its intention "to acquire a significant interest in Adobe at a premium to today's market price for Adobe common stock."
To overcome antitrust legislation Quark would intend selling off some Adobe's PageMaker and K2 products and possibly FrameMaker.
The Quark press release, issued in Denver on Tuesday August 25, states: The Quark proposal submitted last week also expressed Quark's intention to commit to divest certain of Adobe's products as a solution to any regulatory issues that may surface as a result of the business combination.
Fred Ebrahimi, Quark president and CEO, is quoted as saying: "We are committed to resolving any regulatory issues in order to complete this transaction as we believe the result will be highly advantageous to both our respective customers and the Adobe shareholders. Our intention is to enter into a friendly transaction with Adobe."
Quark's proposal (dated August 18) was summarily rejected by Adobe in a letter dated August 21, 1998. John Warnock and Charles Geschke stated in the one paragraph reply to the Quark approach: "We are not interested in pursuing discussions as we continue to focus on the exciting opportunities available to our company, stockholders, employees, and customers."
In reply, Fred Ebrahimi stated that they reserved the right to proceed with an offer direct to stockholders, and believed that Adobe was "obligated to enter into a dialogue with us." He added "...based upon discussions with our banks, we are also confident that the necessary financing for this transaction is available and can be easily arranged."
5. RECIPROCALS REVISITED
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We had a couple of comments on our "Reciprocals" item last issue, so here is a simple definition of what they are: two numbers which when multiplied together equal one. i.e. 0.8 x 1.25 = 1
There aren't very many of them. The one we quoted last time is another: .64 and 1.5625.
They are usually thought of as percentages: 80 and 125, or 64 and 156.25
They come in useful any time you need to enlarge something then reduce it to the original size, such as with the example we quoted of enlarging to print on a 600dpi laser printer, then reducing to create a better screen...print at 156.25%, then shoot at 64% on the process camera.
We also saw a reference to it being used in drawing street maps:
1) Draw the map with black lines of as many widths as necessary.
2) Copy to another layer and change to white
3) Scale the layer down by 80% (for example) ticking the box which says 'Scale line widths'
4) Scale it back up by a reciprocal amount (125% in this case) but this time don't scale the line widths.
Credit is due to "Bob" in the UK.
6. HINTS
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If you use Windows, a rough and ready timer on jobs can be created by putting a Notepad file on your desktop and typing .LOG (a dot then LOG) as the first line. When you open the file the time and date will be added automatically, and you can add any note and close the file.
When you finish that task, open and save the file again and the ending time will be recorded.
Gordon Woolf
The Worsley Press
Hastings, Australia.
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