Ray Noorda saw Microsoft for what it was: something he wanted to be. Novell's acquisition of Word Perfect, which Noorda masterminded, was a major factor in its subsequent irrelevance. Noorda tried to package Paradox, Quattro Pro and Word Perfect into an office suite to take on Microsoft Office and Lotus. He failed. Ultimately, Noorda "retired", the desktop apps were sold to Corel, and Novell returned to its core competency: networking.