Realnetworks Inc

RealNetworks Inc. and Snap.com today will announce a distribution and content partnership that will pair the Internet's largest streaming audio and video company with the first Web portal focusing on people with high-speed Internet connections. RealNetworks' users searching for streaming media will be sent to a co-branded site on Snap.com, a venture between NBC and CNet Inc. Also, RealNetworks' directory listings and other content will be integrated into Snap.com's site.

Rob Glaser, the pull-no-punches founder of RealNetworks Inc., on Wednesday announced his resignation as chief executive. The Seattle pioneer of online media said it appointed general counsel Robert Kimball as interim CEO while its board seeks a permanent replacement. RealNetworks operates Rhapsody, an online music service that it jointly owns with Viacom Inc.'s MTV Networks, as well as RealArcade, a site for casual games. The company developed one of the first Internet music players, RealAudio, in 1995.

RealNetworks Inc., owner of the Rhapsody online music service, said second-quarter profit declined 97% from last year, when an antitrust settlement with Microsoft Corp. boosted results. Its third-quarter profit forecast missed estimates. Net income fell to $1.33 million, or 1 cent a share, from $38.9 million, or 22 cents, a year earlier, the Seattle-based company said. Analysts anticipated that RealNetworks would break even, according to estimates compiled by Bloomberg.

The six big motion picture studios Tuesday won a major legal victory against DVD copying. U.S. District Judge Marilyn Patel issued a preliminary injunction blocking the sale of RealDVD, a controversial software application that allows consumers to copy DVDs to a computer's hard drive. The standard anti-piracy software on DVDs blocks consumers from taking the movie file off the disc. The studios filed suit in September in District Court in San Francisco when the RealDVD software went on sale, alleging that it illegally violated their right to restrict the use of their movies in digital form.

RealNetworks Inc., owner of the Rhapsody online music service, reported an unexpected profit after its expansion into mobile phone products spurred sales. Net income dropped 90% to $4.34 million, or 3 cents a share, from $42.2 million, or 24 cents, a year earlier, when an antitrust settlement with Microsoft Corp. boosted results. Analysts in a Bloomberg survey had expected a 1-cent loss. Sales rose 55% to $145.1 million, the Seattle-based company said.

RealNetworks Inc., a Seattle-based maker of Internet-based media-playing software, introduced a website focused on movies and entertainment that will offer news coverage of the Sundance Film Festival. Film.com's reporters will cover the festival, which started Thursday in Park City, Utah, and will post video and commentary as well as information about the movies and celebrities at the event, RealNetworks said. The website was created in 1994 by Seattle film critic Lucy Mohl.

RealNetworks Inc. today will up the stakes in the competitive digital media market with the release of a new suite of software that combines three of its popular streaming-media technologies into one system. The new product, called Real Entertainment Center, integrates its RealPlayer 8, RealJukebox 2 and RealDownload 4 software into one downloadable package that aims to simplify the experience of watching video or listening to music over the Internet.

RealNetworks Inc., maker of popular software for playing Internet audio and video files, said Wednesday that it will deliver music and other programming directly to users' computers with two new services. One service sends up to eight new songs a week to users of the company's RealJukebox program for playing compact discs and music downloaded from the Web. Users must sign up for the service and can select the genres of music they'd like to receive.

Digital media company RealNetworks Inc. posted lower quarterly profit Wednesday on sharply reduced proceeds from a legal settlement with Microsoft Corp. and forecast full-year results below expectations. Fourth-quarter net income was $39.3 million, or 22 cents a share, compared with $295.6 million, or $1.61, a year earlier.

Sony Corp. plans to include streaming audio and video technology from RealNetworks Inc. in hard disk drives for the PlayStation 2, enabling upgraded game consoles to offer subscription music services, movie rentals and personalized games. The deal, expected to be announced today, buttresses Sony's efforts to make the PS2 the hub of home entertainment. It also puts a significant Microsoft Corp.

Hollywood calls it "rent, rip and return" and contends that it's one of the biggest technological threats to the movie industry's annual $20-billion DVD market -- software that allows users to copy a film without paying for it. On Friday, industry lawyers urged a federal judge to bar RealNetworks Inc. from selling software that allows consumers to copy their DVDs to computer hard drives, arguing that the Seattle company's product is an illegal piracy tool.

A legal fight erupted Tuesday over the ability of consumers to copy DVDs onto their computers, setting the stage for a new battle between Hollywood and a purveyor of technology that could alter how consumers watch movies at home. The six major Hollywood movie studios sued Seattle-based RealNetworks, asking a federal court in Los Angeles to bar the digital media company from distributing new software that they say lets consumers copy movies illegally.

RealNetworks Inc., owner of the Rhapsody online music service, plans to spin off its game unit and said it might hold an initial public offering for part of the business. The company may offer as much as 20% of the shares of the new game company before spinning off the rest, Seattle-based RealNetworks said. Revenue from games rose 26% to $108.5 million last year. RealNetworks said first-quarter profit dropped 94% from a year earlier, when it received payments from an antitrust settlement with Microsoft Corp.

As competitors challenge Apple Inc. in digital music, the biggest beneficiary may be Apple. Wal-Mart Stores Inc. and RealNetworks Inc. on Tuesday strengthened their digital music offerings to better compete with Apple's iTunes store. Wal-Mart began selling songs without anti-piracy locks for 94 cents apiece, and RealNetworks' Rhapsody subscription service announced new partners that would promote it on MTV and distribute it on Verizon cellular phones.

Digital media company RealNetworks Inc. posted lower quarterly profit Wednesday on sharply reduced proceeds from a legal settlement with Microsoft Corp. and forecast full-year results below expectations. Fourth-quarter net income was $39.3 million, or 22 cents a share, compared with $295.6 million, or $1.61, a year earlier.

RealNetworks Inc., a Seattle-based maker of Internet-based media-playing software, introduced a website focused on movies and entertainment that will offer news coverage of the Sundance Film Festival. Film.com's reporters will cover the festival, which started Thursday in Park City, Utah, and will post video and commentary as well as information about the movies and celebrities at the event, RealNetworks said. The website was created in 1994 by Seattle film critic Lucy Mohl.

Three major record companies--EMI, BMG and Warner Music Group--are close to a deal with Seattle-based RealNetworks Inc. that would make their music available through the Internet on a subscription basis, sources said Sunday. The deal, if it's struck, would be the first time multiple record labels have granted a third party the rights to their catalogs for on-demand services. To date, only one such deal has been announced, involving EMI and a small online music company in Dallas.