RealNetworks shares drop 9-percent on weak forecast

“RealNetworks Inc. shares fell as much as 9% Wednesday, giving back about half its Tuesday gains, after the digital music provider issued a sales and profit forecast that lagged Wall Street expectations,” Scott Banerjee reports for MarketWatch. The stock (RNWK) fell as low as $7.76. It had gained 15% yesterday, in advance of the company’s fourth-quarter earnings report.”

“‘I think the last week or so will in hindsight end up looking like a coming-out party for our games business,’ said Chief Executive Rob Glaser in an interview with MarketWatch. Glaser added that the company remains highly committed to the digital music market, but called the video-game division its ‘star business’ for the quarter,” Banerjee reports. “RealNetworks said that its number of paying music subscribers totaled 1.4 million, double the number of subscribers from a year ago but only 100,000 higher than the previous third quarter. RealNetworks did not break out the number of subscribers to Rhapsody-To-Go, the subscription-music service that allows users to transfer songs to portable music players. Glaser said that Rhapsody-To-Go remains an ‘early adopter’ product, as the current portable audio player offering has yet to appeal to connect with a mass market. The subscription service is currently not compatible with the iPod music player from Apple Computer Inc. ‘When you can couple something with a compelling portable device, you open up a big broad market,’ said Glaser.”

Full article here.

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11 Comments

  1. Looks like Apple already beat them to the “something” that is “coupling with a compelling portable device” finish line – wonder what Glaser was thing there… ” width=”19″ height=”19″ alt=”smirk” style=”border:0;” /> He must have put on his “Capt. Obvious” cape for that stunning observation…

  2. I hope they enjoyed burning through that settlement money from Micro$oftopoly. The new strategic alliance with M$ and ‘Plays for Sure’ has really brought the customers streaming in. Maybe M$ should rename their campaign ‘PLAYED FOR SURE’.

    Magic word–music

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