Speaking of pathetic APPL
Indeed. I picked the following off the AAPL thread. More evidence of what a sick joke that Monti and the EU's turned out to be. Pathetic...
siliconinvestor.com
RealNetworks courts Apple
By CBS MarketWatch
1:49 AM ET April 15, 2004
SAN FRANCISCO (CBS.MW) -- RealNetworks has suggested to Apple, its Internet music rival, the companies form a common front against Microsoft in the digital music business, according to a published report.
The offer to create a "tactical alliance" was made on April 9 by Rob Glaser, chief executive of RealNetworks (RNWK: news, chart, profile) in an e-mail message to Steven Job, Apple's(AAPL: news, chart, profile) chairman, the New York Times reported in Thursday's online edition.
Glaser asked Jobs to consider licensing Apple's Fairplay digital rights management system to RealNetworks to permit customers of the RealNetworks music service to play their digital music collections on iPod players, the Times said. In exchange, RealNetworks would make the iPod its primary device for the RealNetworks store and for the RealPlayer software, according to the Times.
But without an Apple alliance, Glaser strongly hinted in the e-mail message he might be forced to form a partnership with Microsoft (MSFT: news, chart, profile) to pursue "very interesting opportunities" because support for Microsoft's media-playing software seems to be growing, the Times said. A pact with Microsoft would be a startling reversal for RealNetworks, whose complaints about Microsoft's business tactics form a major part of the European Commission's antitrust case against the company, the Times noted... |
