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Technology Stocks : RealNetworks (NASDAQ:RNWK)
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To: Scott Patrick Adams who wrote (206)1/29/1998 3:23:00 AM
From: Paul K  Read Replies (1) of 5843
 
I don't see where you say this SUN agreement will be against liscensing agreement with Microsoft, do you have an excerpt?

I think both MSFT/RNWK had some fear of being left out of the loop of the other's technologies so the origianl liscening deal had to happen.
There were to many little 'streamers' nipping at RNWK's heals to not do a deal with MSFT.

My Take on the latest round of news releases-- look at the new big picture:

Sure, R&D will be shared with Microsoft to feed the technology swap per the contract.

But, I think we are seeing the focus of the RNWK shift from just a software company to building content/advertiser relationships ---Something to feed the demand for the software, I believe MS will be looking to RNWK to coordinate this.

So, I think RNWK placing effort on content/sponsors/transaction-verifiers will be as important as the software design work.

RealNetworks has alliances with CyberCash, CyberSource, Open Market and VeriFone for pay per view processing.
Bill Gates absolutely salivates over transaction-based services -- anything he can integrate into MSN spells $$.

RealNetworks streaming media deal with SUN could help Bill get his foot in the door of UNIX to place his Universal Player on that OS.
MSFT seems to have this desire to sell software wherever money will change hands. (eg: the Mac)

I think the RNWK programming dept is now acting like a 'division' of Microsoft.
I sense a MSFT buy-out of RNWK down the road.....the relationship seems too tight not too.

Paul
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