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To: MeDroogies who wrote (25720)	7/27/1999 4:45:00 PM
From: Jonathan Bird	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 213186

If I'm not mistaken, they have signed an agreement for this. So, it isn't undercutting - unless Real is allowing it. The deal was made at a time when Real was in need of MS support. Real received license fees, an investment by MS, and a wider installed base of people who could view content streamed from Real servers. MS got access to the family jewels. In retrospect it was a classic deal with the devil scenario. It was not anticipated(by Real) that MS would just start giving away the product that was Real's main source of revenue(server software). Obviously, this undermined the very basis for Real's business model. So Real almost immediately released a new version of their technology that was incompatible with the old and then choose not to renew the agreement with MS. MS then promptly dumped their RNWK investment. Undercutting is probably too mild a term. Jon Bird