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To: D.B. Cooper who wrote (7387)	5/1/2002 1:38:22 AM
From: D.B. Cooper	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 13815

Tuesday April 30, 6:40 pm Eastern Time Reuters Business Sony takes 1 percent stake in RealNetworks (Updates with details, background, CEO comment, adds byline) By Scott Hillis SEATTLE, April 30 (Reuters) - RealNetworks Inc. (NasdaqNM:RNWK - news) said on Tuesday it has signed a "strategic alliance" with Japanese electronics and entertainment giant Sony Corp. (6758.T), which is also taking a 1 percent stake in the digital media software and services company. ADVERTISEMENT The alliance builds on previous deals between the two companies, such as one in which Sony will support RealNetworks' digital video technology in the PlayStation 2 video game console that Sony is positioning as a digital entertainment hub. The agreement calls on the companies to collaborate in some research and development and work together on digital media distribution and software for a wide range of devices built by Sony, RealNetworks Chief Executive Rob Glaser told Reuters. "It became clear that we were working on several areas in which there was a lot of common perspective on where digital distribution was going," Glaser said. Exact financial terms of the equity deal were not immediately available, but Seattle-based Real has about 160 million shares outstanding, implying the deal could be worth more than $11 million based on Tuesday's closing price of $7.03. The backing from Sony gives Real a heavyweight partner as it competes against deep-pocketed rivals like software giant Microsoft Corp. (NasdaqNM:MSFT - news) in the digital media arena. "We did that really for symbolic reasons, on the view that Sony is a great partner," Glaser said of the equity stake. "We're not that big of a company, we're 900 people, so when I get in front of people and say, hey, Sony's our partner, it sends a message." COLLABORATION ROADMAP Shares in Real rose nearly 3 percent, to $7.23, in after-hours trading following the news. Real is best known for its RealOne software for playing video and audio broadcast, or "streamed," over the Internet. The program can also record songs from a CD and store them on a PC hard-drive, then later transfer them to a portable music player. The Sony deal would help improve how RealOne works with Sony's digital music devices. Real would also include more support in RealOne for Sony's music technologies, such as its ATRAC format for encoding songs. biz.yahoo.com