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Technology Stocks : RealNetworks (NASDAQ:RNWK) -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: DaYooper who wrote (2197)	4/2/1999 3:28:00 AM
From: B. A. Marlow	Read Replies (3) \| Respond to of 5843

Nice presentation, DaYooper. Let's dig into this "merger" thing. You raise good questions and it's timely to kick them around. Might agree with you that Cuban staged Rob G.'s public denial that RNWK's "in play." Pretty harmless, nobody taking this tempest seriously. No evidence Cuban's intention was to hype BCST toward merger talks, though. (YHOO's had a claim on BCST for over a year. Deal was YHOO's to lose.) Think Cuban's just stepping into Sinatra's shoes as "Chairman of the Board." Position filled. Read Rob G.'s comments. Make sense at face value, but we should peel off more layers of the onion. "Coop-tition" is a fact of life and addresses one of your concerns, Rory. Examples abound all over the place. Will MSFT kick BCST off of MSN now that it's owned by YHOO? Nah. Will ABC affiliates drop Oprah now that CBS is buying King World? Nah. BCST itself reminded listeners of coop-tition's validity in today's conference call. Now, why couldn't a Net consolidator or telco own RNWK? As part of a global empire, it would be more capable of enhancing and proliferating its technology and would be more agile. And it wouldn't really be competing with its customers so much as it would be extending their reach. RNWK's technology needs to be in place in every corner of the world. Ownership by a larger player would confer upon RNWK orders of magnitude more economic muscle and open many doors. For instance, in how many countries does RNWK now operate? How's it gonna open up China? What's it take to get RNWK into MP3 feet first? How's RNWK integrating e-commerce functions into the server and player products? Where are the RNWK-licensed, hand-held and wireless devices? Why did it take so long for the portal strategy to come together? Where's RNWK's acquisition strategy? And when will its new president be appointed? So it's not merely a question of dominating streaming media. It's a question of opening up primary demand in every nook and cranny and extending the franchise to every merchantable opportunity. You're right that Rob G. calls the shots. Sort of reminds us of Ted Turner, no? But he could call bigger shots, and could end up in the driver's seat of a much more complex enterprise. Without a merger, don't see how RNWK can grow as fast as the Net needs it to. There's more, of course, but this should get us rolling. Comments? BAM