RealNetworks Q2 loss narrowed as revenue rose on increased sales to consumers, but added that litigation costs in its antitrust case against Microsoft continued to weigh on its bottom line.
Its net loss was $4.6 million, compared with a loss of $9.6 million a year earlier. Excluding the cost of the lawsuit against Microsoft, the net loss for the second quarter was $1.9 million.
The quarter marked RealNetworks’ ninth consecutive quarter of net losses, although revenue rose for the eighth straight quarter to $65.5 million, up 32 percent from $49.6 million a year earlier.
Growth in revenues were attributed to sales of music and games related software and services. Subscribers for RealNetworks’s online music services, including its popular Rhapsody service, grew to 550,000 from 450,000 in the previous quarter.
The company is still aiming to achieve profitability, excluding legal expenses, by the end of 2004.
Segment info: Revenue from music grew 27% to $15.6 million from $12.3 million in the first quarter of 2004. Similarly, games revenue grew 24% to $8.4 million from $6.8 million in the first quarter of 2004.
Real now has over 1.4 million paying subscribers, up from 1.3 million at the end of the first quarter of 2004. Subscription revenue grew 10% sequentially from $31.6 million to $34.8 million.
The company also announced some new executive appointments:
– Former XM Radio executive Robert Acker was named VP of RealPlayer and Aref Matin, formerly an executive at Juniper Networks and Siemens, joins RealNetworks in a newly created position, VP of Carrier and System Software.
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