Earnings: Glaser To Analysts: MSFT Is Just One Of Our Partners

RealNetwork Chairman and CEO Rob Glaser had a lot to say during some of the speediest prepared remarks I’ve ever heard and the q&a from analysts that followed. You can listen for yourself — link below; in the meantime, some here’s what caught my attention:
— Real’s is a tough position when it comes to managing expectations for its new relationship with Microsoft. For one, it’s clear that the finanical part of the settlement has changed Real’s fortunes and possibly its destiny. But the other aspects of that settlement — integration with MSN, new services — aren’t yet as visible as the imapct of the money on Real’s bottom line. Not surprising, analysts want to know more. Glaser answered as best he could — not a lot of color — and finally urged listeners to remember that Microsoft is just one the compnay’s partnerships. “The Microsoft commercial piece is just one of a number of partners we have for our music and games,” he said. Microsoft gets the headlines because of the companies” past adversarial relationship. Whether it turns out to be one of the more productive partnerships is yet to be seen,

– Microsoft integration started with MSN Music and will move into other areas over the next few months. “The more technically advanced integration like the MSN search and MSN Messenger is scheduled to take place in the first half of the year, second quarter.”

– He sees a future for mobile music as handsets get more capable and have more storage capacity but isn’t too impressed with current marketplace. “That Apple Rokr thing was a total dud. That’s not state of the art.”

– Real is aware of its need to grow internationally, hence the two recent European acquisitions, Mr Goodliving and Zylom. Glaser says games translate across languages and countries but that 60-70 of hit music is local, making it more difficult.

– Games are becoming more important to Real, accounting for roughly 20 percent of the company’s revenue by the end of 2005.

– Music accounts for 30 percent of revenue. Rhapsody and premium radio have more than 1.4 million paid subs, double that of a year ago. Subscribers listend to an estimated 1.2 billion on-demand tracks in 2005, up from 750 million in 2004.

mp3logo1.gif You can download the webcast audio here (51 min., 14.7 MB).

Comments have been disabled for this post