Archives

Date

RealNetworks Narrows Quarterly Loss on Record Revenues

Authored by Mark Hefflinger on January 27, 2005 - 6:21am.
Seattle -- Media delivery technology provider RealNetworks on Thursday announced that it narrowed its loss to $1 million, or $0.01 per share for the fourth quarter of 2004, on record revenue of $72.5 million -- up 34% from the fourth quarter of 2003. The company said it would have seen a profit had it not incurred $3 million in legal fees from its ongoing antitrust lawsuit against rival Microsoft. RealNetworks also said its expects to spend about $15 million on the suit during 2005, when it forecasts revenue will grow 16%-20% to between $310 and $320 million, up from the $266.7 million reported for 2004. "We are pleased to report another quarter of record revenue, driven by rapid growth in our Consumer Business, particularly games and music," said RealNetworks CEO Rob Glaser. The company said it now counts more than 700,000 subscribers to its music subscription services, up from the 350,000 reported at the end of 2003. RealNetworks' digital music services provided $21.6 million in revenue for the fourth quarter, while its revenue for its online games unit totaled $10.1 million.
tags: RealNetworks | Quarterly Loss | Record Revenues |

Electronic Arts Lays Off 60 Game Developers at Los Angeles Studio

Authored by Mark Hefflinger on January 27, 2005 - 6:19am.
Los Angeles -- Video game publisher Electronic Arts has laid off 60 game developers from its Los Angeles studio as part of a restructuring, a company spokeswoman told Reuters on Thursday. The company said that the cuts come as it prepares to begin developing games for the next generation of video game consoles. Redwood City, Calif.-based Electronic Arts will not take any charges to account for severance pay or other associated fees for the layoffs, which will reduce the number of developers at EA's Los Angeles facilities to 320.
tags: Electronic Arts | 60 Game Developers | Los Angeles Studio |

Norway's Supreme Court Outlaws Linking to Unauthorized MP3 Files

Authored by Mark Hefflinger on January 27, 2005 - 6:16am.
Oslo, Norway -- The Supreme Court of Norway on Thursday upheld the conviction of a student who published a website that featured links to other sites where users could download unauthorized MP3 music files, the Associated Press reported. The student created his Napster.no site (not related to Napster) in 2001 as part of a school project, linking to 170 free music files. Norwegian record label trade group Tono and the Norway units of Sony Music, Universal Music and others then sued for copyright infringement. A lower court found for the music industry, while an appeals court cleared the student; the high court's reversal will result in the student paying $15,900 in compensation to the labels. "The supreme court decided the case based on responsibility for abetting (an illegal act)," the court said in its ruling. While no U.S. court ruling has specifically outlawed simply publishing links to third-party sites that host MP3 files for download, a high-profile case found that a man who published links to a code that can crack the anti-piracy technology on DVDs aided copyright infringement and banned such links. The Hollywood studios also recently launched a legal campaign against European operators of servers for file-sharing services like BitTorrent and eDonkey, which provide links to available files on the peer-to-peer networks.
tags: Norway's Supreme Court | Unauthorized MP3 Files | Outlaws |

Amazon's A9.com Launches Digital Yellow Pages With Storefront Pictures

Authored by Mark Hefflinger on January 27, 2005 - 6:14am.
Seattle -- Online retail giant Amazon.com announced on Thursday that its A9.com shopping search engine has launched A9.com Yellow Pages, a feature that adds digital pictures of storefronts of businesses and the ability to call the shops directly over the Internet. The project launched with a library of photos of about 20 million businesses in 10 cities, including New York, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Seattle and Atlanta. The service also offers a "Block View," where users can pan left and right to view adjacent businesses on the street. "You can virtually walk down the street in any direction," A9 Chief Udi Manber told CNET News.com. "This is a way to see the yellow pages, not just read them." Amazon licensed business listings from Axciom for the project, and is using technology from eStara that allows users to make Internet-based phone calls to listed businesses.
tags: Launches | Amazon's A9.com | Digital Yellow Pages | Storefront Pictures |

Online Poker Firm PartyGaming Considering U.K. Flotation

Authored by Mark Hefflinger on January 27, 2005 - 6:12am.
London -- According to the Financial Times, U.K.-based PartyGaming, currently the largest online poker company in the world, is considering an initial public offering (IPO) on the London stock exchange. Analysts estimate that the listing would generate as much as $9.5 billion, which would make it the largest listing in London in more than three years. "PartyGaming has a leading market position, proven technology and is generating significant levels of profit and operating cash flow," said CEO Richard Segal. Segal added that his company had hired investment banks Dresdner Kleinwort Wasserstein and Investec to review its options, with an IPO being "one of the options" under consideration. PartyGaming runs three main brands (PartyPoker, StarluckCasino and PartyBingo) that currently account for more than half the global online poker market.
tags: Online Poker | PartyGaming | U.K. Flotation |

EU Launches Program to Promote Digital Content Market

Authored by Mark Hefflinger on January 27, 2005 - 6:10am.
Brussels -- The European Parliament has approved a new program to encourage the development of multi-lingual content for innovative, online services across Europe. Dubbed eContentplus, the program will have a budget of more than $194 million between 2005 and 2008. The Parliament said the program would tackle fragmentation in the European digital content market and improve the accessibility and usability of geographical information, cultural content and educational material. "The Internet offers a unique opportunity for content companies to outgrow their so far mostly national markets," said EU information society and media commissioner Vivian Reding. "The eContentplus program will facilitate the production and distribution of online European content, thus stimulating innovation and creativity."
tags: Launches | EU | Digital Content Market |