RealNetworks Shrinks! Shedding Music, Games Will Halve Revenue.
RealNetworks (RNWK) acting CEO Robert Kimball said the decision to spin-off its Rhapsody music business reflects a move to focus the company–and to figure out what the focus of the company ought to be. He says both the music and games businesses are non-core to its decision to focus on technology creation, and not on reselling content created elsewhere. In effect, Real wants to be a platform provider to the carrier market, while hanging on the old RealPlayer business. Everything else is going to get the axe.
Kimball made the remark at the Goldman Sachs Technology and Internet Conference in San Francisco Tuesday afternoon.
Kimball says the Rhapsody spin should be done by the end of the quarter. When that’s done, they will decide how to separate the company’s casual games business; he says Real will take the “value maximizing path.”
