In an expanded relationship of two household brands, RealNetworks Inc. put
its head together with portal NBC Internet Inc. to house NBCi/Real.com Guide in RealPlayer.
Financial terms were not disclosed.
Those who download RealPlayer beginning Thursday will be able to make the
guide their preferred home page, granting access to news, information and
multimedia content to users in North America.
The reworked home page is a co-branded
version of the NBCi site containing a RealNetworks module that features
links to the Real.com Guide, as well as daily news, music and games special
features.
RealNetworks will continue to implement NBCi Search technology as the
preferred search service on its Real.com Web site, as well as within the
RealPlayer, and RealJukebox. When end users enter a search, the default
configuration of Real.com, RealPlayer and RealJukebox uses NBCi Search and
will send the end user search results to a RealNetworks/NBCi custom Web
page.
Shelley Morrison, vice president of Media and Distribution Sales at
RealNetworks, said NBCi’s offerings as a portal served as the main catalysts
for renewing the deal.
“When you combine those attributes with the rich audio and video features of
Real.com, the new, co-branded home page offers everything a consumer could
want from a portal experience,” Morrison said.
Of the two firms in the deal, RealNetworks could use the help of a strong
bundling deal in the public’s eye. On Wednesday, the multimedia outfit
announced that fourth quarter earnings would be lower than expected,
triggering a 45 percent stock plunge Thursday morning.
Shares of RNWK were off $4.50 to $5.44 on the news that
earnings per share would come closer to 2 cents than the 4 cents Wall Street
analysts had been putting the company down for.
RNWK Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Rob Glaser said the drop was
precipitated by a slowdown in Internet-related spending.
