RealNetworks rose 10% Thursday after the company surprised Wall Street with its first quarterly profit in three years.
The online media company rode strong growth in its Rhapsody digital music service and games business to a 27% sales gain in the quarter. The company eked out an $814,000 profit, a number that would have been even better had the company not spent $3.5 million in its ongoing legal battle with Microsoft . Analysts were expecting a small loss for the quarter.
Analysts were encouraged by the results, but with growing competition from the likes of Apple , Yahoo
and Napster
, RealNetworks has its work cut out for it in a market the company helped pioneer.
Stocks declined Thursday after Standard & Poors downgraded the debt of GM and Ford
to junk status.
The Nasdaq slipped half a point to 1961, the S&P 500 lost 3 to 1172, and the Dow fell 44 to 10,340. Volume declined to 2.04 billion shares on the NYSE, and 1.8 billion on the Nasdaq. Advancers led 17-15 on the NYSE, and 15-14 on the Nasdaq. Upside volume was 45% on the NYSE, and 53% on the Nasdaq. New highs-new lows were 82-20 on the NYSE, and 57-79 on the Nasdaq.
Symantec lost 2% despite better than expected results and guidance, and QLogic
tumbled 12% on a warning.
IBM lost 2% on a massive restructuring.
NetScout jumped on its results, while ValueClick
and iVillage
fell on their quarterly report card.
Findwhat.com fell on continuing financial troubles.
InterVideo soared on a deal with Google
.