For years, RealNetworks chief executive Rob Glaser has led his company through a process of constant reinvention, struggling to keep ahead of Microsoft's competitive steamroller.
On Tuesday, he and Bill Gates finally shared a stage, jointly announcing an end to RealNetworks' $1bn antitrust lawsuit against Microsoft, and an ambitious joint marketing and development program that will see substantial integration of their music products during the next 18 months.
The agreement, more than half a year in the making, marks a historic turning point for Glaser and RealNetworks. The two companies will continue to compete in some markets, providing rival multimedia software, mobile-phone infrastructures and even music stores.
But with Microsoft funnelling customers directly to RealNetworks' core Rhapsody music service and allowing the two companies' engineers to work together to improve compatibility of their software, much of the flash points will be gone. The settlement also frees both companies to focus on present-day threats such as Apple's continued dominance of the digital music market.
ZDNet UK sister site ZDNet UK sister site CNET News.com asked Glaser how the deal evolved and how it will change RealNetworks' competitive future.
Q: How did this deal come together?
A: It's a process that goes back to last August, or about a year
ago. When we came out with the Harmony technology, I reached out to
Bill [Gates] and said, "Hey, look, we think this is a very interesting
technology and overall direction, which is to have interoperability
among secure digital rights management systems." We had solved a lot of
the hard problems associated with how you move things in a trusted
domain from one format to another, and we did it with both the Apple
format, FairPlay, and Windows Media.
When we shared that we were doing this with Microsoft, their attitude was, "Hey, this is great, this is good for customers." That gave us a sense that there was a common view of the importance of interoperability that we could build on.
Did you work with Microsoft engineers at that point?
In the initial phase, when we were doing...
For more, click here...
Talkback
I'm guessing someone didn't read the fine print.
But that will show within a couple of years.
As things look now Harmony looks promising as an additional vehicle to get DRM pushed around and it seems Microsoft wants to invest in that.
Now why would a very rich company like Microsoft want to invest in pushing DRM? To make a small profit out of it perhaps? Or a much bigger profit based on proven internal business tactics like Windows and Office have shown?
Time will tell.