RealNetworks lays off a hundred employees

Around a hundred employees at RealNetworks are dealing with the news that their job is no longer available, and about 35 of those positions were in Seattle, Washington while the others were in Asia / Europe. According to company spokesman Bill Hankes, the firm made cuts "across the board to reduce redundancies built up as a result of six acquisitions made over the past two years," and he also added that these were the "first layoffs the company has made since those purchases." As it stands, around 1,700 employees are left, and no further job cuts are "planned."

[Via PaidContent]

[TEM @ Dec 11th 2007 9:40AM]

Hehe, buffering...

[mike @ Dec 11th 2007 9:41AM]

Wow RealNetworks has more than 100 employees.. I wonder what they do( not now but before they were fired)

[Flashpoint @ Dec 11th 2007 9:42AM]

You mean: "you wonder what they DID "

[Flashpoint @ Dec 11th 2007 9:42AM]

You mean: "you wonder what they DID "

[Luigi193 @ Dec 11th 2007 10:19AM]

You mean: "you wonder what they DID "

[mythicflux @ Dec 11th 2007 2:28PM]

Actually at present they run the Rhapsody Music Service. Interestingly enough Rhapsody is actually a decent product. Right now I'm listen to music on it and the software is reliable and never has caused an issue for me (unlike Real Player). It functions similar to iTunes but carries a much nicer monthly subscription service to allow you to listen to the music library before you buy anything. In fact if you go to Rhapsody.com you can try the service (25 free song play backs per month unless you subscribe then its unlimited) directly from your browser or install their player directly.

[bob sakamano @ Dec 11th 2007 9:44AM]

35 people? must be administration

[Jamus @ Dec 11th 2007 10:31AM]

Aaaah, Real.

Sad time for them to lay off employees, but that company is junk and will not be sad to see them finally go, but somehow they keep sticking around.

[Rob @ Dec 11th 2007 9:53AM]

I feel bad for people joining the unemployment ranks. But "Real Audio"? I never used that crappy and intrusive program. Wait, so are iTunes and Window Media Player. Oh man. Anyway, I never saw any appeal in using Real Audio for any of my content.

[Razor @ Dec 11th 2007 10:04AM]

I used the software in the late 90's and removed it because it kept crashing my machine. I stopped using it for about 2 years then gave the software a second chance sometime around '02 with the same results. To tell the truth I didn't know this company was still around.

[alex @ Dec 11th 2007 10:13AM]

Talk about bloated software. I'd cringed every time I had to use it and avoided it like the plague. I was so glad when I discovered "real audio alternative." Still I try to stay away from that format as much as possible.

[kevjohn @ Dec 11th 2007 10:14AM]

"To tell the truth I didn't know this company was still around."

I was about to say that. That was some very iffy software they had, and another uneccesary format. They did have some nice streaming radio though.

[eugene @ Dec 11th 2007 10:27AM]

Yeah, RA just blew. Their player came with all sorts of bloatware and the POS installer didn't seem to care if you optioned out of all the other RA crap it tried to install... it would just install it anyways. And to top it all off, the software was just slow and buggy.

[Dave95 @ Dec 11th 2007 10:37AM]

About the same experience with me: Installed it and it was very buggy, installed RealOne about a year later and same results bloatware together with spyware and advertisement software all rolled into one.

[Geir E @ Dec 11th 2007 11:37AM]

"I was about to say that. That was some very iffy software they had, and another uneccesary format. They did have some nice streaming radio though."

That is like saying that t-ford was another unnecessary car. real was the format for streaming audio back in the days, and then the format for low bandwidth video. but in the days of mp3 and youtube - I can't see the future in that part of the company. RealArcade is fun though.

But to say it mildly, Real dug its own grave and closed the coffin themself. it's just amazing they still got air left inside it.

[Stan Winstone @ Dec 11th 2007 10:34AM]

It's hard to believe Real is still around. Their media player is among the worst ever to *briefly* gain prominence during the history of the internet. If I worked there now I'd be desperately sending out my resume elsewhere. I suspect this is just the beginning of the layoffs.

[Catfish @ Dec 11th 2007 10:38AM]

I have hated Real since they used to be so invasive. To this day if it is Real only I do not watch it.

[dcny @ Dec 11th 2007 10:39AM]

Im just trying to figure out whos software is more bloated Real or Microsoft. I cant believe Real is still in business

[eugene @ Dec 11th 2007 12:28PM]

whatever man, bash MS all you want, but windows media player is a svelt beast compared to RA.

[Josh F @ Dec 11th 2007 10:57AM]

Yea, their product is absolute junk..just die already Real!

[Superevil @ Dec 11th 2007 11:00AM]

Finally they're goi..BUFFERING...ng under!

[Eric @ Dec 11th 2007 11:23AM]

Get rid of redundancies in the world. We have Quicktime and we have WMV. We don't need Real at all!

[nicholas @ Dec 11th 2007 11:36AM]

The other day, I was saying how impressed I am with the Flash video penetration rate. They came from nowhere to essentially dominate the landscape.

And, the 264 implementation is pretty damn nifty!

[richard knights @ Dec 11th 2007 12:10PM]

yep, The FLV video format has essentially turned streaming video into a 2 horse race.

funnily enough the BBC stills uses the real video format...and it stinks. stoopid BBC

[Brad @ Dec 11th 2007 11:50AM]

Please go away Real so I can stop uninstalling your bloatware from my users desktops

[netposer @ Dec 11th 2007 11:56AM]

Good riddance. In the mid-90's they were not bad but then they let their stupid fucking marketing types convince them to add bloat/spyware and that was the end of that shitty product.

[Jensen @ Dec 11th 2007 12:00PM]

I feel sorry for the people but not the company. That software is pure bloat-ware junk. I've been using "Real Alternative" for many years and was uninstalling that garbage way back in my desktop support days almost a decade ago.

[browner @ Dec 11th 2007 12:32PM]

contrary to the posts above i don't actually mind real video as a format. its the bloated, ad ridden windows player that's the problem. their linux player is actually quite a nice (all be it closed source) lightweight app that does what it needs to and nothing more. however, real offers nothing really new or advantageous over other streaming formats and so wouldnt be missed by me.

[Shan @ Dec 11th 2007 1:10PM]

Back in the day I guess they were okay.. especially since a lot of sites supported their streaming protocols. The thing however is that they never evolved, they tried to - but nothing substantial and as a result they have dug their own grave. Real alternative is still installed on my system because like a lot of you - Reals own software was complete crap. Saying that, I have yet to even find a site that used any REal streaming in the last few years! Its just on my system incase the odd site I need to listen to has a Real stream and nothing else. I am just surprised they still have over 1500 staff. What exactly are these people doing.. watching Youtube and going "we could have done that"? I wont cry when Real complete go.

Now how the hell is Iomega still in business? They must have the most overprice storage of any form factor ever. To stay in the game they just branch out to things like external dvd writers and hard drives and NAS devices when there are better companies that specialise in those particular areas and then they charge over the odds for the privilege *cough*zip discs*cough*. Zip discs? what a joke those were! They also need to disappear fast.

[John @ Dec 11th 2007 1:13PM]

I have the same feeling about Real as many of you above, but since i found Real download a part of the beta of their newest product it comes in real handy, sure there are the programs that let you download videos and flash files from the web but this is easier... Oh the beta didn't require registration, which I use to hate in teh old version.

[Leroy Vargas @ Dec 11th 2007 2:14PM]

Well, I once had RealPlayer until I upgraded to Windows Vista. Then even the latest RealPlayer installer back then refused to install on Windows Vista. So I discovered Real Alternative (well, not actually, in fact what I have is Media Player Classic plus the RealAlternative codecs as part of either K-Lite Mega Codec Pack or Vista Codec Pack (roughly the same shit, except the latter works only on Vista), both which also offer badly-needed x64 support (unlike the stupid Rhapsody which even though installed on x64 never recognized my Internet connection and thus I was always unable to complete installation/registration).
Anyway, RealPlayer has no Unicode support and thus doesn't recognize the track names of my whole Japanese music collection, even after fetching them from Gracenote (score one for iTunes which properly displays my CD's Kanji names! [although it uses ugly Chinese SimSun font to display Japanese, unlike Windows Media Player which by default uses proper Japanese font MS UI Gothic or even Meiryo]). So, I don't miss RealPlayer. (I do, however, miss RealArcade, but currently I got no time for games.) If they have improved Vista, x64, and Unicode support now, then I'll re-check them but not now.

[tiuk @ Dec 11th 2007 2:28PM]

Horrible company, I will always have a bad taste in my mouth from their actions in the late 90s.

[dave smith @ Dec 11th 2007 4:59PM]

I am sorry to hear that anyone has lost their livelyhood. That being said, I can only hope the rest of the company follows right along behind. Consider it karmic payback for the intrusive, buggy mess that has plagued PC's for years. Good riddance

[John Russell @ Dec 11th 2007 10:08PM]

I guess Real still has yet to get the memo that no one willingly uses Real Player anymore.

[moby @ Dec 12th 2007 1:00AM]

Nice of them to do it right around the holidays. Another reason to use WinAmp

[nayajhen @ Dec 17th 2007 10:43AM]

Winamp FTW!