RealNetworks

RealNetworks is a software company, public and listed on NASDAQ, that pioneered streaming media software, the technology that delivers audio and video over the Internet to personal computers. It began in 1994 as Progressive Networks, formed by Robert Glaser, a former Microsoft vice-president, and his college friend David Halperin, first as a vehicle for socially conscious programming and then as a maker of delivery software once investors showed more interest in the technology. In 1995 the company broadcast the first live streaming event on the Internet, a baseball game between the Seattle Mariners and the New York Yankees, and released RealAudio. It took the name RealNetworks in 1997 and went public that autumn. Its products include RealPlayer and RealJukebox, and it earned revenue from subscribers, from site operators and from electronics makers. Microsoft took a 10 percent stake and licensed its technology in 1997, though the two later became rivals over Windows Media Player.