RealNetworks’ Cuts: 80 after 80?

As officially stated, in order to reduce operating expenses, RealNetworks cut 80 employees yesterday on August 28th. If you ever remember, this seemed to happen when RealNetworks declared to cut 130 staff last February (which actually was not the first time). The company said it was good for changing the bad situation for RealNetworks.

The number of employees is down to about 1,300, (it was 1,700 2 years before). And the amount of being cut this year reaches to 7% of its total workforce. The lay-off related cost may also be around 2 million to 2.5 million dollars. Rob Glaser, who returned to the helm of the online media company in July, said in a companywide e-mail that the layoffs were the first step in the company's plan to reduce costs by $45 million.

If no new jobs provided, there may probably be another lay-off of 80 more. That would possibly happen in the next 7 months, although the company said it hoped to redeploy many of them when the current assignments come to the end.

Most well-known as the producer of media player software-RealPlayer and the operator of GameHouse casual games site, RealNetworks once lead the media field as a pioneer of streaming audio and video.

What do you think of Real's cuts? Or will Real cut another 80 in the next 7 months? How about the Android version RealPlayer that has already released eariler this month?