Real's casual games business to go independent
Gaming division to separate from RealNetworks with shares of the new company being apportioned to previous shareholders
RealNetworks has announced plans to separate its casual games business and establish it as an independent company.
The shares for the newly created games company will be distributed among pre-existing shareholders, with a possibility of 20 per cent being offered up for sale.
"RealNetworks was a pioneer and has been a leader in the casual games industry since we introduced RealArcade in 2001," said Rob Glaser, chairman and CEO of RealNetworks.
"We believe that spinning off our casual games business will give it the best opportunity to continue to flourish and lead."
The company recently revealed its Q1 results, showing a 33 per cent increase in Games revenue to USD 31.8 million and a 14 per cent growth in overall revenue to USD 147.6 million.
However, following the payment of USD 61 million due to a Real's antitrust settlement and commercial agreements with Microsoft, the total net income for Q1 was down this year to USD 2.4 million from USD 40 million in the previous year's first quarter.