BIT STREAMER COMPANY RealNetworks, CEO NET WORTH $2 billion AGE 37 ADDRESSwww.real.com BIO Rob Glaser is an expert at playing both sides. By releasing RealJukebox this
spring, he embraced MP3--but included support for secure music formats. It
quickly became the most popular music player on the Web, used by some 7
million people. And his streaming media players still have 85% of the market
despite head-on competition from Microsoft, the company Glaser left six years
ago as v.p. of multimedia systems.
Of his relationship with Bill Gates, he'll say only that it's "complex." Two years
ago, Glaser struck a deal with Microsoft to license Real's software. But that fell
apart as RealNetworks introduced a new format--a move right out of Gates'
playbook. There are signs of rapprochement, with Microsoft's WebTV devices
due to support RealAudio this fall. BEST LINE "The fact that there are a hundred people at Microsoft working on
streaming media is not the same thing as a Microsoft jihad."
FORWARD TILT AOL's purchase of Nullsoft, maker of the Winamp MP3 player, gives
Glaser a new competitor--one that doesn't play by Microsoft rules.
