Real investor pitch flops


The Seattle Times reports that RealNetworks CEO, Rob Glaser's pitch to investors yesterday at the Goldman Sachs Technology Symposium was poorly attended and, of those who did turn up, only a handful stuck around to ask questions at the conclusion.

By way of comparison, Apple CFO Peter Oppenheimer's session drew a standing-room-only crowd of 100 institutional investors. He told those gathered that Apple expects to experience 52-percent sales growth this year.

One attendee, David Pearl, managing director, Epoch Investment Partners summed up these disparate results well:

It's really a very simple story--Apple is transforming from a niche computer company into a consumer-electronics company, and the PC is also transforming into a consumer-electronics device, more like a home stereo where you know how to press a few buttons and it works. If Apple is really doing that and the products are really going that way, then it will be really successful--it will be basically Sony, that's what it will wind up looking like.

He also said that Apple likely won't share Real's fate, which by implication is largely sealed.

Editor's note: Real's long spiral to death, especially in the wake of Glaser's shenanigans (here and here) last year, is well earned.

Now, for the other shoe to drop--Napster dead and Gorog's head on a plate.

What's your take?