Friday, June 28, 2002
Ever-unfolding story of RealNames.
Keith Teare, CEO: "Every brand on the planet is being switched off and replaced with MSN Search results in the name of a better user experience. The monopoly that is the browser is now exclusively tied to MSN content for every natural language input to the browser address bar. And that was more than 500 million inputs between January and March 2002 and growing by 15% a month."
Anonymous: How to spend $130 million and blithely deny any responsibility for your actions. "Let there be no mistake about it, RealNames' failure to persuade Microsoft to sign a new agreement for the distribution of its Keyword service was the immediate cause of the company's shutdown. But you cannot understand the motivations behind Microsoft's decision unless you also understand the history of the parties' relationship, the operative terms of the agreement, and how RealNames, under Mr. Teare's direction, flouted the terms of that agreement and then was surprised to find out that its lifeline was severed. Mr. Teare has his version of this history, and then there is the real story."
Posted to finance @ 10:55:19 PM ()
Copyright (C) 2002 Paul Kulchenko
Updated 8/22/2002; 5:27:30 PM
