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RealNetworks, Inc. ( RNWK ) today announced that it expects to report revenue of $134 million to $136 million for the second quarter of 2009. The company will release its second quarter earnings after the market closes on July 30, 2009, and will hold a conference call for analysts and investors at 2 p.m. PT on that day.

RealNetworks (RNWK) today is cutting 4% of its staff, or about 70 of its 1,700 employees, according to AllThingsD, which cites “sources” for the report. No details yet on which parts of the company will be affected, and no official confirmation so far from the company.

RNWK today is up 20 cents, or 5.5%, to $3.81.

Filed under: Internet, Google (GOOG), Apple Inc (AAPL), News Corp'B' (NWS), Technology

Google (NASDAQ: GOOG) makes it easier to search for websites, e-mail messages, passages from books and videos. Where you haven't heard much about Google's search capabilities -- or Google in general -- is the music business.

But, that's about to change. On Wednesday, the search giant announced that it was partnering with music services such as Pandora, Lala, News Corp's (NASDAQ: NWS) MySpace, and Rhapsody by RealNetworks (NASDAQ: RNWK) to help users find, listen to and ultimately buy music on the web.

Filed under: Internet, Google (GOOG), Technology

RealNetworks (NASDAQ: RNWK) is profitable again! The online media company that provides music and other entertainment cut its way into the black, getting rid of the costs that were getting in the way. It wasn't much of a profit, only $1.5 million for the third quarter, not even a full cent per share, but it's a hell of a lot better than the $4.5 million loss it sustained in the third quarter of 2008.

RealNetworks (RNWK) this afternoon posted Q3 revenue of $140.3 million, down 8% year over year, and a bit below the Street consensus at $140.9 million. The company posted a profit attributable to common holders of $1.5 million, which is less than a penny a share; the Street had expected a loss on that basis of six cents a share. Gross margin improved to 62%, from 59% a year ago.

For Q4, RNWK sees revenue up sequentially, but down year over year.

In late trading, RNWK is up 13 cents, or 3.4% at $4.

Google (GOOG) this afternoon said it is adding a music search feature to its search engine.

Searches for songs, artists and albums will return links to an audio preview of the songs from Myspace - via recently purchase iLike - or from Lala.com. You can also search for songs by entering lyric fragments. Google has also partners with Pandora, imeem and the Rhapsody unit of RealNetworks (RNWK) to provider music discovery tools

Google said it will roll out the feature gradually to users across the U.S. over the next day.