Microsoft Lawsuit Payment Saves RealNetwork's Earnings

Last week I wrote about RealNetwork's (RNWK) inability to turn a profit without the help of Microsoft's (MSFT) lawsuit. Earnings came out after market Wednesday and that pattern continues.

Earnings came in at $0.22 per diluted share on revenue of $129.5 million. More importantly, operating income came in at $53,743,000, the last payment from the Microsoft lawsuit was $60,747,000.

If not for the Microsoft lawsuit, operating income would have been negative. For the 9 months ending 12/31/2007, it expects earnings to be $.01 to $.03 per diluted share.

On the bright side, it authorized an additional $100 million to repurchase outstanding shares. Its cash and short-term investments position is still very positive.