The boomerang kid: Rob Glaser on his return to RealNetworks and what’s next

The most surprising fact about video and music streaming pioneer RealNetworks more than 22 years after its founding is that the Seattle-based company still exists.

Since being founded by former Microsoft executive Rob Glaser in 1994, the company has managed to be at times too far ahead of the curve and too far behind; a cornerstone of the multimedia revolution and an also-ran. Real has survived bruising legal and public relations battles against tech Goliaths only to find itself fighting for its life each time.