Last week, RealNetworks (NSDQ: RNWK) CEO Rob Glaser talked about how cost cuts helped the company achieve a surprise Q3 profit. Now we’ve confirmed that he’s cutting more—this time, 4 percent of the staff, or roughly 70 jobs out of 1,700. It may not end out as a net 4 percent loss, though, as the company is also hiring in some areas. It’s the second significant layoff in a year: last December, Real cut 7.5 percent of its staff across the company—about 130 jobs. The company also laid off 12 people in its Rhapsody group in August. This round was reported first reported by Kara Swisher.

Update: We’ve obtained a copy of Glaser’s explaining the move to RealNetworks’ staff (embedded below). Glaser says the 70 layoffs, which were almost evenly split between the U.S. and the international, primarily affect Technology Products and Solutions and Media Software and Services.

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From: Rob Glaser [mailto:robg@real.com]
Sent: Thursday, November 05, 2009 12:01 PM
To: .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address)
Subject: Important Organizational News

Team—

I’m writing to share some important and unpleasant news with all of you. Today we are implementing a reduction in force primarily within our TPS and MSS divisions, as well as in a few of our shared services groups.  Approximately 70 employees around the globe are impacted, which represents about 4% of our total workforce. Of these 70 employees, 51% are located within the US and 49% came from our international locations.

These staff reductions are a result of some trends and strategic decisions in our TPS and MSS businesses. I’d bucket the reductions into three categories – efficiency gains associated with eliminating or streamlining duplication of effort, businesses that have been impacted by the recession and/or cyclical downturns where we need to lower our costs and get more efficient, and slower growth businesses in which we have decided to reduce our investments so we can instead invest in areas with better growth prospects.

As a result of these changes being made today, the TPS and MSS divisions are now better positioned to continue to weather the economic storm in the short-term and to thrive and grow in the long-term. On behalf of everyone on the senior management team I would like to extend my thanks and appreciation to everyone being affected by today’s actions for their contributions to our company.  We are offering all impacted employees generous severance packages and we are working closely with the affected teams to ensure a smooth and professional transition.  Additionally, we are encouraging impacted employees to look for other roles within the company, and HR will assist them in this process. 

Thank for your support and understanding.

Rob