TiVo : Rovi - the company that took VM to court 10 times - in talks to to buy Tivo

[1andrew1]

Interesting development. Too early to speculate on implications for VM.

Basically, Tivo has a very low market share of 2%, no chief executive but a good income stream from patents.

Rovi's activist investor Glenn Welling won two seats on the board of Rovi last year. He has stopped its loss-making claims against companies like Virgin Media and Ziggo and encouraged it to tie up with TiVo.

Rovi’s shares have performed strongly recently after the company renewed several large licensing deals. Tivo's shares are half the level they were in August 2015.
Full article: http://www.nytimes.com/2016/03/25/bu...rovi.html?_r=2

[denphone]

l would not read too much into it Andrew.

[steveh]

Some more commentary on the proposed acquisition: http://www.nscreenmedia.com/combined...-survive-deal/

View seems to be that TiVo's consumer hardware business will not survive and Rovi will seek to move licensed partners to their own guide technology long term, with TiVo software moved from active development to support only. TiVo has been without a CEO for nearly a year, the board has apparently been looking for an acquirer for some time and there have also been a number of lay-offs in recent months.

[23prince]

So it'll be Virgin Media Rovi!? Sounds lame. Tivo is bad enough!

[heero_yuy]

Originally Posted by 23prince

So it'll be Virgin Media Rovi!? Sounds lame. Tivo is bad enough!

How about "Livid"?

[OLD BOY]

Originally Posted by steveh

Some more commentary on the proposed acquisition: http://www.nscreenmedia.com/combined...-survive-deal/

View seems to be that TiVo's consumer hardware business will not survive and Rovi will seek to move licensed partners to their own guide technology long term, with TiVo software moved from active development to support only. TiVo has been without a CEO for nearly a year, the board has apparently been looking for an acquirer for some time and there have also been a number of lay-offs in recent months.

This could lead Liberty Global to plan for their Horizon box to replace the Tivo after the new Tivo is launched at the end of the existing contractual term.

I hope that by then the Horizon box has a much bigger capacity on its hard drive. It seems to have plenty of tuners but limited recording space, which is ludicrous.

[23prince]

Originally Posted by heero_yuy

How about "Livid"?

That would fit

[1andrew1]

Originally Posted by steveh

Some more commentary on the proposed acquisition: http://www.nscreenmedia.com/combined...-survive-deal/

View seems to be that TiVo's consumer hardware business will not survive and Rovi will seek to move licensed partners to their own guide technology long term, with TiVo software moved from active development to support only. TiVo has been without a CEO for nearly a year, the board has apparently been looking for an acquirer for some time and there have also been a number of lay-offs in recent months.

My reading was that Tivo's hardware business would survive at least in the short term "At least in the short term, the TiVo hardware business will be necessary to maintain value in the solution." I think a lot depends on VM as most of Tivo's sales have bee via VM.
We don't know if Rovi will standardise Tivo and Rovi guide software and how they will be supported.
The Tivo redundancies were due to Tivo focusing on selling its STBs to operators and exiting the retail PVR market. Easier to incorporate the Tivo fee into a subscription TV package than to justify it as a stand-alone monthly fee.
I think the 2016 TIvo could be VM's last Tivo before converging with an LGI cloud-based solution.

[steveh]

The indications are that when the deal between TiVo and VM was extended it was much less favourable to TiVo than the initial deal. There are reports that operators were not happy that core development costs were being pushed onto them making it much pricier than alternatives like RDK, used in the second-generation Horizon boxes, while the competitive advantages that TiVo once had had largely been eroded.

TiVo have done some deals with smaller cable operators since, but these seem to be for offering it as an alternative. Few consumers though seem to be interested in a third option between a standard cableco STB or streaming services. The company's most valuable patents also expire in 2018, which will lose them a significant income stream. A sale now to Rovi looks like the best choice really.

[steveh]

Subject to regulatory approval the deal has gone through and the new company will be called TiVo. With such a high premium was unlikely TiVo would say no.

Entertainment technology company Rovi has purchased original DVR service TiVo for $1.1 billion, or $10.70 per share. Talks of such an acquisition heated up last month, and now it’s official — pending customary regulatory approval, of course.


That $10.70 per-share price represents a premium of approximately 40 percent over TiVo’s closing stock price of $7.66 on March 23 — the last trading day prior to media speculation about a possible transaction. It breaks down into $2.75 in cash and $7.95 in the new company’s common stock. Rovi stockholders will have an easy 1-for-1 swap for their own new stock.

http://www.thewrap.com/rovi-acquires...1-billion-dvr/