Tom Rogers, TiVo CEO

I have no doubt we are building a very, very, strong strategic asset and to the extent the best interest of shareholders are served by providing an exit through acquisition from a strategic player who sees the fundamental uniqueness of what we’ve created, obviously that will get all the consideration it deserves.

21 thoughts on “Tom Rogers, TiVo CEO”

  1. I’m a strategic player who sees the fundamental uniqueness of what they’ve created.

    Do you think $500 plus my CD collection would get this thing done?

  2. I just do not think an acquisition of TiVo would bring the value to the retail customers. TiVo would be raped for their patents and focus on associated products. A la – Motorola…

  3. “I just do not think an acquisition of TiVo would bring the value to the retail customers. TiVo would be raped for their patents and focus on associated products.”

    That’s why I’m the perfect buyer. I pledge the run the company very slowly into the ground, if necessary, in order to focus like a laser beam on the retail customer.

    Plus, if I get into a bidding war, I’d be willing to add some old hardcover books to my offer.

  4. Yeah, retail is a side business (perhaps unintentionally). Margins are good, but sales still lag defections – they lost another couple tens of thousand customers in the last quarter. Even their new CMO, who we thought was specific to retail, will also be working cable partners. TiVo’s tent pole patent expires in just a few years and the prime US targets are already providing their pound of flesh so I imagine any legit buyer would want TiVo for the business and experience, not the patent portfolio.

  5. Any idea where these defections are defecting to? Are they defecting from the retail side to cable partners side (as I did with RCN TiVo Q)? Going to Cable DVR? Giving up on DVRs but staying with Cable service? Cutting to cord and moving into their parent’s basement to save paying any money on cable, rent or food?

    Having also recently bought a retail Roamio and 4 minis for my parents (replacing 5 FIOS boxes ) I can see the benefits to both retail and cable partners. I also now see that TiVo realizes that competing against cable monopolies is next to impossible for a small player even with the FCC help. And the reason for all the partnerships with cable providers for an eventual acquisition by an industry leader?

    Will Apple’s love of streaming prevent it from even considering a TiVo purchase or will negotiations with Comcast make Apple learn to love the DVR?

  6. @Bryan, I personally canceled cable TV altogether after being a TiVo customer for 14 years.

    TiVo’s keystone trick play and time warp patents expire in spring and summer 2018, respectively. TiVo is sustained through their patent litigation today. That’s why they’re trying to exit now, because it truly is the best case scenario for their shareholders. If they don’t sell, come 2018 they’ll have to turn off the lights and close the doors.

  7. “I also now see that TiVo realizes that competing against cable monopolies is next to impossible for a small player even with the FCC help.”

    What FCC help of late? I think things would be a bit different were the FCC to actually fulfill the mandate of the Telecommunications Act of 1996.

    “I imagine any legit buyer would want TiVo for the business and experience, not the patent portfolio.”

    I am a perfectly legit buyer. 500 bucks, all my CD’s, and most of my hardcover books ain’t nothing. And all I want it for is to preserve the retail business.

    And if I am properly interpreting the legal record of the Delaware Court of Chancery, all I need is a positive blog comment from Sam Biller to complete this hostile acquisition.

  8. It’s a good question, Bryan, and one I ponder myself. Probably a variety of scenarios, but who knows which is most prevalent. Could be folks moving to satellite or U-verse or just cutting the cord. It could also be SD TiVo users going to HD cable boxes, not interested in the price or complexity of an upgrade. Probably a smaller number moving from retail to rented TiVo units, as you did, but I’d go down that path if it were available and reasonably priced (whereas the RCN 6-tuner Roamio doesn’t make mathematical sense.)

    Chucky, Sam’s deep into TiVo and does not endorse your offer. Sorry.

  9. @Rodalpho “That’s why they’re trying to exit now, because it truly is the best case scenario for their shareholders. If they don’t sell, come 2018 they’ll have to turn off the lights and close the doors.”

    Come 2018 TiVo would be sitting on even more cash than they have now and with TiVo being profitable they could survive forever. But I do love the “turn off the lights and close the doors” quote being made on a company sitting on a billion dollars of cash with very little debt.

    What then would you call Radio Shack for the past 30 years? Or Apple circa 1997? Sirius XM radio circa 2008?

    @Chucky A perfectly legit buyer would need to at the very minimum get close to that $1 billion in cash, no? Forgetting the business worth for a moment. If my company, which sells ice cubes to Eskimo’s, is sitting on a billion dollars my company is still worth a billion dollars even if you don’t care for my business plan. Or even $2 billion if you’re Donald Sterling.

    Dell: Apple should close shop: http://news.cnet.com/2100-1001-203937.html

  10. *If* TiVo were bought, it wouldn’t surprise me if Pace did it. Pace is a massive set top box manufacturer (particularly in Europe and maybe even now world’s largest in terms of volume?) and is the manufacturer of the non-TiVo hardware that many of the MSO’s have rolled out this year and last with TiVo guide running on it. Pace is also working to expand their footprint in the US marketplace and they haven’t had a guide solution to offer as a competing product to Arris and Moxi (but they compete with Arris/Motorola) in selling set-tops to the same MSO’s.

    Pace buying TiVo wouldn’t be a stretch at all for me.

  11. If they do get bought, I’d like to see some hardware engineers get hired back so TiVo could put out a mini with 2-Stream 802.11ac support and we wouldn’t need to have a network or Moca solution.

  12. DWhit, Not to mention rumors of a cozy talk along those lines between TiVo and Pace executives in Miami a year or so ago…

    Anthony, Jason Nealis of RCN has been pushing for a wireless Mini. Hopefully it’s on the docket.

  13. “Chucky, Sam’s deep into TiVo and does not endorse your offer. Sorry.”

    Tell him he can be VP in charge of all divisions aside from ‘USA retail’. Plus 40% of voting class shares.

    All the best deals get hashed out over weekends. We can do this.

    (And as your finder’s fee, since you’re a Florida boy, you get the entire Elmore Leonard library.)

  14. Chucky, your hardcover library is probably worthless, given how few rare books you’ve got in your collection. I on the other hand am willing to add ALL my CD’s and even all my audio tapes and 33-rpm records to your $500. I can even throw in a record player–a Technics direct drive model if memory serves, and a VERY heavy Sony cassette player (hi-fi hookup type) as well as a very nice yellow sport model Walkman for playing those cassettes.

    For now I’ll hold back my videotapes of ALL of the Wallace & Gromit movies and EVERY episode of Fawlty Towers ever made! But I warn you, if you continue to bid against me…

  15. I’m not sure what you are buying if you buy TiVo. Patents that are already cash milked, almost gone and are nearly irrelevant today anyway. A US market that’s on it’s last legs. An interface that STILL isn’t finished (after 4, that’s FOUR, 1-2-3-4 years!) and is quickly falling behind even pathetically slow and incompetent CABLE. The pointless DirecTV DVR?

    I guess there’s the VIrgin media subs. The lifeblood of TiVo. But how much are they REALLY worth? Not what TiVo probably thinks.

  16. @ Anthony F “If they do get bought, I’d like to see some hardware engineers get hired back so TiVo could put out a mini with 2-Stream 802.11ac support and we wouldn’t need to have a network or Moca solution.””

    You wouldn’t even need wireless AC. I have three TiVo Minis and I can run them on wireless N with zero issues. I can run all my TiVos on wireless N and the experience is identical to me using Ethernet or MoCA. Although currently I’m using MoCA for my Roamio Pro and three Minis. And Ethernet for my Roamio Basic and Premiere. But I’ve run everything over wireless, with Dlink Bridges and built in wireless, and there were zero problems with the TiVos using my properly setup wireless network.

  17. Ah, the TiVo Community Forums crowd. NOTHINGS needed, until TiVo makes one – then they ALL buy it, usually multiple units. LOL! Not ALL of us have short memories, I was there.

    NO ONE needs more than 2 tuners, just buy extra 2 tuner Premieres, until the 4 tuner Premiere; then the SAME people bought them immediately.

    NO ONE needs DVR extenders. Just use extra TiVo’s, until the Mini came out, THEN they all bought them.

    The TCF crowd are experts at selling old (barely old) TiVo products on eBay.

  18. “Chucky, your hardcover library is probably worthless, given how few rare books you’ve got in your collection.”

    It is true that I only have a few. But that first edition Gutenberg Bible I found at a garage sale does have some resale value.

    “I can even throw in a record player–a Technics direct drive model if memory serves, and a VERY heavy Sony cassette player (hi-fi hookup type) as well as a very nice yellow sport model Walkman for playing those cassettes.”

    Good stuff, no doubt. Look, I’m no egomaniac. I’m perfectly willing to combine forces with you, as long as you’re also utterly committed to USA retail going forward. But combined, we still need a positive blog comment from Sam Biller in order to prevail in the Delaware Court of Chancery…

  19. I keep wishing Apple would buy them. It would have made a lot more sense than Beats, which had lousy technology and a replicate-able music service. I’d love to see an Apple TV with a TiVo Remote, DVR capability ability to stream, etc.

  20. “I keep wishing Apple would buy them.”

    Your wish would be my nightmare.

    Apple is like the cockroach motel. Users check in, but they can never check out…

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