Rovi Corporation (formerly known as Macrovision Corporation) has agreed to buy TiVo in an $1.1B stock and cash deal.
The combined company company will be called TiVo, and the CEO will be the current CEO of Rovi: Tom Carson.
The deal provides that Rovi will pay about $10.70 per share of TiVo stock, broken down into $2.75/share in cash and Rovi stock worth $7.95/share. The amounts may change before the deal finalizes, depending on the movement of TiVo and Rovi stock. However, Rovi will not pay more than $3.90 per share in cash.
Shareholders of both companies must agree to the sale and it may be scrutinized by antitrust regulators.
[Ed. Addition.] Also covered at Ars Technica which notes:
The deal seems to be centered on patents. According to The New York Times , Rovi's interactive TV program guides account for less than half of its $526 million revenue last year, while the rest is made up of its licensed intellectual property. TiVo made a name for itself with its DVR technology, but the patents that make its DVR hardware and software work are proving to be more valuable. Together, Rovi and TiVo have over 6,000 patents issued and pending in the digital entertainment space.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by bitstream on Saturday April 30 2016, @02:18PM
Macrovizationized tivoization..
Dude.. that got to suck DRM bits.
So which company will they start suing?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday April 30 2016, @02:50PM
I bet they would love to kill SchedulesDirect. [schedulesdirect.org]
(Score: 2) by bitstream on Saturday April 30 2016, @05:05PM
That only seems possible if they either got a business or API patent. Or lock out users from connecting to that service.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday April 30 2016, @02:54PM
6k patents? i bet those are a bunch of BS.
(Score: 2) by frojack on Saturday April 30 2016, @05:02PM
Did I miss remember this, or did TiVo get tagged with ripping off gpl software or some similar gpl violation?
If so, there may be less value there of value than Rovi thinks.
No, you are mistaken. I've always had this sig.
(Score: 5, Informative) by theluggage on Saturday April 30 2016, @05:36PM
Did I miss remember this, or did TiVo get tagged with ripping off gpl software or some similar gpl violation?
The main issue was that although they released their source code as required by GPL, but the TiVO hardware required its binaries to be signed with TiVOs private key (or some such system) so you couldn't run your own modified version of the software on TiVO hardware (which, of course, could be used to crack DRM). This "TiVOization" didn't break the letter of the GPLv2 but many felt that it broke the spirit of GPL. One of the motivations behind GPL v3 was to prohibit that sort of thing.
(Score: 1) by anubi on Sunday May 01 2016, @07:15AM
That was a shame, too, as I wanted to buy a TIVO in the worst way.
When I heard that when I bought it, it wasn't really mine, memories of the Circuit City Divx disk fiasco kept me from buying into it.
I figure the best thing TIVO could have done to encourage sales of their hardware would have been to make any DRM someone else was requiring of them easily removable by a buyer reloading its OS.
What I really wanted was MYTH-TV all dressed up as a VCR. Everything all boxed and ready to go. That is what I would *pay* for.
"Prove all things; hold fast that which is good." [KJV: I Thessalonians 5:21]
(Score: 2) by Whoever on Sunday May 01 2016, @01:09AM
You could say that TiVo's actions were the motivation behind the creation of the GPL V3.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday May 03 2016, @03:44AM
I first read this as "Rovi Agrees to buy TiVo for $1.18."
Maybe that was with tax.