TiVo Inc. was an American

corporation A corporation or body corporate is an individual or a group of people, such as an association or company, that has been authorized by the State (polity), state to act as a single entity (a legal entity recognized by private and public law as ...

with its primary product being its

eponymous An eponym is a noun after which or for which someone or something is, or is believed to be, named. Adjectives derived from the word ''eponym'' include ''eponymous'' and ''eponymic''. Eponyms are commonly used for time periods, places, innovati ...

digital video recorder A digital video recorder (DVR), also referred to as a personal video recorder (PVR) particularly in Canadian and British English, is an electronic device that records video in a digital format to a disk drive, USB flash drive, SD memory card, SS ...

. While primarily operating in the United States, TiVO also operated in Australia, Canada, Mexico, New Zealand,

Puerto Rico ; abbreviated PR), officially the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, is a Government of Puerto Rico, self-governing Caribbean Geography of Puerto Rico, archipelago and island organized as an Territories of the United States, unincorporated territo ...

, Taiwan, the United Kingdom, and

Western Europe Western Europe is the western region of Europe. The region's extent varies depending on context. The concept of "the West" appeared in Europe in juxtaposition to "the East" and originally applied to the Western half of the ancient Mediterranean ...

. On September 8, 2016, TiVo Inc. was acquired by Rovi Corporation. The new entity became known as

TiVo Corporation TiVo Corporation, formerly known as the Rovi Corporation and Macrovision Solutions Corporation, was an American technology company headquartered in San Jose, California. Now operating as Xperi, the company is primarily involved in licensin ...

, which in turn, merged with

Xperi Xperi Inc. is an American multinational technology company headquartered in San Jose, California, that develops software for consumer electronics and connected cars, as well as media platforms for video service over broadband. The company is ...

in December 2019.

History

The company TiVo Inc. was incorporated on August 4, 1997, as Teleworld, Inc. by Jim Barton and Mike Ramsay, former employees at

Silicon Graphics Silicon Graphics, Inc. (stylized as SiliconGraphics before 1999, later rebranded SGI, historically known as Silicon Graphics Computer Systems or SGCS) was an American high-performance computing manufacturer, producing computer hardware and soft ...

and

Time Warner Warner Media, LLC ( doing business as WarnerMedia) was an American multinational mass media and entertainment conglomerate owned by AT&T. It was headquartered at the 30 Hudson Yards complex in New York City. It was established as Time Warne ...

's Full Service Network digital video system. Originally intending to create a home network device, they later developed the idea to record digitized video on a hard disk for a monthly service, at the suggestion of

Randy Komisar Randy Komisar is an American technology attorney, executive, and author living in Silicon Valley, California. Komisar is the co-founder of Claris, former CEO of Lucas Arts Entertainment, Chief Financial Officer of GO Corp, and the "virtual CEO" o ...

. The original TiVo device digitized and compressed analog video from any source. Teleworld began the first public trials of the TiVo device and service in late 1998 in the San Francisco Bay area. Teleworld, Inc. renamed itself to TiVo Inc. on July 21, 1999, and made its

IPO An initial public offering (IPO) or stock launch is a public offering in which shares of a company are sold to institutional investors and usually also to retail (individual) investors. An IPO is typically underwritten by one or more investment ...

(Initial Public Offering) on September 30, 1999. In late 2000, Philips Electronics introduced the DSR6000, the first

DirecTV DirecTV, LLC is an American Multichannel television in the United States, multichannel video programming distributor based in El Segundo, California. Originally launched on June 17, 1994, its primary service is a digital Satellite television, s ...

receiver with an integrated TiVo DVR. This new device, nicknamed the DirecTiVo, stored digital signals sent from DirecTV directly onto a hard disk. In early 2000, TiVo also partnered with electronics manufacturer Thomson and broadcaster

British Sky Broadcasting Sky UK Limited (formerly British Sky Broadcasting Limited (BSkyB)), trading as Sky, is a British broadcaster and telecommunications company that provides television, broadband internet, fixed line and mobile telephone services to consumers a ...

to deliver the TiVo service in the UK market. This partnership resulted in the Thomson PVR10UK, a stand-alone receiver released in October 2000. In January 2003, After poor sales, TiVo pulled out of the UK market. On January 27, 2004, TiVo announced the acquisition of Strangeberry Inc., a Palo Alto-based technology company specializing in using home network and broadband technologies to create new entertainment on television. In 2004, TiVo sued EchoStar Corp, a manufacturer of DVR units, for patent infringement. The parties reached a settlement in 2011 wherein EchoStar paid TiVo a licensing fee for its technology. In June 2005, Tom Rogers, a TiVo board member since 1999, was named president and chief executive officer of TiVo Inc. In 2006, TiVo, Inc. won an

Emmy Award The Emmy Awards, or Emmys, are an extensive range of awards for artistic and technical merit for the television industry. A number of annual Emmy Award ceremonies are held throughout the year, each with their own set of rules and award categor ...

for Outstanding Innovation and Achievement in Advanced Media Technology. TiVo was again awarded an Emmy in 2013 for Technical and Engineering Achievement for Personalized Recommendation Engines for Video Discovery. On November 25, 2009, TiVo re-entered the UK market by announcing a partnership with UK cable company

Virgin Media Virgin Media Limited is a British telecommunications company which provides telephone, television and internet services in the United Kingdom. Its headquarters are at Green Park in Reading, England. It is owned by Virgin Media O2, a 50:50 ...

. By 2012, TiVo services had become a part of 18% of Virgin's TV customer base. By the end of 2013, TiVo was installed in 52%, or around 2 million, of all Virgin TV's subscribers. On January 19, 2010,

Microsoft Microsoft Corporation is an American multinational corporation and technology company, technology conglomerate headquartered in Redmond, Washington. Founded in 1975, the company became influential in the History of personal computers#The ear ...

filed a lawsuit against TiVo, Inc. for patent infringement. TiVo had also filed a lawsuit against Microsoft for patent infringement. The companies agreed to end their respective lawsuits in March 2012. On July 17, 2012, TiVo announced the acquisition of TRA, Inc., an

audience measurement Audience measurement calculates how many people are in an audience, usually in relation to radio listenership and television viewership, but also in relation to newspaper and magazine readership and, increasingly, web traffic. The term is someti ...

company that measures advertising effectiveness. On January 29, 2014, TiVo announced the acquisition of Digitalsmiths, a cloud-based content discovery and recommendation service for

pay TV Pay television, also known as subscription television, premium television or, when referring to an individual service, a premium channel, refers to subscription-based television services, usually provided by multichannel television providers, b ...

. In March, 2015, TiVo purchased the assets of Aereo, a technology company that allowed subscribers to view live and time-shifted streams of over-the-air television on Internet-connected devices, for $1 million. On April 29, 2016, Rovi announced that it had acquired TiVo Inc. for $1.1 billion, and that the combined company would operate under the TiVo brand. On September 8, 2016, the acquisition by Rovi Corporation was completed. On December 19, 2019, TiVo and

announced they had entered into a definitive merger agreement in an all-stock transaction, representing approximately $3 billion of combined enterprise value. The combined company's value creation plan will focus on integrating the companies’ respective product and IP licensing businesses.

References

External links

* {{Official website, http://www.tivo.com/about, TiVo – official site Companies based in San Jose, California Entertainment companies of the United States Interactive television Mass media companies of the United States Mass media companies established in 1997 American companies established in 1997 TiVo 2016 mergers and acquisitions Companies formerly listed on the New York Stock Exchange 1999 initial public offerings

History

See also

References

External links