TiVo, Inc.

TiVo Inc.

Type	Public
Traded as	NASDAQ: TIVO
Industry	Digital video recorders
Founded	1997
Headquarters	San Jose, California, U.S.
Key people	Tom Rogers, President and CEO
Products	TiVo DVR
Revenue	US$238 Million (FY 2011)[1]
Operating income	US$102 Million (FY 2011)[1]
Net income	US$104 Million (FY 2011)[1]
Total assets	US$720 Million (FY 2011)[2]
Total equity	US$313 Million (FY 2011)[2]
Employees	700 (2013)
Website	http://tivo.com/

TiVo headquarters in Alviso, California.

TiVo, Inc. is an American corporation whose primary product is the marketing and subscription services for its Tivo branded digital video recorder. TiVo primarily operates in the United States, but also in: Australia, Canada, Mexico, New Zealand, Puerto Rico, Taiwan, and the United Kingdom.^[3]

History

TiVo Inc. was incorporated on August 4, 1997 as "Teleworld, Inc." by Jim Barton and Mike Ramsay, veterans of Silicon Graphics and Time Warner'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.

Teleworld began the first public trials of the TiVo device and service in late 1998 in the San Francisco Bay area.^[4] After exhibiting at the Consumer Electronics Show in January 1999, Mike Ramsay announced to the company that the first version of the TiVo digital video recorder would ship on March 31, 1999, despite an estimated four to five months of work remaining to complete the device.

Teleworld, Inc. renamed themselves to TiVo Inc. on July 21, 1999. TiVo Inc. made its IPO (Initial Public Offering) on September 30, 1999.^[5] Its first profitable quarter was the second quarter of 2005.^[6]

The original TiVo device digitized and compressed analog video from any source (antenna, cable or direct broadcast satellite). In late 2000, Philips Electronics introduced the DSR6000, the first DirecTV 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 partnered with electronics manufacturer Thomson and broadcaster British Sky Broadcasting to deliver the TiVo service in the UK market.^[7] 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.,^[8] officially their manufacturing contract expired, however it was more likely because Sky, who were the exclusive distributor of Tivo in the UK, launched their own Tivo-like DVR product called Sky+ which they heavily promoted to their customers.^[9] Sky+ is still the dominant DVR product in the UK with 5.9million customers as of 2009.

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, veteran media executive Tom Rogers was named president and chief executive officer of TiVo Inc.^[10] Rogers, a TiVo board member since 2003, took the reins from TiVo co-founder Mike Ramsay. Under Rogers' leadership, TiVo has transformed itself from just a DVR into a complete in-home broadcast, cable and broadband media hub and an ally to the traditional media businesses with its innovative ad solutions and television measurement services.

In 2006, TiVo, Inc. won an Emmy Award for Outstanding Innovation and Achievement in Advanced Media Technology.^[11]

On November 25, 2009, Tivo re-entered the UK market by announcing a partnership with UK cable company Virgin Media to become the exclusive provider of Set Top Box middleware and user inferface software for Virgin Medias next generation television platform.^[12] On November 3, 2010 Virgin Media announced the launch of their first PVR running Tivo software, available in 500GB or 1TB configurations.^[13]

As of Q1 2012, Virgin now have 677,000 Tivo Subscribers in the UK, up by 242,000 from the previous quarter, representing 18% of Virgin's TV customer base.^[14]

On January 19, 2010, Microsoft filed a lawsuit against TiVo, Inc. for patent infringement.^[15] Both companies agreed to end their lawsuits in March 2012^[16]

See also

• TiVo
• TiVo digital video recorders

References

External links

• Official corporate website