TiVo reports further losses
May 31, 2012
By Chris Forrester
TiVo has reported another quarterly loss, larger than expected, and reversing the profits reported a year ago for the same quarter, citing rising legal costs. TiVo history for some years has been of doing all it can to maintain its IP rights and it has scored several victories over heavyweight rivals and thus retained those rights in particular for its ‘Time Warp’ software bundle.
TiVo has legal actions running against Verizon, Motorola Mobility and Time Warner Cable related to its DVR functionality. In recent months it has won similar actions against AT&T, EchoStar/Dish and others. AT&T, for example, agreed to pay at least $215 million to TiVo for patent infringements and will also be paying monthly per-subscriber fees to TiVo.
Nevertheless, CEO Tom Rogers reported a Q1 loss of $20.8 million and this compares with a profit this time last year of $139 million. That 2011/Q1 ‘profit’ was directly the result of it winning a $175 million legal action. Unfortunately, 2Q numbers are worse, and Rogers said this was because of higher anticipated legal fees, which Rogers said would likely result in a loss of $28 million – $30 million (and analysts were expecting losses of nearer $16 million).