PVR supplier TiVo has won support from another pair of hedge fund investors. The market speculation is that while TiVo is on a financial roll, winning new subscribers and a steady stream of patent litigation battles, the two new backers are hedging their bets and anticipating a buyout from a richer player.

The names, billionaire Ken Griffin (founder of Citadel Investment Grp, a $32 billion fund) has bought 5.2 per cent of TiVo (6.6 million shares) and joins Steve Cohen at SAC Capital (a $20 billion fund) which had boosted its ownership to a total of 5.57 million shares during the previous quarter-year.

TiVo still has patent actions against Motorola, Cisco and Time Warner, any one of which could be a potential buyer. But names such as Apple Inc., notwithstanding its massive share price collapse on January 24th, could also be a suitor and build-in TiVo “time-warp” technology into any Apple-branded TV system that it might introduce.

Categories: Articles, Business, Funding, PVR