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TiVo $2.4B Takeover Seen After Fight With Dish

TiVo Inc. (TIVO) , the unprofitable pioneer of digital-video recorders, is ripe for a takeover that may hand shareholders a 94 percent return after settling a seven-year patent battle with Dish Network Corp. (DISH)

The $500 million settlement with Dish in May is enabling TiVo to monetize “time warp” technology that simultaneously records and plays back television shows. Even after losing money in 10 of the past 11 years and trading more expensively relative to revenue than 99 percent of consumer companies in the Russell 2000 Index, according to data compiled by Bloomberg, a sale of TiVo may fetch about $20 a share, or $2.41 billion, almost double its market value yesterday, Maxim Group LLC said.

While bearish bets against the stock climbed last month to the highest since Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. collapsed in September 2008, Janney Montgomery Scott LLC says Alviso, California-based TiVo may be a takeover target for Google Inc. (GOOG) , Microsoft Corp. (MSFT) or Rovi Corp. (ROVI) With the Dish lawsuit resolved, TiVo is more likely to boost sales with intellectual property fees from TV distributors AT&T Inc. and Verizon Communications Inc. and with expansion of its set-top boxes internationally, said Tony Wible , an analyst at Janney in Philadelphia.

TiVo “would be attractive to any company trying to become a more important part of the new video ecosystem,” said Chris Marangi , a portfolio manager at Rye, New York-based Gamco Investors Inc. “The Dish settlement validated their intellectual property. Any potential buyer of TiVo prior to the Dish settlement would have been rolling the dice.”

Gamco oversees $35 billion and about 790,000 TiVo shares.

Michael Boccio, a spokesman for TiVo, said the company doesn’t comment on rumors or speculation in the market.

The shares rose 40 cents, or 3.9 percent, to $10.69 at 10:09 a.m. in New York . They earlier climbed as much as 6.9 percent to the highest intraday price since April 20.

Katelin Todhunter-Gerberg, a spokeswoman for Google, declined to comment. Microsoft’s Mark Murray said the company doesn’t comment on rumors or speculation. Linda Quach, a spokeswoman for Rovi, said the company doesn’t comment on acquisition rumors.

TiVo, whose name has become the default verb to describe the act of digitally recording TV, was founded in 1997. Chief Executive Officer Tom Rogers is trying to remodel TiVo as a partner to cable and satellite-TV operators for hardware and software, instead of just selling set-top boxes to consumers for about $100 , plus $20 a month for service.

Cablevision adding Polish Channels iTVN and TVN24 to iO Polish Package

(06/27/2011) - From what posters have shared with us Cablevision will be adding this week two channels to their iO Polish Package. The two new channels will include iTVN and TVN24. According to the TVN website, it appears Dish Network had an exclusive agreement on these channel until recently. The channels are also now listed on the AOL TV Listings for Cablevision. TVN24 is Poland's first 24-hour news channel, launched on 9 August 2001. Being a part of the TVN Network, TVN24 is owned by ITI Group. It gained broader popularity after the September 11, 2001 attacks in the USA, which was the first major incident to be covered by TVN24. It is available over all digital platforms in Poland (Cyfrowy Polsat, n and Cyfra+) as well as in most cable networks and some networks in other countries, including USA (Dish Network) and Germany. Using live streaming, the TVN24's audio signal can also be received via Internet.

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