DVR pioneer TiVo has agreed to be bought up by the Rovi Corporation for about $1.1 billion, the two companies announced on Friday.
After the deal closes in the third quarter of this year, the combined company will use the TiVo brand name and be led by current Rovi CEO Tom Carson.
Both Rovi Corp. and TiVo Inc. (Nasdaq: TIVO) have deep patent portfolios, which include analytics and interactive guides. All told, the two companies estimated that they have more than 6,000 issued and pending patents worldwide.
The combined company will serve nearly 500 service providers. Rovi will add TiVo's 10 million households to the 18 million that are currently using its guides.
— Mike Robuck, Editor, Telco Transformation