Greg Gudorf, who most recently was CEO of Paul Allen-backed DVR company Digeo, has joined Thomson Technicolor to lead a new business division.
Gudorf told Multichannel News he is "in the process of building a new team, in a new space, using technology they already have in development," but otherwise declined to provide details on his new gig. He left Digeo last month after the DVR company was acquired by Arris for $20 million.
Paris-based Thomson makes set-tops and communications products for cable, satellite and telco markets, while its Technicolor division caters to Hollywood studios for the creation, preparation and distribution of premium video and film content.
Technicolor spokeswoman Season Skuro confirmed Gudorf's hiring and said his role is to "lead integrated digital content distribution / devices development" for the company and will be the new division's general manager.
Gudorf said he officially joined Thomson Technicolor on Nov. 9 and will be based in Burbank, Calif. He added that the company will provide more details of the new business venture in 2010. "It's a space I know well from my Sony background," he said.
At Sony Electronics, Gudorf was responsible for launching Passage, technology aimed at cable providers to enable multiple conditional-access systems that never attained commercial success. He also led product development for one of the first HD cable-ready DVRs and worked with the Cablevision Systems team that developed and deployed the cable set-top boxes sold at retail.
Gudorf subsequently was Sony's vice president of TV marketing where he was responsible for TV product marketing, pricing and forecasting. He also served on Sony's cable task force as the "TV-centric" representative to cable operators. In addition, as senior vice president of Internet business development, Gudorf led the development and the launch of sonystyle.com as Sony's primary e-commerce business unit.
He joined Digeo in 2005 as president and chief operating officer. Gudorf was named CEO in January 2008 after Mike Fidler left the company and Digeo cut 73 of its approximately 160 employees.
Kirkland, Wash.-based Digeo struggled to sell its products through cable operators, bringing in $5 million in revenue and recording a net loss of $37.7 million for 2008, according to a regulatory filing last Friday by Arris.
