Macrovision Solutions, a key supplier of interactive program guides to cable operators, plans to formally change its name this summer to “Rovi Corp.”
The company, which also sells embedded content-security technology, said it will continue to operate under the Macrovision name until its July 15 annual stockholders' meeting, when the change will be considered for approval.
“As Rovi, we will unite our technology and people under one shared identity that speaks to who we have become and how we will drive our strategy moving forward as a technology leader that powers the discovery and enjoyment of digital entertainment,” Macrovision CEO Fred Amoroso said in a statement.
However, the Santa Clara, Calif.-based company didn't release a new logo for the Rovi brand. A Macrovision spokeswoman said images of the logo won't be available until later this summer. The Rovi name — which is “Macrovision” minus the first three and last four letters — was picked based on Macrovision's consumer, customer and overall market research of “many alternatives,” the company said in a proxy statement filed May 18.
“The name elicited positive connotations on a global basis and generally associated us with exploration and discovery (i.e., 'roving'), both of which are broad, forward-looking concepts that are desired by our target markets,” the company said.
Amoroso, in announcing the plans to change the name, said Macrovision has undertaken “a series of strategic acquisitions, divestitures and continued innovation of our product portfolio, and as a result, the company is dramatically different than it was just a year ago.”
Chief among these was Macrovision's $2.8 billion acquisition of Gemstar-TV Guide International, developer of IPGs used by Comcast and other cable providers and consumer-electronics manufacturers, completed in May 2008.
Subsequently, Macrovision sold TV Guide magazine to private-equity group OpenGate Capital for $1 and also agreed to loan OpenGate $9.5 million to operate the magazine.
The company sold the TV Guide Network and TV Guide Online properties to Lionsgate in a $255 million deal this year, and sold TV Games Network to Betfair Group, an electronic-gaming services firm, for $50 million in cash.
In addition, Macrovision in December 2007 bought All Media Guide Holdings, a provider of information databases and metadata for entertainment products including music and movies, and last month acquired the assets of Muze Inc., a provider of entertainment information products and discovery services.
“Macrovision's strategy is to power the discovery and enjoyment of digital entertainment,” the company said, adding that “we believe that none of the brands currently owned by Macrovision carry a positive connotation in the market.”
The domain name rovi.com, however, is already taken: The URL belongs to Laboratorios Farmacéuticos ROVI, a chemical and pharmaceutical company incorporated in Madrid in 1946.
