TiVo rang in 2018 as a major topic of M&A chatter.
TiVo has received “multiple expressions of interest from potential private equity buyers” for more than $20 per share, The Street reported on December 29, citing a person familiar with the situation.
TiVo, which merged with Rovi Corp, in the fall of 2016, has been asked for comment on the report, but shares in the company shot up the day the purported interest in the company was reported. On December 29, TiVo shares opened at $13.95 per share and rose as high as $16 per share, before closing that day at $15.60. TiVo shares were trading at $15.13 (up 3 cents, or 0.23%) in morning trading Wednesday.
The Street noted that TiVo has yet to launch a strategic review process.
The report arrives amid a flurry of activity at TiVo, which recently introduced a new line of capable “Vox”-branded devices that are equipped with voice-powered search and content navigation systems.
RELATED: TiVo Refreshes Retail Lineup With Voice-Powered 'Vox' Devices
In mid-November, the company announced that its board had unanimously elected Enrique Rodriguez to president and CEO, succeeding Tom Carson, who is retiring but will stay with the company as an advisor through the start of Q2 2018.
RELATED: TiVo Taps Enrique Rodriguez as President and CEO
Rumor of M&A chatter also comes on the heels of recent wins for TiVo, including a new, expanded six-year deal with Altice USA, and renewals with AT&T, J:COM, Japan’s largest cable operator, and Liberty Global, which has an extensive footprint in Europe and Latin America.
Among major U.S. MVPDs, TiVo has yet to ink a new deal with Comcast. However, TiVo came out on top in its fight with Comcast in November 2017 at the ITC, which handed down a final ruling finding that Comcast had violated two TiVo patents. Comcast intends to appeal, but, as a result of the ITC ruling, the operator has disabled the remote DVR scheduling feature for its Stream app.
RELATED: Comcast Pulls Remote DVR Scheduling Feature From Stream App
