TiVo CEO Dave Shull told equity analysts that the company has made “good progress” in its bid to separate its IP licensing business from its products and technology group, and that the split should be executed by April of next year.
“The company is actively interviewing candidates to fill out the management teams of both companies, standing up separate systems, and working with the IRS and the SEC to prepare for separation,” Shull said during TiVo’s third-quarter earnings call Thursday. (A transcript of Thursday’s call was made available by Seeking Alpha.)
For the third quarter, TiVo reported a 4% revenue decline to $158.5 million, with revenue from its products business falling 12% to $82.8 million. IP licensing revenue increased 8% to $75.7 million.
In regard to the latter side of TiVo’s business, Shull said he expects Comcast to eventually capitulate amid the sprawling patent dispute between the two companies. Offering an update to shareholders, Shull said the International Trade Commission will issue its final determination on the second round of TiVo’s patent disputes on December 16. TiVo’s third ITC case against Comcast will unfurl from January 17-21, he added, with an administrative law judge’s initial determination due June 29 and final determination due October 29 of next year.
Meanwhile, Shull remarked on TiVo+, the streaming service the company launched a month back.
“TiVo+ is a big first step for us, because this is not historically a content company,” Shull said. “This is a company that’s been designing hardware. So for us to shift and say we can actually deploy a bunch of content ads on that’s the TiVo+ brand is a big step.”
