Rovi Acquires TiVo for $1.1B

SAN CARLOS, CALIF. & SAN JOSE, CALIF.—The Rovi Corporation has announced that it will acquire TiVo for $10.70 per share, or approximately $1.1 billion. The two companies will now combine with Rovi CEO Tom Carson keeping his position and Rovi adopting the TiVo company name.

Rovi and TiVo serve pay-TV operators both in the U.S. and abroad. The combination of the two companies is hoped to enhance global reach, reportedly adding 10 million TiVo households to Rovi’s current base of 18 million. The new company will operate in the consumer, consumer electronic, service provider and web-scale marketplaces.

In addition TiVo’s cross-device viewership data is expected to merge with Rovi’s analytics tools for targeting of media spending, advertising inventory yield and the creation of targeted advertising capabilities, according to Rovi.

The boards of both Rovi and TiVo have approved the transaction. TiVo and Rovi stockholders will look to approve the merger at special meetings. The companies expect the transaction to become fully approved in the third quarter of 2016.

“The combined capabilities of TiVo and Rovi place us in a tremendous position to extend services across platforms and to a customer base that includes traditional, over-the-top and emerging players across the globe,” said Carson in Rovi’s press release.