TiVo Gets Patent On Technologies; Net Loss Widens
TiVo Inc. said it received an important patent associated with disc-based video recorders but also announced a fiscal first-quarter net loss that more than doubled from a year earlier.</br></br>Analysts said the patent boosts the prospects for TiVo to get additional revenue from licensing its technologies. TiVo said it already has a licensing agreement with the original equipment makers that manufacture its recorders. But with the patent, it has the right to license its technologies to cable providers, competitors and other companies. In response, TiVo's shares rose $3.56, or 72%, to $8.50 at 4 p.m. on the Nasdaq Stock Market.</br></br>Personal video recorders such as TiVo's record TV programming work in a way that, among other things, let users effectively pause live broadcasts or skip over commercials.</br></br>The Alviso, Calif., company said the patent covers many of the inventions associated with the devices, including a method for recording a TV program while playing back another or watching a program as it is being recorded; a method for processing various multimedia streams such as video and audio at low cost; and a storage format that allows users to pause and scan through a live TV broadcast.</br></br>TiVo could use a boost. The company reported after the market closed that its net loss for the period ended April 30 widened to $49.1 million, or $1.20 a share, from $23.5 million, or 66 cents a share, a year earlier.