TiVo announced
that it has settled its pending patent litigation with AT&T and that the
companies have entered into a mutual patent licensing arrangement.
AT&T
agreed to pay TiVo an initial payment of $51 million, followed by recurring
quarterly guaranteed payments through June 2018, totaling $164 million, which
together yield minimum payments of $215 million.
In addition to
these minimum payments, AT&T will pay incremental recurring per subscriber
monthly license fees through July 2018 should AT&T’s DVR subscriber base
exceed certain levels.
As part of the
settlement, TiVo and AT&T agreed to dismiss all pending litigation between
the companies with prejudice. The parties also entered into a cross license of
their respective patent portfolios in the advanced television field.
“This
settlement, on the heels of our recent operational success that has resulted in
the growth of TiVo’s overall subscriber base, is another major accomplishment
for TiVo and we believe a great outcome for our shareholders,” TiVo said in a
press release.
TiVo offers the TiVo service and TiVo DVRs directly to consumers online at and through third-party retailers. TiVo also distributes its technology and
services through solutions tailored for cable, satellite, and broadcasting
companies.
The
combination of guaranteed payments and future additional fees paid to TiVo in
the event that AT&T’s pay TV business continues to grow in-line with
consensus analyst expectations, represents hard-earned compensation for our IP
enforcement efforts. The settlement also provides us rights to innovate TiVo
products and services under license from AT&T and allows us to avoid significant
legal expenses that we expect would have been incurred by us during and after
trial,” said Tom Rogers, CEO and president of TiVo.
By
Telecomlead.com Team
editor@telecomlead.com
