TiVo today reported financial results for the first quarter ended March 31, 2019. Earlier, the Company also announced a plan to split its Product and IP Licensing businesses into two separate independent companies.

We had a solid quarter with a strong focus on company execution,” said Raghu Rau, Interim President and Chief Executive Officer. “Management has, and will remain, focused on driving growth with profitability by executing the previously announced five pillars of growth with profitability strategy. On the product side, we announced our first IPTV deployments of TiVo User Experience 4. Additionally, we are on track to launch several new products and business models in the second half of the year. On the Intellectual Property Licensing front, we continued to demonstrate the strength of our patents internationally and validated the value of our intellectual property in the social media space by signing our first licensee in this rapidly growing market.

We are pleased that our Board has approved the separation of TiVo’s Product and IP Licensing businesses and believe both businesses will be better positioned independently. We believe the separation will unlock shareholder value and increase our flexibility in pursuing new and growing market opportunities. Throughout the separation process, the Board of Directors will continue to be open to strategic transactions for each business that could create additional stockholder value and is actively engaged in discussions with interested parties for each business,” continued Rau.

BUSINESS OUTLOOK

For fiscal year 2019, the Company expects revenue of $640 million to $654 million, and a GAAP loss before taxes of $75 million to $87 million. Additionally, the Company expects Adjusted EBITDA of $172 million to $178 million and Non-GAAP Pre-tax Income of $120 million to $126 million. TiVo anticipates it will incur $28 million to $29 million in Cash Taxes based on its operating expectations. Additionally, TiVo expects its GAAP Diluted weighted average shares outstanding to be approximately 126 million and Non-GAAP Diluted Weighted Average Shares Outstanding to be approximately 127 million.

CAPITAL ALLOCATION

On May 8, 2019, TiVo’s Board of Directors declared a cash dividend of $0.08 per common share, to be paid on June 19, 2019 to stockholders of record as of the close of business on June 5, 2019. In preparation for the separation, the Board and management are focused on determining the optimal strategy, operating structure and capital allocation policy for each business. Accordingly, the Board felt it prudent to adjust the current dividend in order to optimize our two balance sheets in advance of the separation. While this is a lower dividend than in previous quarters, it still provides a meaningfully higher yield than the S&P 500 average dividend yield.

Product Segment Operating Highlights:

  • Approximately 22 million subscriber households around the world use TiVo’s advanced television experiences.
  • RCN will power its next-generation solution with TiVo’s IPTV suite of products, including TiVo solutions for Android TVTM, TiVo for Streamers and TiVo for Mobile. This will enable the delivery of IPVOD, IP Linear, Restart, Catch-Up and Network DVR content to RCN subscribers.
  • Armstrong has chosen TiVo’s Next-Gen Platform that will enable a seamless transition to IPTV by deploying TiVo’s cloud-powered IPTV suite of solutions, including IPVOD, IP Linear, Restart, Catch-Up, and Network DVR, across a host of clients. In addition, Armstrong recently rolled out TiVo Experience 4 and voice-activated remote control functionality to its entire subscriber base.
  • Launched CubiTV™ Solutions for Android TV™, a modular, cost-effective, easy to deploy, pre-integrated solution with an intuitive operator-branded interface that taps into the power of Google Assistant search and browse functionality. Android TV is a trademark of Google LLC.
  • Service Electric Cable T.V. selected TiVo’s Next-Gen Platform to power its IP Linear services for streamers (Android TV, Apple TV and Fire TV) and for its mobile apps.
  • TiVo’s Passport Guide agreement with Cable Bahamas, a leading service provider and telecommunications in the region, was renewed.
  • TiVo has signed and renewed a number of Metadata agreements for customers in various industries, including leading players in music streaming, e-commerce and software, reaffirming the value of TiVo’s Metadata to market segments beyond the traditional broadcast networks and the electronic devices industries.
  • Redbox is deploying TiVo’s Personalized Content Discovery platform, including Search, Recommendations and Insights, as well as TiVo’s Video and Video Game Metadata across Redbox.com, Redbox On Demand streaming apps and physical boxes nationwide.
  • Funimation, a leading global anime content provider and a subsidiary of Sony Pictures Television (SPT), has licensed the Search, Recommendations and Insight modules of TiVo’s Personalized Content Discovery (PCD) platform.
  • TiVo’s TV Viewership Data continues to expand its customer base. Some of the customers that recently adopted this solution are:
    • Neustar, the leader in trusted customer identity and marketing analytics solutions for Fortune 500 brands.
    • A major broadcast and cable television network group.
    • VideoAmp, a software and data company that helps marketers and media owners optimize brand marketing against business results.
  • In the first quarter of 2019, the company saw continued significant growth of TiVo’s PCD Conversation product. Monthly Active Users (MAU) in March 2019 was 4.9 million, a 31% increase over the December 2018 MAU of 3.7 million. Additionally, TiVo’s Quarterly Voice API calls increased by 36%, growing from 238 million calls in Q4 2018 to 324 million in Q1 2019.
  • TiVo has expanded the footprint of the Sponsored Discovery advertising offering to include multiple MVPDs. Campaigns continue to drive strong performance: a major broadcast network ran a Sponsored Discovery campaign to promote a new series throughout its launch. The campaign increased tune-in by 436% to the series by those who saw the campaign.

 

ABOUT KAUSER KANJI

Kauser Kanji has been working in online video for 19 years, formerly at Virgin Media, ITN and NBC Universal, and founded VOD Professional in 2011. He has since completed major OTT projects for, amongst others, A+E Networks, the BBC, BBC Studios, Channel 4, DR (Denmark), Liberty Global, Netflix, Sony Pictures, the Swiss Broadcasting Corporation and UKTV. He now writes industry analyses, hosts an online debate show, OTT Question Time, as well as its in-person sister event, OTT Question Time Live

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