AppleInsider StaffTiVo Inc. shares jumped more than 17 percent on Wednesday, fueled by speculation that Apple might make a try to buy the digital video recorder maker, Reuters is reporting. "What we hear on the street is that Apple is interested in their business and that they are a takeout target," said analyst Steven Kroll Jr. of Monness, Crespi, Hardt & Co. "TiVo's chief executive, Michael Ramsay, has said the company is not for sale. But with a market capitalization of only $300 million, analysts figure the company might be an easy target, perhaps from consumer electronics makers to media companies looking to bolster their video services."
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Charles Martin
Malcolm Owen
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40 Comments
Will Apple but Tivo what?
Pleaze spl check title of post before submitting.
No, Apple will not buy Tivo. Why when they can make their own device?
Why when they can make their own device?
Because Tivo has 3 Million subscribers just aching to get rid of that $12.95 monthly fee
Tivo would be the ideal purchase if Apple doesn't want to roll their own. Now that Cable Cards are here Apple has all but the red carpet rollout to get into the Set Top Box DVR device. They should make that move soon.
We should see.
1. DVR based on Quicktime 7 using AVC codecs.
this is going to allow Apple to really bundle in some nice multimedia elements. Excellent audio handling, multiple codec support etc.
2. AAC Protected playback.
A no brainer. Why it's taken this long is an amazement. An assault on eager and waiting fans of digital music should be imminent.3. Airport and "Bonjour" support.
Easy networking is a must. Eventually I want to see 11n and maybe even Homeplug AV support. TV connections should be HDMI so that protected HDTV content can be displayed. And maybe future Cell based product.
The Cell chip seems to be a natural for multimedia. Apple doesn't need to have OSX running on Cell but rather making QT a portable framework that runs very well on Cell. This would be the key to crunching AVC and dealing with audio and other codecs appropriately.
Plus Tivos run Linux on a PowerPC so this should be familiar territory for Apple. Double plus the massive Apple R&D should make quick turnaround for new Tivo products.
Plus Tivos run Linus on a PowerPC so this should be familiar territory for Apple. Double plus the massive Apple R&D should make quick turnaround for new Tivo products.
I never thought of that. They would probably update that OS to a darwinian version of some sort.
I had a "Replay" (which I thought was better than Tivo because of the network ethernet card, and bigger hard drives. - you could trade shows), but using it with my cable system back in the early days was a pain, and I ended up with too many remotes, and half of the features would never work with my cable company. Tivo back then would have been the same. It may still be. I took it back.
On the other hand Tivo is getting hammered financially as cable providers come up with their own recorders for their large captive audience. Does it make sense for Apple to take on this drain?