TiVo Eyes Future After Buying Aereo.com for $1 Million

HollywoodReporter.com reports that as TiVo scores access to the names of about 100,000 former Aereo customers, a bankruptcy plan is made to wind down Aereo’s business and settle claims by TV broadcasters.

Pending a bankruptcy judge’s approval, TiVo is about to become the proud owner of Aereo’s trademarks, domain names and customer lists.

The DVD pioneer emerged the winner of an auction that was held last week after Aereo lost at the U.S. Supreme Court and declared Chapter 11 bankruptcy. Aereo, which once envisioned revolutionizing television only to fall short on its copyright theories, put its assets up for sale to pay off $4.2 million in undisputed liabilities.

There were 11 bidders, but none of them wanted to buy the antennas that had made Aereo famous and even triggered objection by broadcasters over the sale. RPX Corporation submitted a winning bid of $225,000 for Aereo’s patents while Alliance Technology Solutions is spending $320,000 for certain Aereo equipment. The big prize of Aereo’s trademarks, domain names and customer lists went to TiVo for $1 million.

TiVo has been developing analogous technologies to Aereo’s for a few years and figures to be competing against companies like Dish for cord-cutting consumers. Now it has in its portfolio Aereo.com and the names of about 100,000 customers who signed up to get broadcast channels on digital devices.

Read more at http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/thr-esq/tivo-eyes-future-buying-aereocom-779142