TiVo Corporation, a technology company focused on digital rights management, electronic program guides, among other things, has announced its plans to merge with technology licensing company Xperi. The deal will result in a new company with a combined enterprise value of $3 billion, and once it"s been completed, Xperi shareholders will own 46.5% of the new business, while TiVo shareholders will hold 53.5%.
The deal will also turn the resulting company into one of the largest property licensing businesses in the world, with over 10,000 patents and applications between the two companies. The announcement also mentions that the overlap between the two companies" licensees is minimal.
Jon Kirchner, CEO of Xperi, commented on the announcement, saying that the two companies are mutually complementary:
“This landmark combination brings together two highly complementary companies poised to set the industry standard for user experiences across the digital value chain(...). Together, we will be able to integrate TiVo’s leading content aggregation, metadata, discovery, and recommendation capabilities with our home, automotive, and mobile technology solutions to help our customers create experiences that excite and delight consumers. Additionally, the combined company will continue to unlock the value of our strategic and sizable patent portfolios by bringing together our deep industry expertise and powerful innovation engines. Through greater scale and diversity, we will deliver attractive and sustainable long-term cash flow and shareholder value.”
Following the completion of the deal, which is expected to be done in the second quarter of 2020, Jon Kirchner will continue to serve as CEO of the new company, and Robert Andersen, currently CFO of Xperi, will also be CFO of the new company. The new company"s board of directors will have three members from each of the involved companies, in addition to the CEO.
It"s worth noting that TiVo Corporation is itself the result of a merger that took place in 2016, when Rovi acquired TiVo Inc.