TiVo Corporation, now a subsidiary of Xperi, won the bid to acquire the assets of MobiTV as part of its Chapter 11 bankruptcy process. It outbid a combination bid from Amino, Roku and RPX, with an offer of $18.5 million, including £17.4 million in cash, to acquire the intellectual property and patents of MobiTV and its business as a going concern. The National Cable TV Cooperative, which represents more than 800 tier 3 cable operators, had sought to put together a consortium bid on behalf of its members.
Founded in 1999, MobiTV raised a total of $214 million over 9 rounds, most recently raising $50 million in 2019.
MobiTV filed for voluntary Chapter 11 protection in March. T-Mobile, which used the MobiTV platform to power its now abandoned online video service TV Vision, had financed the company through TVN Ventures to keep it going through the process.
TiVo said the acquisition of MobiTV will allow operators to launch a branded, fully featured, app-based subscription television service. The acquisition includes MobiTV patents, which Xperi says are highly complementary to its existing patent portfolio.
“The acquisition of the MobiTV assets immediately expands our capabilities and the addressable market for our IPTV solutions, helping to secure TiVo’s position as a leading provider of Pay-TV solutions,” said Jon Kirchner, the chief executive of Xperi. “As a result, the acquisition of MobiTV’s managed service assets will help accelerate our growth in the IPTV market through an increased subscriber footprint.”
Xperi completed its merger with TiVo in June 2020. It has a portfolio of more than 11,000 patents and applications.