TiVo Shares Soar on Report of ‘Advanced’ Merger Talks With Rovi

TiVo shares closed 23 percent higher Thursday at $9.45 following a report in the The New York Times that the company was in “advanced negotiations” to be sold to Rovi. Shares in Rovi closed 1.3 percent lower Thursday at $19.81. After a deal closes, TiVo shareholders would own about 30 percent of the combined company, the report said. TiVo and Rovi representatives didn’t comment. In TiVo’s latest earnings call in early March (see 1603020001), interim CEO Naveen Chopra fielded questions about the company’s possible mergers and acquisitions strategies, but as a buyer, not as a seller. “Obviously, we can't comment on any specifics in terms of how we deploy our own resources, how we think about M&A opportunities,” Chopra told a questioner. “We continue to look at a lot of things, as we've shown in the past when we have seen opportunities that we think are strategic and consistent with the areas where we are looking to grow.” If such deal opportunities “make financial sense, we're willing to do them,” he said.