Bankruptcy court approves TiVo-MobiTV transaction

A Delaware bankruptcy court judge has approved TiVo's $18.5 million bid to acquire the assets of MobiTV, the provider of video software and infrastructure that filed voluntary Chapter 11 restructuring in early March, according to Bloomberg.

Update: Here is the order approving the transaction (PDF).

Court approval arrives about nine days after TiVo came away as the top bidder for MobiTV's assets, including the company's intellectual patent and portfolio as well as MobiTV's "going concern" business that enables dozens of cable operators and telcos to deliver app- and IP-based pay-TV services. TiVo beat an $18 million combined bid from Amino Technologies ($13 million for MobiTV's going concern business) and a joint venture of Roku and RPX ($5 million for MobiTV's IP/patent assets).

Other qualified bidders for the MobiTV assets heading into the auction included TV2 Consulting, Vobile Group, Aire and Streaming TV Acquisition, a group that, according to an industry source, was led by Comporium Communications, with financial backing from Cable One/Sparklight and Buckeye Cablevision.

According to recent auction results posted with the US Bankruptcy Court for the District of Delaware, TiVo is obligated to close on the transaction no later than 4 p.m. EST on June 1, 2021.

TiVo believes the MobiTV asset deal will add critical tech and services components for its managed IPTV platform and drive more scale into its broader pay-TV business. The transaction is also taking shape as Xperi, which merged with TiVo in June 2019, explores a plan to break out its products business and its intellectual property business, perhaps by mid-2022.

"It was clear for us to be successful on a standalone basis, we needed to find growth in our largest market [for the products side of the business], which is pay-TV," Geir Skaaden, executive vice president and chief products and services officer at Xperi, told Light Reading in a recent interview. "This activity around MobiTV was really driven by the product side."

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— Jeff Baumgartner, Senior Editor, Light Reading