After a very protracted fight, Dish finally succumbed to the law and paid TiVo for its DVR technology. Next up, AT&T, decided it was better to pay up rather than fight and is paying 215 million dollars to settle. "TiVo sued AT&T and Verizon in August 2009 alleging infringement of the Time Warp patent"; so the next question must be, what will Verizon do? Will they fight like Dish paying lawyer fees that will only raise their cost of doing business or will they rollover like AT&T and pay out a sum in order to settle. Clearly, TiVo appears to be the likely winner in that next match. TiVo also has pending litigation against Microsoft and Motorola Mobility, two more companies that must also be looking at the writing on the wall.
Of course, any time TiVo comes up in the news, speculation grows whether they may be a possible takeover target. With deals in place with a number of cable and satellite companies, TiVo has the potential to grow even larger. The timing has never seemed better.
