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Apple to Buy TiVo?

Posted by samzenpus on from the rumor-mill dept.

vallette writes "Reuters is reporting that Apple may be interested in buying TiVo. Seems like a good fit to me. Both companies stock price is up on the rumor."

2 of 491 comments (clear)

  1. Re:Go for it! by prichardson · · Score: 5, Informative

    Misconception Alert!

    Don't worry, it's a minor one.

    Pixlet is designed for video editing. It compresses each frame individually. This is good for doing certain effects, since any frame can be pulled out of context.

    MPEG-4 compression uses previous frames to make a frame. This allows the file to be smaller, but doesn't allow frames to pulled out of context for effects to be added.

    Hope that clears things up! Otherwise, great post.

    --
    Help I'm a rock.
  2. anatomy of a rumor by aka-ed · · Score: 5, Informative
    At 12:21 pm someone calling himself "philipswann" posted the following on the Yahoo board:

    TiVo Sale Rumors -- link
    by: phillipswann 02/23/05 12:21 pm
    Msg: 239226 of 239994

    http://www.swannisez.com/tivorumor022305.html

    (If you look at that link now, it's a rehash of Reuters news concerning the rumor, with no hint that Swann -- who has probably scared himself half to death by singlehandedly moving the market -- started this rumor himself)

    At 3:11 pm, Marketwatch issued a sloppy story that credited an entity called "Inside Digital Media" for cracking the apple buyout story. However, if you visit the site, you will find a blog entry that presents a well-reasoned rationale as to why Apple should buy Tivo, but no hard news at all.

    Subsequently, analyst Steven Kroll, Jr. (whose dad is a senior partner at the same firm) provided the "what we hear on the street" quote that Reuters served up.

    No one seems to have bothered at all to trace this garbage to its specious sources.

    I own some Tivo, and was watching all of this today because I was considering cutting my losses (this dog had lost one-third of its value in a month). Instead, I'm holding on and hoping for a short squeeze, or even the possibility that the rumors will alert video-on-demand competitors to what a bargain TIVO's 3 million subscribers would be for anyone seeking a toehold on the living room.

    So, while it looks to me that the rumor is only that, I wouldn't be too surprised if it became reality.

    --
    I survived the Dick Cheney Presidency 7 to 9 AM 7-21-07