TiVo Inc (Nasdaq: TIVO) . said Tuesday that Marty Yudkovitz has resigned as president, marking the second major change in as many weeks in the executive ranks at the embattled digital video recording company. Monday's resignation of Yudkovitz, an NBC executive who joined TiVo in May 2003, comes two weeks after chief executive Mike Ramsay said he would be stepping down from the helm as soon as a replacement is found.
Competition Heating Up Yudkovitz, who said he was leaving for personal reasons, will remain on for a period of time as a consultant for certain matters, the company said. No replacement was named. Alviso, Calif.-based TiVo, founded in 1997 by Ramsay and Jim Barton, the company's chief technology officer, helped introduce digital video recorders to consumers in 1999, and has since become the industry's leading brand name. But others are fast encroaching, namely cable and satellite operators which are introducing their own digital recording features in their set-top-boxes. Digital video recording is also being built into media-oriented computers and other consumer electronics devices like DVD recorders or televisions themselves. The number of TiVo subscribers has steadily grown -- it accounts for about a third of the estimated 6.5 million of the nation's households that have DVRs -- but the company has not yet reached sustained profitability. It hopes to do so by the end of 2005. Difficult Phase Yudkovitz, a 20-year television industry veteran who played a key role in creating CNBC and MSNBC which are owned by General Electric (NYSE: GE) Co., was recruited by TiVo to help build closer ties with Hollywood, which has largely been rankled by copyright concerns stemming from digital video recording. The technology lets television viewers record shows to a hard drive, fast forward through commercials and pause live TV. Yudkovitz said in statement he had a heavy commute between both coasts and that he chose a ''logical time'' to resign and spend more time with his family. Analysts say the dual executive departures reflect the difficult phase TiVo faces as it tries to reshape itself and grow amid stiffening competition from deep-pocketed rivals. "It looks like both the CEO and president are saying, 'We've taken the company as far as we can, and let's find somebody who can take TiVo to the next level,'" said April Horace, an analyst at Janco Partners Inc. Broadening Services Failing to win major distribution partners in the cable industry and having lost its exclusive digital recording supplier stance with satellite provider DirecTV , TiVo is seeking to raise the profile of its independent "standalone" products. It lowered the price on a unit to US$99 last year and allocated $50 million for marketing and advertising. Last month, the company introduced TiVoToGo, a long-awaited service feature that lets subscribers transfer programs from their TiVo units to their computers. The company also announced plans for a new unit that will use a cable card, which will eliminate the need for an additional cable set-top box. On Monday, the company said it will invite third-party developers to create software for TiVo users, hoping to draw an expanded set of media applications, such as music and photo services, even video games. Shares of TiVo fell 13 cents, or 3.2 percent, to $3.88 in morning trading Tuesday on the Nasdaq Stock Market. The stock has dropped by more than 65 percent from a 52-week high of $12.94 back in March. [Non-text portions of this message have been removed] ------------------------ Yahoo! Groups Sponsor --------------------~--> Unbelievable Blog of the Week recommends: The Lincoln Fry Blog. Read all about the French fry that looks like Abraham Lincoln. http://us.click.yahoo.com/bBwbuA/eV0JAA/Zx0JAA/eCTplB/TM --------------------------------------------------------------------~-> Yahoo! Groups Links <*> To visit your group on the web, go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/tivocentral/ <*> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] <*> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to: http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
