As it gets set to close on its $1.1 billion acquisition of TiVo, Rovi Corp. has announced the hiring of former Ericsson executive Pete Thompson as executive VP and chief operating officer, and placed him in charge of TiVo product integration.
Thompson will be based in Rovi’s San Jose, Calif. headquarters and report directly to Rovi CEO Tom Carson. He’ll start Sept. 6, immediately after the deal is merger deal is set to close.
“As Rovi and TiVo prepare to join forces as one company, Silicon Valley will become an even greater focal point for our product businesses and organization, and the board of directors and I are extremely pleased that we’ll have a strong presence with Pete in the Bay Area,” Carson said in a statement.
“Pete has a proven ability to accelerate product development and drive significant revenue growth inside technology organizations,” Carson added. “Upon closing of the TiVo acquisition, Pete’s initial focus will be on integrating the companies’ best-of-breed technological and product capabilities to take advantage of the tremendous opportunities and synergies formed by the new organization.”
At Ericsson, Thompson was senior VP of the Mediaroom Business Group, where he led the development of products targeted to consumers, producers and carriers. He previously had a similar position at Microsoft.
Concurrent with Thompson’s hiring, Rovi said that John Burke, executive VP, will move into a strategic advisor role through the end of the year to help with the TiVo integration. The company said Burke is not able to relocate from the East Coast for personal reasons and has made the decision to leave Rovi.
Earlier this week, TiVo filed a merger-related document to the FCC, revealing that it added 239,000 cable subscribers during the second quarter.
With the additions, TiVo now serves 6.68 million MSO subs. It lost 3,000 retail subscribers during the second quarter, bringing its base down to 971,000 in that sector.
TiVo now serves a total of 7.4 million subscribers.
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