Thursday, November 29, 2007

TiVo Earnings Report: Profit's Still Not Its Middle Name [Money, Money, Money]

tivograph.jpgI kinda thought (hoped) earnings report season was over. But it's not! Today we're looking at TiVo's net loss of $8.2 million on revenues of $58 million, which was "considerably ahead of guidance" and up (down?) from an $11.1 million net loss in the same quarter last year on revenues of $52.5 million. Given all the love there is for TiVo, the fact that it's not making money (and hasn't been) might be surprising for the uninitiated. So them calling this a good quarter probably sounds weird. But let's look at some of the other numbers.



"TiVo-owned" subscribers climbed to 1.7 million from 1.6 in the same period last year, though their overall numbers (cumulative total of 4.1 million) were hurt by DirecTV dumping TiVo boxes. Also stinging is their churn rate, which is up to 1.3 percent from 1 percent a year ago.



If you look at next quarter's guidance, it's actually not expected to be any prettier: "Revenues in the range of $58 million to $60 million, a net loss in the range of ($9.0) million to ($12.0) million." They could be pulling the classic Apple trick of undershooting and overdelivering, especially considering the zillion tributaries of revenue they've been setting up with all of the wheelin' and dealin' they did this quarter. These deals are why TiVo can (sorta) call this quarter a good one, even if it's just spin while they're bleeding money. Of course, it'll be a few months before see if it pans out that way.








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