October 4, 2005

TiVo Loses Another Top Executive

With all of the upheavals and problems TiVO has experienced lately, it's amazing they're still in business. It comes down to one thing - they have a great product that has a pretty strong loyalty factor. Still, you have to wonder how long till TiVo customers and investors start a mass defection because of nervousness of TiVo's future.

The latest in Tivo's saga is the announcement of the departure of Chief Financial Officer David H. Courtney. This all comes after losing two other high ranking executives in less than a year. The Motley Fool has a great article that discusses the the depature and questions the press release that announces it:

Anyway, dig into the press release and there is some explanation for Courtney's departure. "In light of the company's recent accelerated achievement of its profitability target, its very strong financial position, and the successful transition in CEO leadership, I feel that this is the right time for me to turn my attention to new and different pursuits," Courtney said.
Hmm. Things are going swimmingly, and my work here is done? Not.

We all know that TiVo still faces plenty of challenges from a slew of rivals on many fronts. Despite its highly anticipated deal with Comcast (Nasdaq: CMCSA), it recently lost its very important arrangement with DirecTV (NYSE: DTV), one that represents a whole lot of subscribers. TiVo also said recently that it plans to delay sustained profitability to embark on yet another marketing blitz. Yeah, yeah, it's to sign on as many subscribers as possible -- we've heard it before.

The press release didn't say where David Courtney was going, but I'm sure it has something to do with the manufacturing of rose colored glasses.

At The Fool.com