News

The company will seek a successor to Mike Ramsay, as predicted last year by
TVPredictions.com's Phillip Swann. Ramsay, however, will stay on as chairman.
By Mary Downs
Special to TVPredictions.com

Washington, D.C. (January 12 )-- TiVo, the Digital Video Recorder service, announced today that it will seek a new CEO to replace Mike Ramsay, who has been chief executive since the company's launch. Ramsay, however, will retain his role as Chairman of the Board and will continue as CEO until a successor is identified.

The company's decision to replace Ramsay was predicted last November by TVPredictions.com's Phillip Swann. Noting TiVo's continuing difficulty to persuade cable and satellite operators to license its technology, Swann wrote:

"Over the last four years, the company has been unable to persuade a single cable operator to license its technology. Now, cable operators are rolling out their own DVR services. TiVo is also heavily dependent on a company (DIRECTV) which is likely to reduce its marketing commitment in the near future. Plus, TiVo is now focusing more on non-DVR services, such as home
networking, which might be several years away from reaching a mass audience. This at a time when studies show that millions of consumers are considering getting a DVR. And the company has launched a succession of advertising campaigns that have failed to clearly communicate why someone would swap his VCR for a DVR.

Ramsay, a soft-spoken engineer, has made the wrong move at almost every turn. Consequently, I predict that TiVo's shareholders and board of directors will encourage Ramsay to let someone else run the company in 2005. The DVR service desperately needs bold, powerful and experienced leadership. Despite his brilliance in bringing TiVo to market, Mike Ramsay is not that person."

Failure
Ramsay, who co-founded the company in 1997, has successfully led TiVo to a premiere brand position, acquiring more than 2.3 million customers. However, many analysts, including important Wall Street officials, have said recently that the company's growth could be dramatically reduced in the next year because marketing partner DIRECTV will launch its own DVR. In addition, Ramsay has been criticized for his failure to land a cable licensing deal.

"Founding TiVo with Jim Barton and growing the company into a major consumer brand has been the thrill of a lifetime," Ramsay said in a statement released today. "We have achieved a tremendous amount since we started the company. We have had a fundamental impact on television viewing and believe strongly that the company has huge upside potential, in a massive market, going forward. I believe it is a natural evolution of any company to have a transition of leadership as the company grows and matures. The time is right for me, personally and professionally, to bring in an outstanding Chief Executive Officer to lead the company so that I can focus on future strategy. I feel this is a great opportunity for the right person to run one of the industry's most exciting companies, and I look
forward to recruiting a new CEO who will help the company realize its full potential."

Speaking on behalf of TiVo's Board of Directors, Geoff Yang, a founding investor in TiVo, said: "Mike Ramsay has led TiVo to an exceptional level of technology innovation, business performance and consumer satisfaction. As co-founder of TiVo, he has helped create a truly big idea and executed on its delivery into the marketplace with great skill. We plan to hire another exceptional leader in the months ahead."

TiVo has selected Howard Fischer Associates of Philadelphia, Silicon Valley and Boston to conduct the search process.