TiVo (TIVO)

[eldeva]

Recently promoted, colourful past, shareholder with a track record of expensive lawsuit settlements

A recently promoted stock (1) TiVo Corp. describes itself as a “global leader in media and entertainment products that power consumer entertainment experiences and enable its customers to deepen and further monetize their audience relationships.” It came into inception on April 2016, when TiVo Inc. and Rovi Corp. merged through Rovi’s acquisition TiVo. Rovi’s is no stranger to controversy. In 2015, Christian Keller. Rovi’s vice president of corporate finance was sued by the SEC for insider trading for his dealings with John Gray (2), an equities researcher for a major brokerage firm. Keller and Gray were subsequently charged with conspiracy and securities fraud (3).

Then there are the numerous controversies surrounding Ameriprise Financial Inc. who hold over 8% of TiVo’s common stock (4). In 2018 the SEC charged them with failure to safeguard client assets because of fraudulent acts such as forging client documents and stealing more than $1 million in retail client funds over a four-year period (5). Ameriprise settled the charges for the sum of $4.5 million. This is not the only time Ameriprise has run into legal troubles. A few years ago, Securities America (an Ameriprise unit at the time) sold hundreds of millions of dollars in supposed medical bills receivables belonging to Medical Capital Holdings in what turned out to be Ponzi scheme (6). Medical Holdings when on to spend the money on a yacht and a Hollywood film. Ameriprise had to pay $150 million to settle the problem (7).

(1) http://www.icontact-archive.com/archive?c=925383&f=3061&s=47183&m=2637326&t=5e3aaaa6bc082a73cc05ab3b54e7dfdd61380804ac86e3cf57174cc5d9e72ca4
(2) https://www.sec.gov/litigation/complaints/2015/comp-pr2015-23.pdf
(3) https://patch.com/california/mountainview/rovi-corp-vp-pleads-guilty-insider-trading
(4) https://www.otcmarkets.com/filing/html?id=13225064&guid=bMuIUqF2LQ1lGth
(5) https://www.sec.gov/news/press-release/2018-154
(6) https://www.sec.gov/litigation/litreleases/2009/lr21165.htm
(7) https://www.thinkadvisor.com/2011/04/21/ameriprise-to-pay-150-million-to-settle-securities/