Thursday, January 03, 2008 11:43:41 AM
Just out from my favorite poster on IV .Another great Post! :)
Interesting Echostar moves in the DVR arena
This first one is older news. And this is all speculation for the New Year, of course
Last fall, EchoStar (DISH) acquired SlingMedia for $380 million in cash and stock. Slingmedia makes the Slingbox, essentially a place-shifting device.
http://64.233.169.104/search?q=cache:0GVdDF2NBhIJ:biz.yahoo.com/bw/070924/20070924006504.html+echostar+sling+media&hl=en&ct=clnk&cd=10&gl=us
http://www.slingmedia.com/go/about
“…The Slingbox turns any Internet-connected PC or laptop, Mac, or smartphone into your home television…Sling Media's innovative SlingPlayer™ software connects users on all types of computing platforms to their Slingbox which then gives them complete control over their living room TV. The Slingbox gives customers the ability to control any Audio/Video device including analog cable, a digital cable box, satellite receiver, digital video recorder (DVR) a DVD player or even a still video camera…”
Comment: I gather that Slingbox lets you watch / control whatever is on your TV – which can come from a DVR – from a remote location on their laptop. This is a substantial extension to DVR functionality.
..however it is an extension. DISH apparently though this was worth $380M. Wonder what DISH might think patent(s) that may cover the actual recording and storage of digital video and which potentially predate the Tivo DVR patent might be worth?
Especially now that DISH has lost two key battles in their DVR patent fight with Tivo. First the Tivo DVR patent has been deemed valid by the USPTO -- a re-exam by the patent office upheld the Tivo patent. (Note that this exam did not consider the Burst DVR patent because that patent was in application and had not been published in any form when the re-exam was going on.) Second, DISH was deemed to be infringing on the Tivo patent when they lost the Court case and as a result faces a ~$90M judgement. In view of the USPTO re-exam, their chances on appeal do not look very good to me.
Since then DISH has now spun off its set top hardware business into a separate company (stock symbol SATS) that will possess “…Sling, the set-top business and other tech assets…”
http://biz.yahoo.com/paidcontent/071228/1_318187_id.html?.v=1
And finally fof course we have -- totally out of the blue -- Apple extracting a promise out of Burst that Burst (and no doubt that includes any of Burst's successors, assigns, purchasers, etc, etc) will not sue Apple for any future infringement of Burst's DVR patent.
Wonder what all these players are planning further this year?
http://www1.investorvillage.com/smbd.asp?mb=389&mn=3244&pt=msg&mid=3785244
WALL STREET BOARD
investorshub.advfn.com/boards/board.asp?board_id=11771
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