TIVO’S TROUBLES

“Our plan is to run as fast as we can,” vowed Michael Ramsay, cofounder and CEO of TiVo. Almost a year after debuting its little box at the Consumer Electronics Show in Vegas, TiVo had gone public, reached a $1.4 billion market valuation—and lost nearly $32 million while accumulating a few thousand dollars in revenue from early subscribers. The challenges ahead for Ramsay and TiVo were clear: “The technology of searching and recording, which is not protected by patents . . . can easily be copied.” —Forbes, November 29, 1999