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Biz Briefs

May 26, 2003  •  Post A Comment

Gemstar-TV Guide International has set out “to fix the nuts and bolts of the company,” improving its corporate governance policies and internal controls since a new management team was brought in last November, CEO Jeff Shell said last week at the company’s annual meeting. “We did a lot of work below the hood of the company,” said Mr. Shell, who was named CEO last October following the departure of Henry Yuen.
Mr. Shell said the company is pressing ahead with plans to focus on cash-generating businesses, including the relaunch of the TV Guide publication and inking a distribution deal with multiple system operator Cox Communications for the TV Guide Channel.
TiVo Loss Less in First Quarter
Digital video recording company TiVo reported a narrowed fiscal first-quarter loss, buoyed by strong subscriber growth, and forecast that it would reach more than 1 million users by January 2004. The San Jose, Calif.-based company reported red ink of $7.9 million, or 12 cents a share, for the three months ended April 30, sharply improved from a year-earlier loss of $35.2 million, or 74 cents a share. Revenue soared 63 percent to $16.1 million from a year-earlier figure of $9.9 million.
The improvement came as the company reported that it added 79,000 new customers during the period, vs. 42,000 a year earlier. TiVo’s total subscriber base is now 703,000.
ValueVision CEO to Leave Post
ValueVision Media, the company that owns ShopNBC and ShopNBC.com, said Tuesday that CEO Gene McCaffery is stepping down after the company reported a decline in fiscal first-quarter profit. For the three months ended April 30, the Minneapolis-based company reported a quarterly profit of $532,000, down 13 percent from a year ago.