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Law360 (May 13, 2021, 7:15 PM EDT) -- Video streaming service MobiTV Inc. told a Delaware bankruptcy judge that TiVo Corp. won its Chapter 11 asset auction with a more than $23 million bid.
In court filings Wednesday MobiTV said the going concern bid submitted by TiVo on Friday was for $17.4 million in cash and the assumption of about $6 million in liabilities.
"This is a fantastic success for MobiTV and its creditors," MobiTB counsel Jason Rosell said in a phone interview Thursday.
California-based MobiTV was founded in 2000 and provides live and on-demand video for televisions and mobile devices. At the time of the Chapter 11 filing it was partnered with wireless provider T-Mobile and more than 120 cable providers to deliver streaming content to over 300,000 end-users, but Rosell said Thursday that T-Mobile decided to shut down its live television business after the filing.
"We lost our largest customer and 50% of our business," he said.
It filed for Chapter 11 in March with $75 million in liabilities, saying it was facing a slower growth of its customer base because of the COVID-19 pandemic and a $34 million operating loss in 2020. MobiTV said it would be seeking a buyer while continuing operations with $15.5 million in debtor-in-possession financing provided by a T-Mobile affiliate.
Rosell said the company had eight bidders in a virtual auction that took place over two days and was open to the public, attracting more than 100 viewers.
"They got a glimpse of how bankruptcy auctions really work," he said.
In an announcement Wednesday Xperi Holding Corp. — TiVo's parent company since the businesses merged in 2019 — said MobiTV's platform was an "attractive extension" of TiVo's own internet-protocol television offerings.
"MobiTV will help increase TiVo's IPTV penetration with U.S. Pay-TV operators enabling them to rapidly launch a branded, fully featured, app-based Pay-TV service," it said.
It also said MobiTV's patent holdings were "highly complementary" to Xperi's patent portfolio.
MobiTV is represented by Mary F. Caloway, Debra Grassgreen and Jason Rosell of Pachulski Stang Ziehl & Jones LLP.
The case is In re: MobiTV Inc., case number 21-10457, in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the District of Delaware.
--Editing by Amy Rowe.
For a reprint of this article, please contact reprints@law360.com.
