TiVo refutes rumors, says hardware is a 'core business'

After Wired magazine reported that TiVo had let go most of its hardware team and was “getting out of the hardware business altogether and making a big direction change,” TiVo VP of corporate communications Steve Wymer said: "It's not right to say that TiVo's out of the hardware business. We're just as fired up as consumers are about the Roamio and we expect to deliver on that for years to come. It's one of our core businesses and our shining jewel."

Wymer confirmed that layoffs did take place, but that they reflect TiVo's new focus as it begins work on the network DVR platform it announced at CES. "We have exploding potential in the cloud," says Wymer. "We shift our resources and our personnel based on our priorities." Those priorities shifting ever more dramatically to software over hardware as time goes on isn't hard to envision, though; TiVo has long held that it's a software and services company, and it maintains a healthy patent-licensing business for several core DVR technologies. But dropping hardware now seems poorly timed: the Roamio DVR is getting stellar reviews, is featured in a massive national advertising campaign, and TiVo still has significant hardware obligations recently disclosed to investors.