DirecTV Buys ReplayTV

Satellite television operator DirecTV is buying most of the assets of DVR maker ReplayTV, perhaps in a move to shore up its DVR offerings and intellectual property.

Satellite TV operator DirecTV has inked a deal to aquire most of the assets of ReplayTV from its current corporate owner, Japan’s D&M Holdings, Inc.

“Although we valued this asset and the business was profitable, the sale of ReplayTV to DirecTV makes the most sense for this business, its employees and us,” said D&M Holdings chair and CEO Eric C. Evans, in a statement. “We believe this transaction is a positive development for ReplayTV and this sale allows D&M to further direct our focus on building our brands and executing our growth and acquisition strategies.”

Financial terms of the purchase were not disclosed. D&M will continue to handle existing service contracts for current ReplayTV subscribers, while DirecTV will assume most of the rest of ReplayTV’s assets. D&M is also the parent company of audio and home theater brands like Denon and Marantz.

DirecTV apparently plans to use the assets of the acquisition to explore new services although no decisions have been made about integrating ReplayTV technology into DirecTV’s existing platform. DirecTV currently offers DVRs from NDS Corp., after walking away from a partnership with former ReplayTV rival TiVo.

ReplayTV was an early competitor to TiVo—even beating TiVo to market by a few months—but failed to capture market share and imagination. In 2001, SonicBlue purchased ReplayTV for $125 million, but sold it (along with portable media player maker Rio) to D&M in 2003 for a mere $36.2 million, after being sued into bankruptcy by Hollywood studios over ReplayTV’s ad-skipping feature. D&M removed the feature from the ReplayTV products.