'Judgment day' coming for EchoStar
Thursday April 13, 2:07 pm ET
A jury in Marshall, Texas, is expected to begin deliberating Thursday on a civil suit in U.S. District Court to determine whether EchoStar Communications Inc. infringed on patent from TiVo Inc. for a technology that lets viewers capture video programming from a hard disc.
TiVo, based in Alviso, Calif., claims that it lost $87 million in sales and royalties when Englewood-based EchoStar (NASDAQ: DISH - News), owner of the Dish satellite TV network, started offering a similar product for its subscribers.
EchoStar officials deny the allegations, saying the company used different software and hardware than the product invented by TiVo.
TiVo, which also faced competition from cable providers who incorporated similar recorders from Motorola and Cisco Systems Inc., has lost nearly $650 million and endured numerous rounds of layoffs since it started facing the competition.
EchoStar reported $8.4 billion in sales in 2005, while TiVo reported only $172 million the same year.
However, the company recently reached an agreement with cable giant Comcast Corp., which will begin selling its boxes later this year.
Published April 13, 2006 by The Denver Business Journal |
