TiVo co-creator Barton leaves CTO role
updated 05:10 pm EDT, Sat March 17, 2012
TiVo CTO Barton backs away
TiVo through an SEC filing let slip that its co-founder and CTO Jim Barton was leaving. He had left Friday, although he would stay on as a consultant on legal and patent issues for $25,000 per month. No immediate replacement had been named.
In commentary at Deadline, company CEO Tom Rogers characterized Barton's exit as amicable. The company was "extremely grateful" to Barton and was happy he was staying on, Rogers said.
Barton himself suggested that he was starting his own project rather than jumping ship to another firm. He was hoping to establish the "next 'big idea,'" without giving clues as to what that might be.
Barton and fellow co-creator, former CEO Mike Ramsay, launched the TiVo DVR in 1999. It earned early success by providing both one of the few DVR options at the time as well as an experience that to this day is considered better than may cable and satellite DVRs. The rise of free or cheap rental DVRs from TV service providers, however, along with a sometimes over-conservative development cycle, led to the company struggling in more recent years. Deals with cable providers to become their video recording choice, such as for the Premiere Elite, have helped it recover late into 2011. [via The Verge]
