By Frank Michael Russell
Mercury News Assistant Business Editor
TiVo, the struggling San Jose pioneer in the digital video recorder market, reported a net loss for its latest quarter that was narrower than a year ago.
TiVo reported its results just after the stock market closed this afternoon. For the fiscal third quarter that ended Oct. 31, TiVo said its net loss was $11.1 million, or 12 cents a share, compared with a net loss of $14.2 million, or 17 cents a share, in the same period a year ago. Sales jumped 32 percent to $65.7 million.
Even though the company continues to lose money, Chief Executive Tom Rogers focused on the positive in a statement accompanying the results.
`Our strategy remains clear: to drive our standing as the only branded and truly differentiated DVR in the world,” Rogers said. “In the third quarter, we continued to make progress toward that goal and our results reflected our efforts as gross subscription addition growth was positive for the first time on a year-over-year basis in six quarters.”
The company warned that it expects a net loss of $33 million to $38 million in the current quarter, as it increases rebate offers in an effort to attract more subscribers.
TiVo’s shares were lower in extended trading after the report was released.
General Motors promised today to produce a Saturn Vue plug-in hybrid. Yes, that GM, the one that critics contend killed the electric car.
Aiming to grab a share of the green-vehicle spotlight at this year’s Los Angeles Auto Show, GM CEO Rick Wagoner said the company would build a plug-in hybrid version of its Saturn Vue crossover-utility vehicle that could be charged at home, yielding what he called “significant” gains in fuel economy.
Wagoner, however, did not say specifically when such a car would be available. `It’s pretty clear it will take several years,” he said, according to a report by our auto editor Matt Nauman.
Other automakers revealed their own alternative-fuel plans at the show, aided by a lineup of B-level celebrities, according to Nauman’s blog, Every Car I Drive.
Zune update: It’s not that we’re obsessed with Microsoft’s new digital music player. It’s that we are obsessed with its much more dominant rival, Apple Computer’s iPod.
Anyway, in the week that ended Nov. 18, Zune debuted at No. 2 in the market, with a 9 percent market share, according to NPD Group. That put Zune ahead of the former lead iPod also-ran, SanDisk’s Sansa player. However, Apple sold 63 percent of all digital music players in the week that Zune entered the market.
“It’s a good start and clearly Microsoft’s retail presence and the publicity leading up to the device led to a number of customers coming out to explore the player,” NPD analyst Ross Rubin told Bloomberg News.
Speaking of Microsoft, the company’s chief financial officer assured analysts today that it will sell 10 million Xbox video game players this year. `We’re very happy going to the holiday season,” CFO Chris Liddell said at a Credit Suisse conference in Arizona, according to Bloomberg News. Microsoft, of course, now faces competition in the market for next-generation video game players: Sony’s Playstation 3 and Nintendo’s Wii.
Silicon Valley tech stocks: Up: Cisco Systems, Intel, Hewlett-Packard, Oracle, eBay, Yahoo, Gilead Sciences and Applied Materials. Down: Google and Apple Computer.
Check in weekday afternoons for the 60-Second Business Break, a summary of news from Mercury News staff writers, the Associated Press, Bloomberg News and other wire services. Contact Frank Russell at frussell@mercurynews.com.