Macrovision to Change its Name to Rovi

Macrovision--the company which last year acquired the US's dominant EPG developer, Gemstar-TV Guide, announced Tuesday that it plans to change its name to Rovi, as part of a complete revamp of its brand identity that will also see it adopting a new corporate visual design.

The company says that it will continue to operate as Macrovision until its July 15th annual stockholder meeting, at which the name change will be presented for approval. If stockholders approve the name change, Macrovision says, the company will also change its NASDAQ ticker symbol. "At Macrovision, we have transformed the company to be a leader in enabling the rapid adoption of digital entertainment," Macrovision president and CEO, Fred Amoroso, said in a prepared statement. "We have done this through a series of strategic acquisitions, divestitures and continued innovation of our product portfolio, and as a result, the company is dramatically different then it was just a year ago. As Rovi, we will unite our technology and people under one shared identity that speaks to who we have become and how we will drive our strategy moving forward as a technology leader that powers the discovery and enjoyment of digital entertainment."

Since acquiring Gemstar-TV Guide in March, 2008, Macrovision has divested itself of the latter's TV Guide Magazine, TV Guide Network, TV Guide Online and TVG properties, and also recently announced that it had signed a definitive agreement to acquire substantially all of the assets of Muze, a New York-based company that provides entertainment metadata products and discovery services.