RoviDelays Earnings Call, TiVo Shares Surge

Shares in TiVo were up almost 6% in after-hours trading Thursday after Rovi announced it had rescheduled its earnings call from Thursday afternoon to Friday morning.

Investors apparently believe that the delay could mean that TiVo and Rovi are close to tying the knot.  The New York Times reported last month that the companies were in “advanced negotiations” about a mergerBloomberg reported on April 14 that Rovi and TiVo were quibbling over the longer-term value of their patent portfolios and other intellectual property, adding then that no deal was imminent  and that a proposed merger could still fall apart.

Rovi was originally scheduled to post Q1 earnings and hold a call with reporters an analyst Thursday afternoon; the call is now slated for Friday (April 29) at 8 a.m. ET.  Rovi did not announce a reason for the delay.