Rovi Corporation Reviews

Pros

Rovi is smart when it comes to making money. They have all the right patents. The benefits packages are great. Flexible time off is a great perk.

Cons

Rovi has not figured out how to maintain or build a strong company culture while constantly acquiring companies. There is also a lack of direction when it comes to the consumer strategy.

Advice to Senior Management

If you are acquiring consumer facing brands, be ready to devote the necessary resources to maintain, build and support them.

Pros

Good benefits
Cool friendly people
Open environment

Cons

They give promotions without raises
Fail to recognize employees who deserve the recognition
Real disconnect between upper management and lower lever employees.

Pros

Great benefits, great stock price appreciation over the last several years. Interesting area (guidance and discovery) and sector (cable, web and consumer electronics) to work in.

Cons

Stifling bureaucracy, very mixed middle management, some senior executives checked out once they made their millions. Patent troll tendencies from Gemstar-TV Guide continue to dominate company.

Advice to Senior Management

Fred Amoroso's retirement is coming at the right time. Change, beginning at the top, and a thorough housecleaning is needed.

Pros

The best reasons to work there was the engineering teams eventually were able to work together. ALL the Engineering teams were very bright, capable and effective. This is/could be an EXCELLENT product.

Cons

The corporate structure from VP level and EVP level is a joke. There are a few good ones, in Engineering, but at the corporate level, they all manage amongst them selves, or up, and have no clue or care what happens below their level. The VP's manage UP, not down, and poor Fred is so clueless as to what is going on other than what his direct reports tell him. It is a shame he is so out of it. But as long as the stock goes up, he won't care.

Advice to Senior Management

Fred, there is a LOT going on you have NO idea about. You need to NOT trust your direct reports as much as you do. There is something VERY wrong in this company below your direct reports level, which is a shame because I thought you were smart enough to see that stuff and stop it.

Pros

SideReel is a well-managed startup that has already succeeded. Its top management has turned the success of the company into the success of all employees. They have great respect for employees and value their contributions. They are not about micro-managing, but letting employees exercise leadership and allowing them the room to succeed. Working hours are reasonable and employees are very rarely called upon to work late. I love working here!

Cons

As much as the main office offers a great small-company feeling, following "open office" concept, and in a quaint red-brick building surrounded by run-of-the-mill high-rises, the facilities could definitely use some improvement. The small kitchen gets very dirty, the trash piles up quickly and there is only one bathroom.

Advice to Senior Management

My only advice to management is to keep up the open communication going and continue showing that great respect for the employees. Allowing employees to be creative and self-directed has brought about the business success. Thanks for keeping SideReel a place where people love to work!

Pros

Good salary and benefits
Commitment to creating a desirable work space
Innovative products with a monopoly in its market space
Tremendous potential for revenue growth

Cons

Culture is very fractured due to the company's non-stop acquisition of new properties. Many "entities" within the company (TV Guide, Allmusic, etc) still maintain independent cultures and processes, and not all are treated equally, with some carrying "favored nation" status. Also, there is virtually no commitment to service, either from a management or financial standpoint. It's as if the company is resting on the laurels of its products.

Advice to Senior Management

Understand that quality service is a key component to the selling and growth process. Build out a professional team with a strong ability support and manage customer satisfaction.

Pros

- Depending on your manager, the ability to telecommute once in a while. This needs to be agreed upon with senior management and/or on the hire date.
- The technology is good and the prospects for the future of this industry is also good.
- The ESPP plan is good. The price locks in for two years. The # of stock options granted at hiring is average for the industry and size of the company.

Cons

1) Management at Rovi can go unchecked, where 360-degree feedback does not include feedback for your managers.
2) The career development program is limited to your current group. Changing groups is difficult since internal candidates compete with external candidates for these positions. Also, there is no rotational career program.
3) Recurring stock options are not granted. Only those given at the hire date are. Like other companies in this area do, all employees in the company should be given recurring stock options.
4) Due to multiple aquisitions, there are scattered resources around the country. So, there is a slight disconnect here which makes communication and coordination a challenge.

Advice to Senior Management

Please look at the Cons section for some of this information.
There's one extra issue. Overall, 1st-line management is inexperienced in leadership. Full 360-degree feedback is a must.

Pros

This was with the licensing group that was spun off - know known as Flexera. Good management. Good product.

Cons

When it was part of what is now Rovi, they used this group as a cash cow-didn't put a thing into the development, especially the license management software

Advice to Senior Management

Go Flexera!

Pros

Excellent compensation in salary. Good amount of vacation days. Telecommuting not officially supported, but telecommuting widely tolerated within software groups.

Cons

Some positions can be very high stress and very visible, depending on product responsibilities. Favortism - while this may be understandable because there are some long-time key employees, it limits the opportunities available to others.

Advice to Senior Management

Encourage communication flow between employees and management. Value your employees. You can choose to create a culture of communication, loyalty, and respect, or fear and mistrust .

Pros

Great benefits package, with some exceptional health perks. Large, multi-location company yielding some relative job security for some positions. Many people seem to be happy and satisfied working here.

Cons

Problems mentioned in the headline, leading to some 'reinventing the wheel.' And every department (HR, IT, Sales, etc) is a vertical silo, meaning answerable only to itself. This leads to significantly dysfunctional ops, and to departments looking out for themselves at the expense of common sense and the overall business.

Advice to Senior Management

Reconsider your org structure, reconsider assumptions and sacred, protected areas, hire high level people with significant experience in the areas you want to break into, and be cognizant of what you do not know.