SANTA CLARA, Calif., April 29, 2013 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Rovi Corporation (Nasdaq:ROVI), driving digital entertainment innovation, today announced that Julian Lighton has joined the company as executive vice president of strategy and corporate development. Mr. Lighton's responsibilities include driving strategy, mergers and acquisitions, alliances, government affairs, new ventures and business intelligence, emphasizing both organic and inorganic growth initiatives. He reports directly to Rovi's president and CEO, Tom Carson. He is based out of Rovi's Santa Clara, Calif. office.
"Julian brings an outstanding track record of identifying and executing on high-growth business opportunities," said Mr. Carson. "Julian's experience as a strategist and a general manager in successfully founding and scaling new businesses, entering emerging markets, and building new business models makes him the ideal choice to lead Rovi's growth strategy and drive digital entertainment innovation worldwide."
Mr. Lighton has more than 20 years of experience in directing the creation and execution of highly successful corporate, business unit, and new market strategies that produce strong top- and bottom-line impact for Fortune 1000 businesses. He comes to Rovi from Neustar Inc. (NSR), where he was chief strategy officer and senior vice president for corporate development. In this capacity he was responsible for Neustar's market leading, entertainment platform - 'Ultraviolet', DRM business. Previously, Mr. Lighton served as vice president for strategy, planning and market development in Cisco's Worldwide Enterprise Business. In that role, Mr. Lighton was responsible for Cisco's global enterprise go-to-market strategy, business planning, governance and metrics, business intelligence and market development, comprising more than two-thirds of the company's $46B business. He also served as vice president of strategy, operations and business development for Cisco's Emerging Markets, which included 136 countries covering Latin America, the Middle East and Africa, Russia and Central and Eastern Europe. He successfully guided this multi-cultural, global business to grow at more than 30 percent annually for five years to become a highly profitable, five billion dollar a year business. Prior to Cisco, Mr. Lighton held senior level positions with Hitachi Americas Limited, McKinsey & Co., and Cambridge Technology Partners.
"I am very excited to join Rovi. Companies that possess platform technology, information and performance standards and organize their value chain participation to take advantage of those assets outperform their peers," said Mr. Lighton. "I believe Rovi has these assets and look forward to helping Tom and the team to continue to grow Rovi into a world leading entertainment discovery, delivery, distribution and monetization company."
About Rovi Corporation
Rovi powers the discovery, delivery, display and monetization of digital entertainment. With innovative technology solutions for consumer electronics manufacturers, service providers, content producers, advertisers, retailers and websites, Rovi connects people and the entertainment they love. The company holds over 5,000 issued or pending patents worldwide and is headquartered in Santa Clara, California. More information about Rovi can be found at rovicorp.com.
Forward Looking Statements
All statements contained herein that are not statements of historical fact, including statements that describe the Company's or its management's future plans for growth or future opportunities are "forward-looking statements" and are made pursuant to the Safe-Harbor provisions of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Such forward-looking statements involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors that could cause the actual results of the Company to be materially different from the historical results and/or from any future results or outcomes expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements. Such factors are further addressed in the Company's most recent report on Form 10-K for the period ended December 31, 2012 and such other documents as are filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission from time to time (available at www.sec.gov). The Company assumes no obligation to update any forward-looking statements in order to reflect events or circumstances that may arise after the date of this release, except as required by law.