Rovi, the company that's buying TiVo, isn't very interested in staying in the hardware business.

The combined company will be looking to partner with set-top box makers instead of continuing to sell set-top boxes directly to consumers, Rovi Chief Financial Officer Peter Halt said at an investors conference last week. (See transcript and this Light Reading article.)

Halt noted that TiVo's direct relationship with consumers has "been a source of great innovation for them and stuff like that." But he then said that "being in the hardware business isn’t something that necessarily excites us." It sounds like TV watchers could still get boxes powered by TiVo software and services, but the hardware would be made by another company.

Halt continued:

There are several box providers out there who have direct-to-retail. We’ll be looking at the possibilities of working with them, having them control the box. And while that would be a partnership and we wouldn’t get all the sales as a result, we think that’s probably a better way to approach the consumer space. But don’t look for us to exit the consumer space. That relationship that TiVo has with consumers has been differentiated for them.

Rovi's $1.1 billion deal to buy TiVo is expected to close in the third quarter of this year. Rovi has said it will ditch its own name and "adopt the iconic TiVo brand as the new company name."

The new TiVo will focus heavily on making money by licensing technology to other companies. Rovi's acquisition announcement pointed out that the companies have "combined IP portfolios of over 6,000 issued patents and pending applications." (Rovi has more than 5,000 even without TiVo's.)

Rovi provides digital entertainment guides to cable companies and has actively asserted its patent rights. But last year, Netflix beat Rovi in a case that resulted in the invalidation of five Rovi patents. Netflix said that the patents, including one for "categorizing shows using combination categories," were too "broad and abstract."