[HDFootyMan]

Hmmm:
http://www.fool.com/investing/genera...ame-buyer.aspx

This week, well-known hedge fund Citadel Investment Group disclosed it had taken a 5.3% stake in digital video recorder maker TiVo (Nasdaq: TIVO ) . Yes, that's the same TiVo that reported a loss per share that tripled from last year to $0.30 per share.

So what is Citadel doing buying a company that has issues up the wazoo? There are a few things Citadel may be thinking.

TiVo's IP is more valuable than anyone else thinks - TiVo is an intellectual property company if nothing else. The company has 196 patents issued and another 371 applications outstanding. And TiVo has been rigorously litigating competitors it thinks are infringing.

TiVo has patent infringement lawsuits outstanding with EchoStar (Nasdaq: SATS ) , Verizon (NYSE: VZ ) , AT&T (NYSE: T ) , and Microsoft (Nasdaq: MSFT ) , along with counterclaims outstanding for the last three. Not exactly a great list of enemies. But winning these cases can be lucrative, like when TiVo won a case against EchoStar in 2008, which paid out $104.6 million.

At the very least, Citadel must think the expense TiVo is incurring to prosecute and defend these cases will be worth it and there will be some upside in the future.

But as with any legal spat, there is downside risk. DISH Network (Nasdaq: DISH ) is also suing TiVo in another patent infringement case. Citadel's lawyers must be pretty confident in the merits of all of these cases because litigation is getting awfully expensive and the opposition has very deep pockets.