Aereo's assets have been sold at auction for what essentially amounts to pennies on the dollar, allowing a small group of bidders to scoop up the remains at a bargain.
The bankruptcy auction played host to just 10 bidders. As outlined in a report from Bloomberg, TiVO was the winning bidder for the company's trademark, customer list and a few other smaller assets. Information-technology consultant Alliance Technologies purchased some equipment while patent clearinghouse RPX scooped up the fallen company's patent portfolio.
RPX, if you recall, is the same company that bought the portfolio of the Rockstar Consortium last December for $900 million.
All said and done, Aereo walked away with less than $2 million. That's a far cry from the $4 million to $31.2 million it was expecting to bring in.
The sale officially brings an end to what was an innovative company that managed (for a while, at least) to find a loophole in the law which enabled it to deliver over-the-air television channels to paying subscribers across the Internet via the use of tiny antennas (one per customer).
Without permission from broadcasters, however, the venture was ripe for lawsuits. Despite winning a number of early battles, the broadcasters ultimately won the war in court and forced Aereo out of business.
Aereo plans to seek out buyers for the remaining assets that weren't listed for auction.