TiVo Rents New CFO After Two Years of Churn

Tiring of having changed CFOs three times in less than two years, digital video recording service provider TiVo has chosen to rent its new finance chief.

The Alviso, California-based company has retained Cal Hoagland as its chief financial officer. Hoagland, 50, is a principal of Financial Leadership Group, which provides CFO services and corporate board consulting.

He will serve as TiVo’s full-time CFO as the firm searches for a permanent finance chief, according to a filing July 11 with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The consulting agreement with Hoagland has an initial term of 90 days and can be extended by TiVo in two-week contracts thereafter.

TiVo also said it hired a search firm to find the new CFO.

Renting CFOs is becoming more popular as companies struggle to retain talent, thanks to the unprecedented amount of turnover among chief financial officers during the past several years. A record 2,302 CFOs left their posts in 2006, according to independent research firm Liberum Research, and high turnover is expected to continue.

As a result, companies spent $8.9 billion on temporary financial and accounting assistance last year, up 68 percent from 2002, according to Staffing Industry Analysts, a workforce research firm. Costs are projected to climb another 10 percent this year.

Hoagland replaces Steve Sordello, who resigned late last month to join an unnamed venture-funded company in Silicon Valley. Sordello’s departure marked the third CFO change since early 2006.

According to the regulatory filing, TiVo has agreed to pay Hoagland and Financial Leadership Group a base rate of $2,500 per day, with hours in excess of 55 a week billed at $350 an hour.

The company will also issue Hoagland $1,000 per day in fully vested shares of the company’s common stock. The company said the annualized rate is roughly 15 percent greater than the annual compensation for Sordello.

Filed by Jeff Nash of Financial Week, a sister publication of Workforce Management. To comment, e-mail editors@workforce.com.