The notion that a little black box could record your favorite shows and replay them commercial-free was a revolutionary idea that continues to make advertisers soil themselves in fear that you won't buy their products. However, TiVo has failed miserably to live up to the hype. Looking around Penn's campus, I only see a few of these infamous boxes hanging around my friends' dorms.

In the midst of OCR season, even the most aspiring investment banker makes time for 24 and Grey's Anatomy. Students have turned to other means to get their weekly fix of Jack Bauer and unrealistically hot surgeons with issues. Now, that networks put their marquees shows on the internet, the concept of TiVo is not alluring.

TiVo sells DVRs, short for digital video recorders. These record and store live television to view later. Cable companies such as Comcast (Ticker: CMCSA) and satellite providers are increasingly installing this same hardware within their current equipment. Friends off-campus have been raving to me about all the shows, classic movies, and adult…"entertainment" they get with Comcast's digital cable. You don't have to be an engineer to understand there is no reason to pay TiVo premium subscription fee for technology you can get for less.

So what to do with a company whose only product is destined for obsolescence? Short the stock in the short term on any sudden increases in price. In other words, sell the stock now in the hopes you can repurchase it at a lower price and pocket the difference.

Trading at $5.68, the shares jumped 6% on the news of a licensing deal with Comcast to provide software to the cable company's set-top boxes. TiVo might have a pulse, but to survive in the long term, TiVo needs to get out of the hardware business and sell its brand along with its consumer-friendly software to someone such as Comcast who can put it to good use. With a market value of $549.69 million they could easily be acquired by a $90 billion behemoth such as Comcast, or the soon-to-become-public Time Warner Cable.

So instead of mourning the inevitable, let us rejoice over the memories TiVo brought us over the years replaying sports clips and "scandalous" half-time shows. If management can figure out a new business model, maybe this company can be reincarnated after all.