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spk02: Good day, everyone. Thank you for standing by. Welcome to Xperia first quarter 2022 earnings conference call. During today's presentation, all parties will be in a listen-only mode. Following the presentation, the call will be open for questions. In order to ask a question, please press star 1 on your touchtone telephone. I would now like to turn the call over to Jill Koval from Xperia. Jill, please go ahead.
spk00: Good afternoon, everyone, and thank you for joining us as we report our first quarter 2022 financial results. With me on the call today are John Kirchner, Chief Executive Officer, and Robert Anderson, Chief Financial Officer. In addition to today's earnings, there is also an earnings presentation, which you can access along with the webcast on our IR website. Before we begin, I would like to provide two reminders. First, today's discussion contains forward-looking statements that are predictions, projections, or other statements about future events, which are based on management's current expectations and beliefs, and therefore subject to risks, uncertainties, and changes in circumstances. For more information on the risks and uncertainties that could cause our actual results to differ materially from what we discussed today, please refer to the risk factors section in our SEC filings including our annual report on Form 10-K. Please note that the company does not intend to update or alter these forward-looking statements to reflect events or circumstances arising after this call. Second, we refer to certain non-GAAP financial measures which exclude one-time or ongoing non-cash acquired intangible amortization charges. costs related to actual or planned business combinations, including transaction fees, integration costs, severance, facility closures and retention bonuses, separation costs, stock-based compensation, loss on debt extinguishment, expense debt refinancing costs, and related tax effects. We have provided reconciliations of these non-GAAP measures to the most directly comparable GAAP measures in the earnings release and on the Investor Relations section of our website. The recording of this conference call will be available on our Investor Relations website at www.Xperia.com. I'll now turn the call over to Xperia CEO, John Kirchner.
spk03: Thank you, Jill, and thank you, everyone, for joining us. While we continue to operate in a volatile macro environment, the financial results of the first quarter demonstrate the continued progress that we're making against our strategic priorities and increases our confidence in our full-year trajectory. On a combined basis, our total revenue for the first quarter was $257 million, representing 16% growth from the first quarter of 2021, primarily due to the previously announced Micron license. Gap earnings per share was $0.24 compared to $0.05 in Q1 of 2021, while our non-gap earnings per share was $0.92 compared to $0.59 in Q1 of 2021. Let me provide a quick update on our previously announced business separation. We remain on track to separate later this fall into two standalone publicly traded companies, Adia, our IP licensing business, and our Xperi product business. The strategy behind Audia is to continue to extend the adoption of our innovations and licensing of its intellectual property across the broader media, entertainment, and semiconductor industries. Audia will continue to grow its patent portfolios in size and relevance through ongoing investments that are principally focused on internal innovations, as well as through targeted acquisitions and strategic management of its patent portfolios. At the same time, Xperia will become more nimble and focused product business. With a unique set of leading products and capabilities, Xperia will be well positioned to execute on its strategy for creating extraordinary experiences at home and on the go for millions of consumers around the world, elevating content and how audiences connect with it in a way that is more intelligent, immersive, and personal. We are excited by the growth potential of this business, which we intend to accomplish in three primary ways. By meeting the demand for advanced infotainment and in-cabin safety in cars, by enabling faster IPTV growth in the United States and abroad, and by establishing our TV OS as a leading platform for the discovery, management, and monetization of TV-based entertainment for Tier 2 TV makers. We continue to believe separation of these businesses will reduce business complexity and enable these two pure play platforms to be better positioned to grow and compete over the long term, thereby unlocking meaningful value for shareholders. Focusing on Adia, we're very excited about the positioning of our IP business. We've built a sophisticated and diverse IP platform that is planned to separate with nearly 10,000 patent assets. almost 85% of which are homegrown. In preparation for our separation, we built a media-focused R&D function within Adia that, in addition to our longstanding semi-R&D team, will continue to innovate and support the long-term needs of the business. The quality and breadth of our portfolio, in addition to our continuous innovation funnel, has been a key contributor in our ability to renew, and complete new license agreements with world-leading media, entertainment, consumer electronics, social media, and semiconductor companies. We have worked diligently to enhance the visibility and sustainability around Adia's future revenue streams and to strengthen its foundation in preparation for its journey as a successful standalone company. During the quarter, we renewed or entered into new license agreements with over 10 customers, including a long-term renewal with a top 10 virtual multi-channel video programming distributor, which emphasizes the longevity of Audia's intellectual property portfolios and Audia's continued importance to pay TV as it further expands into OTT streaming services. Additionally, we continue to progress other significant licensing discussions that we expect to close in the second quarter. In our Canadian litigation, On Friday, the Court indicated that it intends to issue its judgment in our initial case against Videotron on June 3, 2022, and that it will advise the parties of the anticipated date of the judgment in our initial cases against Bell & Tellis promptly after it issues the Videotron judgment. We remain very confident in the relevance of our IP portfolio and our ability to ultimately achieve a market-based resolution in Canada, although predicting timing is always difficult. As a reminder, we also filed second rounds of litigation against Videotron and Bell Canada last year. Moving to our product business, over the past two years, we've worked to transform and strategically position the business for profitable growth as it emerges as an independent company. We continue to advance strategic initiatives in our four product categories, pay TV, consumer electronics, connected car, and the media platform space. Our Pay TV product category includes classic guides, IPTV solutions, content discovery, TiVo Linux platforms, consumer TV subscribers, and hardware. Our long-term focus in this market is driving adoption of our higher value IPTV solutions, which are positioned to offset subscriber declines in our traditional guides business. We're pleased with the progress we've made around IPTV, as we continue to add new operators with our expanded product offerings, including a new win with InfinityLink Communications. Total IPTV subscribers continued to grow at a double-digit rate, quarter over quarter. Notably, our pay TV product category grew slightly on a year-over-year basis, as growth from IPTV through our expanded offerings more than offset the decline from our traditional guides business. Our second product category is consumer electronics, which includes DTS audio and imaging solutions in home and mobile, IMAX enhanced licensing, and our perceived business. During the quarter, we signed key renewals with Skyworth and Best Buy for their soundbar and TV products, and we expanded our licensing relationship with TCL to include decoder post-processing and Play-Fi support in soundbar and TV products. Looking forward, we expect the consumer electronics product category to grow this year as the supply chain for game consoles begins to normalize and through growth in our PlayFi wireless and mobile business. We expect additional growth to come from expansion of our IMAX enhanced ecosystem and from Perceive as we expect to see the first products utilizing our technology come to market in late 2022 for the first part of 2023. Our third product category is connected car, which includes HD radio, music metadata, DTS auto stage, and DTS auto sense. Connected car continues to be impacted by supply chain constraints, which we are closely monitoring. We're working with our partners to try to mitigate shortages that could impact key components that deliver with our technology and anticipate an improving situation in the back half of 2022 as the supply chain stabilizes. A few important highlights from the first quarter include BMW's expanded shipments of the DTS AutoSense-enabled iX model into more countries. We also advanced engagement for occupancy monitoring solutions with numerous European and Asian car companies. Likewise, Mercedes-Benz expanded shipments of DTS AutoStage-enabled models to more than 40 countries. And over the quarter, we further advanced pipeline development with OEM customers in the US, Europe, and Asia. And finally, our DTS AutoSense neuromorphic driver monitoring solution was chosen as a 2022 winner for the Artificial Intelligence Excellence Award presented by the Business Intelligence Group. Our fourth and final product category is Media Platform, which captures the TiVo Stream OS, the TiVo Stream 4K, monetization, and TV viewership data. This is our fastest growing category, and we expect double-digit growth in this category in 2022, mostly driven by expansion in our advertising-based monetization revenue. At the same time, we're focused on partnerships with TV OEMs, chipset partners, and content providers to bring the first TVs powered by TiVo StreamOS in late 2023 or early 2024. During the quarter, we announced the integration of YouTube TV, into TiVo Stream 4K and TiVo Stream OS, strengthening the premium live TV viewing experience. Additionally, we launched TiVo Extend, an end-to-end advertising solution that enables incremental reach and frequency opportunities for connected TV advertisers. We also advanced the TiVo Stream ecosystem development across content partners, OEMs, and chipset providers. With that, I'll turn the call over to Robert to discuss our financials. Robert? Thanks, John. As we have noted, the fiscal year has gotten off to a good start. Total revenue for the first quarter was $257 million, an increase of 16 percent from $222 million in the first quarter of last year, primarily due to higher revenue from our IP licensing business. IP revenue in Q1 was $139 million, up 41% from the first quarter of 2021, principally due to our previously announced deal with Micron. Revenue in our product business was $119 million, down 4% from $124 million a year ago, due principally to a customer settlement for past unit shipments of approximately $5 million that occurred in the first quarter of 2021. The Pay-TV product category, which represented 54% of total product revenue in the quarter, generated $64 million of revenue, up slightly compared to the first quarter of 2021 due to IPTV growth from both MobiTV and new customer deployments, offset by continued churn in the legacy Pay-TV subscribers. Moving to consumer electronics category, Revenue of $28 million in the quarter accounted for 24% of total product revenue. While revenue in the category was down $3 million year over year due to the previously mentioned customer settlement of $5 million in the first quarter of last year, the category would otherwise have exhibited growth, which is something we expect to occur in the category for 2022. Our connected car category realized quarterly revenue of $20 million versus $23 million in the first quarter of 2021 due to continued supply chain constraints. Because of the current macro environment, we expect this category to be flat year over year, with supply chain constraints improving in the second half of the year, as John noted earlier. In our final product category, media platform, Revenue for the first quarter was $7 million, up 19% year over year. While media platform currently accounts for only 6% of our total product revenue, we expect this category to grow double digits in 2022, primarily driven by connected TV advertising. On a non-GAAP basis, cost of goods sold was $27 million in the quarter, down just slightly from last year. Non-GAAP operating expense was $118 million, up 4 percent from Q1 2021 due primarily to higher personnel costs and the inclusion of expenses from Moby TV, which were acquired in mid-2021. Q1 interest expense was $8 million. Another income was $1 million. Cash taxes paid in the quarter were $3 million. Using cash tax and non-GAAP fully diluted shares of $112 million, non-GAAP earnings per share for Key 1 is $0.92. Moving to the balance sheet, we finished the quarter with $267 million of cash in investments. We paid down another $10 million of debt during the quarter to bring our debt balance to $780 million. Net debt at quarter end was $513 million. down 18 percent from $624 million a year ago. Operating cash flow for the quarter was $46 million, up from $27 million in Q1 2021 due primarily to lower payments for accrued compensation this past quarter, reduced interest expense, and lower cash taxes. During the quarter, we paid a cash dividend of $0.05 per share of common stock and repurchased $17 million of stock, leaving $78 million remaining on our existing share repurchase authorization. Given the good start this past quarter and progress we have made to date, we are reiterating our previously announced guidance for the full year 2022. As noted last quarter, our full-year revenue guidance includes the Micron license, and allows for a range of risk around supply chain challenges. Revenue growth expectations for the year are attributable to factors in both Adia and the product business. Also, revenue guidance does not include benefit from the settlement of significant outstanding disputes. As noted last quarter, we expect spending to increase sequentially each quarter of the year. With respect to capital allocation, we plan to continue paying our quarterly dividend and making scheduled debt amortization payments. We also plan to buy back shares on an opportunistic basis while maintaining flexibility to address the capitalization needs of each business as we plan for separation. That concludes our prepared remarks. Let's now open the call to your questions. Operator?
spk02: Thank you. Ladies and gentlemen, if you'd like to ask a question, you may do so by pressing star 1 on your telephone keypad. Star 1 for questions. Please make sure the mute function on your phone is turned off so the signal can be read by our equipment. Star 1 for questions. We'll pause a moment to give everyone an opportunity to signal for questions. We'll take our first question from Matthew Galinko with Maxim Group. Please go ahead.
spk03: Hey, good afternoon. Thanks for taking my questions. Maybe if we could start with connected car expectations for the year. I'm just curious how we should think about linearity. Is that, you know, kind of strengthening in the back half of the year? Do you sort of expect supply chain constraints to start to wane in the back half of the year? You know, I guess help us understand some of the assumptions there. I'm at, this is Robert. Sure thing. So we expect as best we can tell at the moment that supply chain constraints for automotive would ease up in the second half of the year. And so that's within our projections for our, our annual outlook. Okay. Thanks. And then on the media platform business, um, You know, I think it was nice growth annually, but sequentially it was declining. Can you help us understand maybe, again, the linearity of that business? What are the kind of puts and takes quarter to quarter? And, you know, is that the seasonality we might expect in this business? Or, you know, I guess help us gauge what that should look like through the year. I'm just taking a look at Q4. Yeah, I think we'll see some puts and takes in any given quarter math. So I wouldn't overread any particular linear quarter representation. We still tend to look at our numbers on an annual basis. So I think we do expect that to be a very high grower. But I don't think there's anything that's particularly directional or that's important in taking a look at year over year. or excuse me, on sequential quarters. Yeah, Matt, I would just also add that I think, you know, we're still, you know, early in the process of building out scale with respect to this business. And as a result, you know, depending on what's in the pipeline and how various components of that scale are coming online, you may see it move around quarter to quarter. But the long-term prognosis is we expect very meaningful growth. as our platform continues to grow and as the number of devices, you know, ultimately capable of being monetized, driving user engagement continues to increase. Got it. That's helpful. And just last one for me, I guess, also in that business, in terms of getting the OS product out the door and onto products, I think you said late 2023, early 2024 to be – you know, selling on products? Is that, are there any, you know, I mean, I guess there's plenty of work to be done, but what are the major hurdles between now and then? And, you know, can you, based on your engagements today, can you give us a sense of whether you expect that to be a relatively rapid uptake or you think it's going to be a you know, pretty small ramp initially in the first year or two, and then, you know, accelerating as you get more momentum there. We have a number of discussions going on in the pipeline that I think could lead to a range of outcomes, none of which I think will be, let's call it, very small. But I think the RAM rates differ, you know, depending on, you know, how the pipeline evolves. I think we're very pleased with how discussions are going more broadly within the ecosystem. and very much focused on this not being, if you will, a slow dribble of a ramp over a multi-year period, but rather I think the nature of our platform and some of the feedback we're getting based on the quality of our user experience and our approach is good. So I think we'll have more to say on this as we get a little bit further along, but suffice it to say we're very pleased with more broadly how the ecosystem works discussions and the discussions with specific partners in the TV space are going.
spk02: Great. Thank you. We'll take our next question from Hamad Korsan with DWS Financial. Please go ahead.
spk01: Hi. So first question was with this virtual MVPD renewal, how many more of these renewals are you expecting this year? Are the conversations constructive as far as the rates now versus when they were first signed?
spk03: I think we do an incredibly good job of being consistent about how we approach, you know, rates across the various business lines. I think that discipline is one of the things that sets us apart. as well as the quality and size of the patent portfolio, which, as we've said over time, continues to be very relevant to operators in that space. In short, I think we continue to more broadly hold the line and continue to be consistent in our approach. There are always a number of renewals going on in any given year. We typically don't talk to the exact number. because at times it can be misleading as to the aggregate pipeline of renewals where you've got significant differences maybe in terms of size and relevance. So I think what's important is people are renewing at a very high rate. I think it speaks to the relevance and, again, the quality of what we're doing and the portfolio we've built and continue to look to innovate and expand. And I think as we look ahead over the next few years, we have a high degree of confidence with respect to our ability to continue to move this business forward.
spk01: Okay. And then, Robert, just given the performance here in Q1, one has to assume that much of it has to do with Micron. So what would need to happen for XBerry to – exceed or reach the top end of the range? And what could happen that you underperform or go below the bottom end of the range?
spk03: Well, I think it's important to point out that we're very comfortable with the range we've provided. And that range takes into consideration various risks and opportunities that we still see in the business for the remainder of the year. You know, we knew that Q1 would be a high quarter because we had the micron deal set when we gave guidance itself for the year. Now, to your question, I think it depends on how things go from a supply chain perspective. On the higher end, we would expect improved per unit reports and consumer electronics and growth in IPTV services. And then also higher ad monetization within the media platform business. You could also say favorable outcomes for IP licensing within OTT. You know, I think on the lower end of the range, there we would expect supply chain issues to persist, which results really in lower per unit reports in consumer electronics. to some extent, the converse of what I just described. You know, delayed rollout of IPTV services, lower ad monetization, and delayed outcomes in IT licensing. But again, I think we're quite comfortable with the range that we've laid out for the year.
spk01: Okay. And then just given the conversations that you're having now, has the tone changed given the macro environment since the last time you reported?
spk03: I mean, we certainly are seeing broader macroeconomic challenges. But in reality, we saw those a couple of months ago when we gave guidance and took that into consideration as we laid out the year. So I think we, while I think the environment is certainly challenging, that's something we've taken into consideration. Okay, great.
spk01: Thank you.
spk04: You're welcome.
spk02: We'll take our final question from Richard Shannon with Craig Helium. Please go ahead.
spk03: Well, great. Thanks, John and Robert, for taking my questions. I guess, Robert, just a quick one. I just want to make sure that I heard a kind of confirmation on all the moving parts within the products business as to growth through the year. Were those the same as you said last quarter? I got three out of the four. I just want to make sure all four of them were unchanged. Is that correct? Yeah, there's no change in our views. In fact, I'm looking at what I wrote for last quarter because they really haven't substantially – they just haven't changed. So I can cover them again if it would be helpful. No, I got three of the four, so I just want to make sure the fourth one is fine. If it is, then no problem. We don't need to touch on that one again. Second question, probably for John. If I collect your prepared remarks on the topic of PTV coverage, I think you said IPTV growth offset declines in the guide business. And you've talked about declines because the guides are overcoming the IPTV growth. Does this comment for the first quarter suggest that could see some upside there? Can you kind of talk about what you're seeing there in trends that will help us think about the rest of the year? Sure. Sure. I think it's hard to exactly call what the net difference is going to be. We've got a substantial pipeline of IPTV business coming, and depending on the rate of deployments, which we're working very hard with partners to support, Depending on what that rate is relative to, of course, the decline will determine whether it fully offsets and maybe even slightly grows or it nearly offsets. So I think our expectation currently, you know, as you'll see, pay TV flat to slightly down, you know, on the year. And, you know, but that's not, you know, that's masking, of course, you know, a meaningful continued sub decline, which everyone expects consistent with industry trends. you know, with a fair amount of IPTV growth for us. And I think it's that relative comparison rate of decline versus rate of growth that will determine the final analysis. I think we'll have more to say as we maybe get in, you know, to late summer with a better view of what the back half, you know, deployments are going to look like. But I think we have done an outstanding job of normalizing and working to transform the pay TV business in a way where it is not a large drag on the overall business, but rather is beginning to move ever more towards where we think the future of that business lies, and we're working to build scale, economy, and ultimate profitability around that shift as we continue to work through the next year or two. Okay. And to follow up on the topic of pay TV, I think your remarks, or maybe it was even in the presentation I had in front of me here, we talked about total IPT subs continue to grow at a double-digit rate quarter on quarter. Is that kind of the expectation that you have for the rest of the year on average, or if you can kind of suggest how this first quarter relates to the rest of the year? Simply put, yes, it will continue to grow at an attractive rate quarter on quarter. Okay, perfect. Maybe one or two other questions for me, and I'll jump out of line. I think I get the sense after last quarter's call that you expected the second quarter to be the bottom in revenues for the year, obviously, after a really strong first quarter with Micron. Is that still the expectation? Well, as we look at the year now, I would say that we expect the remaining quarters of the year to be roughly equivalent to So this just depends on how the deals that we forecast for the full year line up for the year. So I'd say fairly equivalent for the remainder of the year. Okay. Okay. That is helpful. Let's see. You're just scanning my list here. Oh, maybe one last one for John on the topic of hybrid bonding. I think last quarter you mentioned that after signing Micron, you would license 90% of DRAM and 50% of the NAND suppliers so far. And I guess my question is, is there any visibility or expectation of licensing a higher portion of the NAND part of the market? I would think it's fair to say that we have a very active pipeline across the rest of the memory space as well as you know, in Logic and in some other places. I think, you know, this is a trend that is going to continue for the next decade. You know, it's important to, you know, I think the long-term value proposition of, you know, ever more powerful chips. And we think, you know, we continue to have not only some foundational IP, but some of the industry's deepest knowledge about how to deploy chips. the use of hybrid bonding in a broader successful manufacturing environment. So overall, I would say, you know, we're making good progress, and we believe that over time those percentages will continue to increase, you know, within the broader memory space. Okay. Fair enough. I think that's all from me, guys. Thank you. Thanks, Richard.
spk02: Ladies and gentlemen, this concludes today's question and answer session. At this time, I'd like to turn the conference back to your presenters for any additional or closing remarks.
spk03: Thanks, operator, and thanks, everyone, for joining today's call. Both businesses have had a good start to 2022, and we look forward to keeping you updated on our progress in the coming months. This concludes today's call. Thank you, operator. Thank you.
spk02: Ladies and gentlemen, this does conclude today's conference. We appreciate your participation. You may now
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