Dolby Laboratories, Inc. (DLB) Earnings Call Transcript & Summary

Amazing. All right. Let's get started with our next session. Thank you, everyone, for taking the time to join us today. My name is Stephen Laszczyk, and I'm the lead entertainment analyst here for Goldman Sachs. We're excited to welcome to the Communacopia and Technology Conference. Kevin Yeaman, the CEO of Dolby Laboratories. Kevin, thank you so much for joining us today.

Thanks for having us.

So maybe to start off, high level, Dolby, I think a lot of people know as a consumer-facing product likely from either being in a movie theater or something in their television. But your products and technology are in many different products and devices. So I thought it would be a good place to start, maybe just by telling the Dolby story, telling what types of products and services your patents, your IP is in? And really how it interfaces with the end customer?

Yes, of course. And again, thanks for having us and thank you all for joining us to learn a little bit more about the Dolby story. And to your point, one of the fun things about working at Dolby is I meet so many people who will remember their first experience with Dolby. If you're my generation, that was often the button on the cassette player or the first time you experienced surround sound in a movie theater. But we've continued to innovate. So today, I hear from people that are just absolutely passionate about seeing their movies in Dolby Cinema and only Dolby Cinema and Dolby Atmos and Dolby Vision, or they want to tell me about the first time they experienced their favorite music in Dolby Atmos. So we continue to renew that innovation. And it's because we have our relentless focus on the science and the engineering of sight and sound, and we develop deep partnerships across the content creator ecosystem, the content distribution ecosystem and then ultimately with the consumer device ecosystem, which is, of course, important because that is where we generate our revenue is a royalty for each device. And to your point, our work is not always as visible as the examples I just gave. And so we are a part of most of the consumer electronic devices that you enjoy every day, whether it's your TV, whether it's your PC, your mobile device, your sound bars and the speakers, increasingly in cars. We continue to expand that presence. And that is a function of our work throughout these entertainment ecosystems. So we work with content creators to help them realize their creative ambition. We're effectively providing them a pallet of sight and sound to work with to tell their stories. We work with the content owners and distributors because once that content is available and the artist is passionate about it, we need to provide the tools and technologies to make sure that this can be efficiently distributed to these devices, whether it's someone in a production truck or someone in a mixing studio, whether you're distributing it to a cinema or whether you're streaming it or whether it's over a traditional broadcast ecosystem, Dolby does all of that. And that's what creates the opportunity to add value on consumer devices and to create those moments that we talked about and to have a consistently high-quality experience. And we've been doing this for nearly 60 years, and we have continuously been able to raise the bar on the quality of the entertainment experience. The key is that ecosystem because the more content you have in Dolby, the stronger the value, the proposition is on the device. The more devices you're on, the more motivation there is to create content and to bring it to new types of content experiences. So most of our revenue is from device licensing. Last year, we were about $1.3 billion in revenue, 90% of that was from licensing, and we had about 30% non-GAAP operating margins.

You mentioned Dolby being around for 60-plus years, lots of tech innovation over that period of time. You touched on it a little bit. But the importance of the ecosystem you've built around the company. How does that play into evolving through tech cycles? And I'd be particularly curious, the tech cycles that we're seeing play out at the moment. How do you feel Dolby is positioned heading into the new wave of innovation on the media, entertainment, tech side?

Yes. Well, we're really excited about the future. I don't think there's ever been more a time where there's been a greater demand for entertainment content. I don't think there's been a time where there's been more pull and demand for greater immersiveness of experience. And to your point, we have thrived through in just -- like I said, just under 60 years, every imaginable economic cycle on technology transition. I myself have been at Dolby for about 18 years, and we've been through a lot of technology transitions that were of deep significance to entertainment content and what we do. When I joined, we were still in the midst of the analog to digital transition. And believe it or not, that was still within the 18-year window. Of course, the transition to streaming, standard def to high def, 2K to 4K. Each of those transitions, not only did we thrive through those transitions, but in each case, it created an opportunity for us to bring even more value to the devices and ecosystem we serve and to bring the Dolby proposition to new content ecosystems. And so yes, of course, the environment continues to evolve, that creates opportunity. And I think the way we've been able to do that, again, it starts with this relentless focus on, I mean, we have a lot of people that will geek out all day long on the science and the engineering of sight and sound. And what current and future trends pose in terms of the challenges that our partners are likely to face and the opportunities that it creates for new more immersive experiences. And then also really important are these engagements with the ecosystems, right? Because we have continuously brought the Dolby experience to new types of content. We started with movies and then TV, but we are in gaming, we are in music. We are in sports. We are across, like I said, all the devices. And so we're a part of these ecosystems, which means that we are working with the people who have problems, challenges and opportunities to solve. And by being their partners, while also deeply studying the technology trends ourselves and having a whole bunch of labs down the street here in San Francisco where people are experimenting with what's possible. That's how we've been able to not only make these transitions, but also to bring more value with each of them.

You mentioned 90% of your business coming from licensing. Could you maybe just spend a minute talking about the types of licensing contracts you enter into? Your key partners in this business? How we should think about how revenue is generated out of this 90% portion of your business?

Yes, sure. So most of our revenue is from branded licensing, which is to say that includes our patents, but also an implementation fit for the purpose of our device manufacturer that's where we generate our revenue on a -- typically a royalty per device. How much that royalty is? Well, of course, depend on how many technologies they're employing. They could have one, they can have all. It also depends on volume and then the value we're adding. And the royalty we get for a car is going to be quite a bit more than for a TV, which is going to be quite a bit more than for a mobile device. . We work with all the major consumer electronic manufacturers. And we also have a patent licensing business. So this is where we are licensing our patents into most of the businesses through patent pools. So these are pools that are formed around fundamental needs, around audio and video codecs, it has a number of licensors. We participate those. And again, it's a royalty per device. It's more of a component. So it's going to be lower than the branded licensing, where we're providing a full solution and certification that it works in the content ecosystem. Those are the basic structures.

Got it. Let's talk a little bit about opportunities to grow the business. So Dolby Atmos, Dolby Vision products amongst the fastest-growing products that you offer. And from your perspective, your key features of Dolby Atmos, Dolby Vision, that make them most attractive to the content creator and the consumer and opportunities to further increase penetration on those products, where do you see the greatest opportunity?

Yes. So to the what's driving the demand? And it does -- in the beginning, it always starts with the creator. The one thing that is great about artists from our perspective is never has the phrase, it's good enough been uttered, right? They always want to continue to push the boundaries and bring new experiences to life. And so with Dolby Atmos and Dolby Vision, when we first bring those to the world, the first place we go are to the artists. What we want to know is whether they see in our innovation, a pallet that helps them tell the story they want to tell, right? And with Dolby Atmos, I remember sitting watching with the team, a movie director who is seeing it for the first time. And he said, "Oh, now I can shoot that shot." He envisioned a shot where a car was flipping off the screen, but he felt like he couldn't keep them in the audio. But with Dolby Atmos, could keep them in the audio because you no longer just have 5 spots in the room the sounds come from. You actually mix up to 128 objects at any moment in time where you want the sounds to be, and we render that faithfully no matter what your output capability is. Or with Dolby Vision, which is about contrast. It gives you much more ability to have lights and darks and allocate the lights and darks in a scene and it expands the color range. So I remember people who -- directors who were specifically excited about being able to bring to light colors that have ever been brought to life before in the cinema, or one exclaiming, "Oh, this allows me to use night as a character." Because you can get true blacks and have the highlights. Sometimes these are artistic interpretations that I may not truly understand, but I love to hear that because when we get that kind of passion then we know that we can -- when they're excited about it and they can create differentiated experiences, then we know that we're going to be able to bring that magic to consumers as well. That's what it really is all about. And yes, Dolby Atmos and Dolby Vision came to life around -- plus or minus 2015 and they are our fastest-growing technology. We still have considerable room to grow across each of our device categories. And already, it has a very prominent presence in movies and TV where we're most established. But also, we've brought Dolby Atmos to music. We're bringing Dolby Vision and Dolby Atmos to mobile devices and in many forms of content.

And I want to get into each of the subcategories a little bit deeper. But one of the other areas you're diving deeper into is live sports. And on your most recent earnings call, you mentioned Cricket World Cup, European soccer championship, Wimbledon, NHL, NBA, all utilizing either Dolby Atmos, Dolby Vision. Curious if you could talk a little bit more about the adoption of those products in maybe TV from a large standpoint? But specifically for sports, which I think is a very interesting and a very compelling use case.

It is. I mean sports is such a passion point, right? Most of us can -- have had a lifelong relationship with some -- one or more sports teams that doesn't change, and it's one reason why people still will tune in a certain time on a certain day to make sure that they don't miss their favorite sports team. And a big part of making this happen is about coming back to the tools required for people to produce the content and do it in real time. It's no coincidence that we start with movies and TV. When you're making a movie, you literally have 3 months for a major motion picture to do nothing but work on the sound, right? But when you're talking about sports, you have seconds, right? So that ecosystem takes time to come together and to make sure that the people that have to make all that work happen, understand how to use those tools. And you see that coming together with sports. Over the last couple of years, we have an increasing number of events. And to your point, just this quarter, Wimbledon, Cricket, Euro football championships, the Olympics. And then -- so why is this important to Dolby? Well, it's a passion point. And passion points are what drive device purchases. And so we are on currently -- this last year, we were on about 25% of high-definition televisions with Dolby Atmos and Dolby Vision. I would say, for the most part, that has been driven by the substantial amount of content available over movies and TV. It's mostly -- we have very high inclusion at the high-end of televisions. Increasingly, we're seeing companies like Hisense and TCL move it throughout the entirety of their lineups. Hisense, of course, is making a big push in sports. You'll see them sponsoring a lot of events, including the World Cup. So the importance of getting more sports content is that it's a passion point for consumers, and it's something that device manufacturers want to market, and that helps us drive further penetration throughout the TV lineups.

Max, I think recently mentioned that they're using Dolby Atmos, Dolby Vision in some of their live sports products. I'm curious, other streamers, Netflix, Amazon, et cetera, the likelihood that they eventually adopt the products as well as what do you think is required? Is it getting deeper penetration at the TV level before you start seeing some of these other streamers offer that technology? Or do you expect them to maybe adopt the technology before that?

Yes. No, great question. And look, I think a big part of it, again, is just the evolution of the ecosystem, right? And you've seen that, it gets out on these major events. And the significance of Max is that they have adopted Dolby Atmos and Dolby Vision across all of their sports streaming. And of course, they're increasingly engaged in that. And as it turns out, the move toward having more live sports streamed and having rights distributed among players is, it's good for us because it turns out it's faster to implement over streaming environments than it is over traditional broadcast and Pay TV networks. We still support all of that, but you tend to get faster adoption through streaming. So we think the stage has been set where we've had these major events. We've got Max doing all of their sports, that allows us to have a mature set of tools and capabilities. And so we do expect to see an increasing number of providers wanting to bring -- make sports available in Dolby Atmos and Dolby Vision. That will be a big -- that is currently a big focus for us. It continues to be a very big focus this year, is bringing more live sports online. And then we would hope that you will then -- we would expect that you will then see that, whether it's in Best Buy that people will be showing what your TV -- what your experience could look like with sports.

I want to pivot a little bit and talk about mobile. Dolby Vision on mobile phones has been a big focus area of yours. Could you talk a little bit more about that ambition? Where you see opportunities for incremental growth? How do you think about the size of the opportunity in mobile from here?

Well, obviously, just in terms of the size of the market, it's over 1 billion devices. So it's a big market. We have, as you -- as I'm sure you know, Dolby Atmos and Dolby Vision is supported throughout iPhone and the Apple ecosystem. The opportunity is the Android ecosystem. And as it relates to Dolby Vision, the demand for movies and TV over phones has gotten us on a number of high-end models. But of course, that's not the primary use case on the phone every day. And so with the iPhone, you're able to capture content in Dolby Vision. You can capture videos in Dolby Vision with all the contrast and you basically have a professional camera. And what we've been focused on is bringing this to life through the ability to share videos and on social media and video sharing. And where we have the most progress is actually in China, where most of the major video streaming and social media services there are supporting Dolby Vision. And so we have wins -- initial wins for Dolby Vision and Dolby Vision Capture across most of the major mobile OEMs there. So we're off to a good start and still have a lot of work to do to then support their desire to begin to bring that deeper and deeper into their lineups. And now working -- a big focus of ours is bringing that same Dolby Vision support to some of the major western platforms that we'd all be familiar with here, that's what will drive more demand for phones in addition to the demand we have now.

Any sense of penetration curve? What that could look like over the next couple of years in terms of handset devices or if you think about brands or where you are in the arc of the model cadence like high line versus mid-tier versus low tier?

Yes. I think that's at a stage where we tend to talk about design wins. So with TVs where I just said we're 25%, that's a good attach rate, it is a good metric for that one. For vision on mobile devices, apart from Apple, where we're on all the iPhones, it's about the design wins. It's about the fact that we have a number of models now with Xiaomi, with OPPO, with HONOR, that they -- we're excited to work with them to bring that further into their lineups and to be distributing it to more regions around the world, they each started in China. Some of them have gone beyond that. So I would say it's still very early days and the things to watch then are those partners continue to expand throughout their lineups, getting new partners on board. And importantly, building out this ability for outside of China for more people to be able to be capturing content in Dolby Vision and sharing that across their favorite sites.

I think for this year, in particular, you expect mobile licensing to be down slightly. And maybe just talk a little bit about the near-term volatility you're seeing on the mobile side of the business? And what's the path to that growth inflecting back positive?

Yes. So certainly, the last few years have been a little bit soft in terms of just the overall macro environment hasn't -- most of our revenue comes from TV manufacturers, mobile manufacturers and PC manufacturers. And it's not been an easy time to be in that business for the last few years. Now with mobile, especially, I talked a little bit about our licensing arrangements. We do sometimes have minimum volume commitments, which can result in revenue coming in kind of once a year instead of every quarter on a royalty basis and then you have timing of renewals, those types of ranges are more prevalent in mobile than any other part of our business. So I would say across all of our end markets, we always encourage investors and we try to contextualize it in the context of the annual trends rather than the quarterly trends. That's especially true in mobile. And even then, you can get, of course, some of the timing that will affect you year-to-year. But it's essentially about getting to replacement cycles, ideally upgrade cycles, any time that we get advancements that will drive upgrade cycles because you feel like you're missing out is good for us, both because of our existing position. And it's also an opportunity for us to leverage those moments to bring new value propositions to life. And again, the content. And we have a lot of content that flows to mobile phones today, but video sharing and social media is the biggest use case and one that we're really focused on bringing more broadly to the world.

Got it. On auto, you've recently announced you're in 20 OEM partners with Dolby Atmos. Most recently, you discussed partnerships with GM, Rivian and Hyundai. Talk a little bit more about your auto business, where do you see the largest opportunity for growth? And as you penetrate further down market, what that opportunity looks like?

Yes. So we're really excited about this one. I don't -- having -- like I said, I've been here for 18 years. I've seen a lot of our new technology cycles. We've brought it into a number of new entertainment contacts and device types. None of them have developed as quickly and with as much strength as auto. And it again starts with the value proposition. I mean we have literally seen -- and I used the [ Royal Week ], it's mostly talking about mid marketing and creative folks. There are A-list musicians who have been brought to tears the first time they heard their music in Dolby Atmos. And it's an amazing experience. And one thing that's different compared to other transitions. Remember, music is not going from surround to Dolby Atmos. It's going from stereo or sometimes even mono, but stereo to Dolby Atmos. So it really is just a truly different experience. That's significant because we believe the opportunity is to have this be the way artists want their music to be heard, and the way the consumers want to hear it. And that's why our ambition is to be in every car and in every device through which you listen to music. Now again, like mobile, we're at the earlier days, it's been about roughly 3 years that we've already have 20 OEM wins, like most of our categories, they'll start at the high end because, of course, you want to bring that to the Maybach before you bring it to the next thing. But Mercedes, as an example, we expect they'll have rolled out to about probably plus or minus 15 models by the end of this year, so they're moving along pretty quickly. We have a really strong presence with the major EV manufacturers in China who are doing really well. BYD, NIO, Li Auto. You mentioned GM. We just recently announced our first EV with the OPTIQ, Hyundai. So what you should expect from us is that we're engaged with all the major auto OEMs. We're working to continue to announce new partners. And then, of course, be able to drive it deeper and deeper into lineups like we're doing with Mercedes. And at CES this year, we were -- I mean, obviously, the hardware capabilities of a mid or affordable car is very different than that of a Maybach. But at CES, we were demonstrating to our partners the 4-speaker solution, which is at an affordable price point. So we're already looking ahead to that, engaging with partners on it. But as I said, naturally, people are going to want to start with something experience. So compelling, they're going to start with the high end and then begin to work their way through their lineups.

Yes, thinking back in the audio industry over the last decade to it. I think it's been frustrating that somehow slow the auto industry historically adopted tech changes. It seems to be accelerating. I'm curious to your sense on that. And if you feel like we've hit this inflection point with EVs, with maybe connected infotainment systems, where that pace of acceleration where it might have been a 5-, 6-year install cycle for new tech is shortening?

Yes. It's shortened considerably. And look, it's no coincidence that we have so many partners. We have a lot of partners in the China EV manufacturers because they're fast. They're aggressive. They have global ambitions. They value the brand and the experience. They move very fast. But across the board, everybody is moving faster. I mean Mercedes announced and have their first model in market in under a year, and they're now close to 15 models. So look, it still varies. But you're right. When I first started the common kind of rule of thumb was it could take 5, 6, 7 years. Now you're talking for somebody who's really aggressive. It could be less than a year. And for others, you're talking 2 to 3 years for something like this, not 6 to 7. So that's working in our favor in terms of rolling this out and the growth trajectory going forward.

Got it. Let's talk about a few other types of consumer products that your technology in, set-top boxes and game consoles being 2 of them. I'm just curious, health of the consumer and maybe some of the headwinds or tailwinds you're seeing emerge within those categories. How do you see that playing out over the next couple of quarters? What's your sense of the consumer at the moment?

Well, I'm sure that we study all the same reports on the health of the consumer and the macro environment as all of you do, right? And I think, at the highest level, what I would say is that whereas even a year ago and certainly 2 years ago, when talking to our OEM partners or listening to their earnings reports, the discussion was mostly about the challenges they were facing and the things they were doing to solve supply chain issues or focus on cost. And what we're seeing now is that generally, people are believing that things have likely stabilized. They're at least beginning to talk about kind of their growth strategies. It's all still with a hint of caution. A lot of shoes have dropped over the last 3 years. So everybody has, let's call it, cautious optimism. But it feels like we're approaching the place where the consumer, what's important to us, obviously, is consumer device purchases where that can stabilize and get more constructive, right? And then beyond that, again, the question is could some combination of AI features or other things really create a drive for an upgrade cycle where you feel like you're -- you need hardware. That's kind of -- that would be -- that would sort of move into a tailwind. But for now, we'll take a stabilizing environment because, look, the last few years, 2/3 of our licensing business is audio patent licensing and the branded audio codec portion of our branded licensing business. And each of those has very high penetration across a broad range of device categories. So it is going to be impacted and it has been impacted by the overall macro environment. So getting that part of the business from being down mid-single digits to being flat and then slightly up is a huge swing factor in our overall revenue growth because over the last few years, the growth we're getting in Dolby Atmos and Dolby Vision has been muted by the weakness in the overall economy. So we're cautiously optimistic that we're reaching that point of stabilization, that's hearing more from partners. That's our read of the data points. And like I said, I'm sure you all study that at least as much as we do.

Maybe to put a bow on revenue and growth opportunities going forward. As you look across your different verticals, TV, autos, devices, movies even, what do you think is going to drive the most growth over the next, call it, 1 to 3 years for Dolby?

Well, I think with -- the biggest growth driver for us from an experience point of view is Dolby Atmos and Dolby Vision. Cars is -- Dolby Atmos Music for automotive, definitely one of the largest drivers. It's one of our fastest growers now and doing very well. TVs, again, we're on 25% of TVs. We're seeing some increases in attach rates this year, and we think there's a big opportunity. We think sports can be a big catalyst for that. And then mobile. So we've really touched on what I would say are some of the biggest drivers. I think as it relates to the 2/3 of the business, which is audio patents and branded audio codecs, that's just about the recovery kind of across the board of stabilizing in these categories, yes.

Maybe switching over to margins. You've stated in the past it's your intention to grow earnings faster than revenue. Any helpful frameworks you could point investors towards to think about the pace of earnings growth relative to revenue growth and maybe as a function of that margin expansion?

Yes. Well, we have said that we -- so yes, we've said that we can drive earnings faster than revenue. That's a function of a couple of things. One is we have invested in a number of growth opportunities. In our case, these cycles take years, not quarters to develop. As an example, the Dolby Atmos Music for automotive ecosystem, we've been working on that for years before anybody saw any word of that, right, working with the artists, working with the labels, working -- so as that begins to take hold, that gives opportunities for margin expansion. Like many companies that you cover, over the last couple of years, we have gotten very focused on operational efficiency. There's been a lot of changes in the environment. There's a lot of changes in the way we work. And so we have become very focused on operational efficiency. And between those things, we do think we have room to expand margins. I will also say with Dolby because we have such high-margin licensing revenue that turns in the environment, it can have a big impact on operating margins. In 2021, when we were surprised as anybody that everybody decided to go out and buy a PC and a TV, operating margins went up substantially. But I think on a -- in terms of what we plan for, we see that we've invested in a number of new experienced ecosystems, which we know result in very sustainable high-margin revenue streams for very long periods of time, and you're beginning to see those take hold. That helps with margins and this commitment to really focusing on operational efficiency and adapting to the changes that we've all been through over the last several years.

Got it. Maybe touching on capital allocation. You've recently expanded your share repurchase authorization. You repurchased $35 million in stock in the third quarter. Maybe looking ahead here, how are you thinking about capital allocation? You've recently done some M&A as well. Just take us through the capital allocation stack and looking ahead, where do you think you're prioritizing the most?

Yes. Well, look, we are always looking at the M&A landscape for opportunities to accelerate or expand the opportunities that we've been talking about here today. And it happens that in this most recent quarter, we had 2 of those land. And one of them was in the patent licensing space, where we had the opportunity to do a very financially attractive acquisition with assets we understand very well in the patent licensing space. And another was an opportunity to accelerate a newer initiative of ours, which is also focused on live sports, but in a different context. And so we can talk more about those. But we're always looking across that landscape and just happens that 2 of those came to fruition. We're disciplined buyers and so it's not going to be a steady stream of acquisitions. Beyond that, we have returned about $4 billion to shareholders over about the last 10 years. We are committed to at minimum buying back shares to offset stock compensation dilution. We do have a recurring dividend. We've raised it every year but one during the pandemic. And beyond that, we look at it every quarter. The Board and myself and the team review it every quarter, and we have, from time to time, decided to do more buybacks beyond the dilution offset.

I thought the GE deal was particularly interesting. And can you talk a little bit more about the strategic rationale there, the opportunities you see to maybe uplift monetization of that portfolio. Then I'm curious to the extent there is more of a pipeline on the M&A side on the patent side, how deep is it, and in what areas would you most be focused?

Yes. Well, so first of all, like I said, we've always had -- we always have a pipeline of potential M&A. It's always focused on expanding or accelerating one of the things we've been talking about today. As it relates to patent licensing, we've actually been frequent buyers in the patents space. They've just tended to be small. What was unique about this opportunity was that it was a large portfolio that is very pertinent to pools and IP that we know very well. And so we were able to expand our presence within pools that were already participating. It's inherently quite a high profitability business. We're bringing it into a team that knows how to do it. So we have said that we expect it to be accretive in the first year. And of course, whenever you're expanding the portfolio, it also gives you an opportunity to identify new opportunities in the future and continue to evolve our content and shares of those pools.

Got it. Maybe with a minute or so remaining, Kevin, curious looking out over the next 12 months, if do you want to plead the room and investors with 1 or 2 things that you feel are particularly important to the investment area at Dolby, and what that would be?

Yes. Well, first, again, I want to thank everyone for coming here today. Look, I would reiterate it that Dolby over nearly 60 years has been at the forefront of raising the bar on the evolution and the quality of the entertainment experience. And we've done that through multiple economic environments. We've done it through multiple technology transitions. And that's because we have people who live and breathe this stuff. It is -- if you come visit us, the first thing will strike you is how passionate our company is about doing this. And then combine that with the fact that we're deeply engaged across all these ecosystems that we serve. That's what puts us in a position to continue to innovate and continue to be a part of the future. That's what I'm most excited about. And look, over the next year, I'm really excited about where we're going and continuing to build out automotive, bring more live sports in Dolby, to sell more TVs in Dolby and continuing to expand deeper into context like social media.

That's a great place to end. Kevin, thank you so much for your time.

Thank you.