InterDigital, Inc. (IDCC) Earnings Call Transcript

Ladies and gentlemen, thank you for standing by. My name is Abby, and I will be your conference operator today. At this time, I would like to welcome everyone to the InterDigital Third Quarter 2026 Earnings Conference Call. Thank you. And I would now like to turn the conference over to Raiford Garrabrant, Vice President of Investor Relations. Please go ahead.

Thank you, Abby, and good morning, everyone. Welcome to InterDigital's Third Quarter 2026 Earnings Conference Call. I'm Raiford Garrabrant, VP of Investor Relations for InterDigital. With me on today's call are Liren Chen, our President and CEO; and Rich Bresky, our CFO. Consistent with prior calls, we will offer some highlights about the quarter and the company and then open the call up for questions. For additional details, you can access our earnings release and slide presentation that accompany this call on our Investor Relations website. Before we begin our remarks, I need to remind you that in this call, we will make forward-looking statements regarding our current beliefs, plans, and expectations, which are not guarantees of future performance and are made only as of the date hereof. Forward-looking statements are subject to risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results and events to differ materially from results and events contemplated by such forward-looking statements. These risks and uncertainties include those described in the Risk Factors section of our 2025 Annual Report on Form 10-K and in our other SEC filings. In addition, today's presentation may contain references to non-GAAP financial measures. Reconciliations of these non-GAAP financial measures to the most directly comparable GAAP financial measures are included in the supplemental materials posted to the Investor Relations section of our website. With that taken care of, I will turn the call over to Liren.

Thank you, Raiford. Good morning, everyone, and thanks for joining us today. This was another excellent quarter with strong execution across each part of our business. We reached an agreement on a new license with a top PC manufacturer, received favorable decisions from our enforcement campaign, made further progress in our video services program, and continued to drive leadership for the next-generation video and wireless technology and standard development. Driven by our licensing success, we have delivered financial results well above the top end of our guidance. Revenue for the third quarter was $193 million, up 17% year-over-year. Adjusted EBITDA was $131 million, up 25% year-over-year. Our annualized recurring revenue reached a record $629 million. As you might recall, in Q2, we raised our full-year guidance by $85 million at the midpoint. With our strong execution in Q3, we now have contracted revenue for the year that already exceeded the midpoint of our full-year guidance as we continue to drive business growth for the rest of the year. We also increased our quarterly dividend from $0.70 to $0.75 per share, continuing our track record of returning capital, including more than doubling our dividend over the last 4 years. As in previous quarters, Rich will cover our financial performance in more detail. I'll start with licensing. During the quarter, we agreed to enter into a patent license agreement with a top PC manufacturer with the final terms to be determined through arbitration. With this agreement, we now have 70% of the PC market under license, including 4 of the top 5 PC makers in the world. We also completed a new license with KOSTAL covering the company's EV chargers. With this new license, our revenue in our Consumer Electronics and IoT program nearly doubled year-over-year to almost $56 million. Staying with consumer electronics, we announced this week that we were awarded a preliminary injunction by a court in Brazil as part of our ongoing enforcement campaign against TCL. Based on an independent expert report, the court found that TCL infringed our two patents-in-suit, that the patents are essential to the HEVC standard, and the offers we made met FRAND obligations. The court noted TCL's offer was an order of magnitude too low. As a result, TCL must stop implementing the HEVC standard in devices it manufactures, imports, or offers for sale in Brazil. As some of you already know, TCL is a top 3 global TV manufacturer, and we believe this court decision is an important step to reach a long-term license agreement with them. In streaming services, we continue to make progress towards our long-term goals. During the quarter, the Unified Patent Court in Europe awarded us 2 new injunctions against Disney. The first covers a patent related to encoding for HEVC video, and the second covers technology for sharing video content between devices, such as casting from a smartphone to a TV. Both injunctions apply across multiple EU countries, and in both cases, the court confirmed the validity of our patents-in-suit. While the court found InterDigital has acted in a fair manner during the licensing negotiation, the court was critical of Disney's conduct and found Disney has acted as an unwilling licensee. Disney has made its streaming platform at the center for all consumer experience with Disney's own IP, but this vision is only possible with advanced compression that supports content delivery with innovation that delivers high picture quality, speed, and reliability that consumers have come to expect when they are enjoying their favorite movies and shows. These are the technologies that our video researchers have spent decades developing and perfecting. Each of the steps we take in protecting and enforcing our patents serves the purpose of reaching a long-term license with Disney on fair terms that reflect the value of the technology and how much Disney has benefited from them. Our success in this campaign, with the courts across multiple jurisdictions finding in our favor in 8 out of 8 patent trials and awarding us 8 injunctions, reflects the quality of our innovation and the depth and strength of our portfolio. It also highlights how our foundational research underpins the whole video streaming industry. As a reminder, in addition to our success against Disney, we have already made considerable progress in our streaming and cloud services program, with the announcement last quarter that we have entered into a new patent license agreement with Amazon, covering devices and services with the final terms to be decided through binding arbitration. As I have said many times, while our preference is always to conclude license agreements through bilateral negotiation, binding arbitration is an effective approach to decide the final terms of a license agreement. Turning to research. A lot of momentum is building behind one of the most advanced video codecs, VVC, which represents Versatile Video Coding, which will lead to additional licensing opportunities. The VVC standard was finalized in 2020, and we are widely recognized as one of the foundational innovators behind the standard with one of the largest and highest-quality patent portfolios. This leadership is particularly important because as we consume more video across devices, streaming services, and social media platforms, compression is the essential foundation that enables high-quality content to be efficiently distributed. Recently, Qualcomm and MediaTek announced that they have implemented VVC hardware decoding into their latest smartphone chipsets. This follows an announcement from Google earlier this year that it was adding support for VVC in the latest version of Android. This is a significant milestone that VVC is on the way to being widely deployed across hundreds of millions of devices and across a wide range of video services. We had a leading role in developing VVC, and our research leadership continues to be recognized by the industry. Last month at IBC 2026, the leading trade show in the video industry, we received the Best of Show Award, along with our research partner, NHK from Japan, for a demonstration of VVC multilayer coding. This technology allows broadcast and streaming services to carry multiple versions of the same content in a VVC stream, which saves bandwidth and storage and gives viewers more options, such as adding captions or sign languages. Staying on our research, this month, one of our wireless engineers was reelected to a senior leadership position within IEEE, the standard organization that leads development of Wi-Fi. We believe strongly that standard leadership is a key part of helping to shape the next generation of wireless, video, and AI technologies. This is particularly important as these technologies continue to converge across networks, devices, and services as we move towards a new era of AI-driven connectivity and immersive user experiences. In summary, this quarter once again demonstrates the strength of our business model in delivering profitable growth. Our success continues to be recognized by third parties, including most recently by Newsweek, which named us among America's Greatest Workplaces, and by TIME, which named us as [ America's Group's leaders ]. I'm proud of our achievements and want to thank Newsweek and TIME for the recognition on behalf of our colleagues at InterDigital. With that, I'll hand it over to Rich, who will walk you through the numbers in more detail.

Thanks, Liren. I'm pleased to report that our strong momentum continued in Q3 with revenue, adjusted EBITDA, GAAP diluted EPS, and non-GAAP diluted EPS all exceeding the high end of our guidance range. The upside was driven by our new consumer electronics agreement with a top PC manufacturer. Total revenue for the quarter was $193.4 million, an increase of 17% year-over-year and above our guidance range of $154 million to $158 million. Revenue included $36.2 million of catch-up revenue compared with $17.7 million in the third quarter of last year. Our annualized recurring revenue, or ARR, increased 7% year-over-year to another all-time high of $629 million compared with $588 million a year ago. Looking at revenue by program, Smartphone revenue was $122.6 million. Consumer Electronics and IoT and auto revenue nearly doubled year-over-year to $55.7 million, while streaming and cloud services contributed $15 million. The new agreement with a top PC manufacturer is the latest example of our ability to grow our licensing business beyond smartphones. Under this agreement, the value of the patent license will be determined through binding arbitration. In accordance with GAAP, we have begun to recognize the related revenue based on a conservative estimate of the consideration we expect to be entitled to. Turning to profitability. Adjusted EBITDA for the quarter was $131.3 million, an increase of 25% year-over-year and above our guidance range of $86 million to $92 million. Our adjusted EBITDA margin was approximately 68% compared with the roughly 57% margin at the midpoint of our Q3 outlook. Operating expenses were $94.1 million, an increase of $5.2 million year-over-year, primarily related to increased IP enforcement costs and share-based compensation driven by business success. GAAP diluted EPS for the quarter was $2.34, above our guidance range of $1.25 to $1.42. Non-GAAP EPS was $3.11, up 22% year-over-year and above our guidance range of $1.94 to $2.13. Cash from operations was $150.4 million, and free cash flow was $136.2 million. We ended the quarter with cash, cash equivalents, and short-term investments of $1.1 billion. Consistent with our capital allocation priorities, we remain focused on investing for growth, maintaining a fortress balance sheet, and returning excess capital to shareholders. During the quarter, we returned $121.2 million of capital, including $18.7 million through share repurchases, $19.3 million of dividends declared, and $83.2 million of debt repayment. We also increased our quarterly dividend from $0.70 to $0.75 per share, an increase of approximately 7%. Our results again demonstrate the value of our IP-as-a-Service model. The long-term fixed-fee nature of most of our agreements provides visibility into our business, supports ongoing investment in research and portfolio development, and gives us flexibility to pursue growth across our licensing programs while returning capital to shareholders. Looking forward to Q4, we expect revenue from existing contracts in the range of $154 million to $160 million. Based only on existing contracts, we expect adjusted EBITDA of $80 million to $88 million or an adjusted EBITDA margin of about 54% at the midpoint. GAAP diluted EPS of $1.04 to $1.27 and non-GAAP EPS of $1.72 to $1.98. Before adding any potential contributions from new agreements or enforcement outcomes over the balance of the year, we expect to exceed the $810 million midpoint of the increased full-year revenue guidance we issued last quarter. For full-year 2026, we expect adjusted EBITDA of $507 million to $515 million, GAAP diluted EPS of $8.93 to $9.16, and non-GAAP EPS of $11.99 to $12.25. On existing contracts alone, the midpoint for each of these ranges is also above the midpoint of our prior full-year guidance. Before I turn it back to [ Raiford ], I want to repeat for emphasis that both our fourth quarter and full-year outlooks are now based only on existing licenses; neither includes contributions from any agreements or enforcement action results we may sign or receive over the balance of the fourth quarter. Any such contributions would be additive. With that, I'll turn it back to Raiford.

Thanks, Rich. Before we move to Q&A, I'd like to mention that we'll be attending a number of investor events in Q4, including the RBC Tech Conference in New York, the ROTH Tech Conference in New York, and the Nasdaq Investor Conference in London. Please reach out to your representatives at those firms if you'd like to schedule a meeting. Now we are ready to take questions.

And our first question comes from the line of Kevin Garrigan with Jefferies.

Liren, you said you're still pursuing more business in Q4. Can you give us a high-level view of kind of what the pipeline looks like? Would any Q4 upside come mainly from consumer electronics and IoT? Or could any smartphone deals like maybe progress on Transsion close in the quarter?

Yes, I mean, we are pursuing all those opportunities in parallel. As you might recall, we have 3 different programs. We are negotiating with two remaining smartphone vendors that haven't licensed from us. In the meantime, as we announced and also we did press announcements earlier this week, we have made meaningful progress on enforcement campaigns with some of the TV makers. And as you also know, we are continuing to negotiate with the streaming service providers. While it's hard to predict precise timing for each deal, we are pursuing all those different categories in parallel.

Got it. Okay. That makes sense. And then just on streaming. So Disney brought 4K back in Germany using VP9. And I know you guys filed a new UPC case targeting that. I mean, does that workaround change the economics or timing of a potential settlement with Disney? Or any comments on kind of what happens if they continue to try and make workarounds?

Yes, Kevin. So as you noted, after we have received injunctions in Germany and UPC on our HEVC foundational innovations, it's reported that Disney has turned back some of the 4K features using VP9, which is an alternative codec. As you also mentioned here, our foundational innovations apply to multiple codecs, including VP9. So therefore, after they enabled VP9, we have filed a new case based on patents the court has already found to be valid against VP9, and that court case is scheduled to be heard in December of this year. So it's relatively fast-tracked. So we believe very strongly that our value delivers across different multiple codecs. And we also believe that any alternative trying to use different codecs is still in the end valuing our patents.

And our next question comes from the line of Alinda Li with William Blair.

Arjun here. Liren, if I can just ask just on the streaming side. Obviously, you have the sort of Amazon agreement. And I'm curious just whether you've noticed conversations with other streaming providers change or if there's been a reaction to that deal and it makes progress easier with others. How are you seeing that impact sort of the negotiations in the streaming ecosystem?

Yes. Arjun, I mean, as we discussed before, most of our negotiations are under NDAs that need us to keep the discussion confidential. Having said that, the Amazon agreement, as I mentioned in my prepared remarks, was a fairly important milestone for our program. It is being closely, frankly, attention being paid by other players in the industry, both on the licensor as well as the licensee side. And as you probably also noticed, there have been more recent cases against Disney by other patent holders. So I would say it's fair to comment that this is an area clearly that important patent holders are paying more attention to, primarily because so much benefit, so much economic value has been created by a very large industry based on foundational innovations that are created by a company like InterDigital. So obviously, the effort for the industry to monetize in this overall area is clearly accelerating.

Okay. Got it. And then just on the PC side, I know you have a new agreement here, but I think Lenovo is still one that's sort of being determined. I'm curious if you have any comments or timeline you can share there? And just in the PC market, in general, I'm curious what the remaining opportunity looks like from here, given you now have a new agreement under contract. What's the remaining opportunity look like?

Yes. Arjun, with our latest deal here, we have signed 4 of the top 5 vendors, PC makers worldwide, which makes about 70% of the overall market, so which means we have 30 more percent that we are pursuing. Specific to Lenovo, we have disclosed in our 10-Q filing today that we have completed the hearing, the arbitration hearing with Lenovo early this month. And conceptually speaking, we are expecting a result by H1 of next year, first half of next year. Obviously, with holiday time coming in, so it's hard to precisely predict when we will get the result. But we do expect the results to come out fairly soon and that we are confident that we have done a good job demonstrating our value with the arbitrator. We just need them to decide what is the final...