Dolby Laboratories, Inc. (NYSE:DLB) Q3 2023 Earnings Call Transcript

Robert Park: Hey, Steve, yeah, the true-ups are really a non-factor for this quarter positive about $1 million. So nothing really to note in terms of our true-ups from last quarter’s volume. Of course they vary by end device but overall it was about $1 million.

Steven Frankel: Okay. And then there’s a noticeable decrease in the pace of the buyback versus last year. So what does that say about your capital allocation strategy going forward?

Robert Park: Yeah. Steve with respect to the buyback what we’ve said is our policy is really to at least offset dilution from stock-based compensation. And that’s what you’re seeing we’re doing right now is executing on that plan. Last year was a little accelerated or a heightened level of buyback. But for this year we’re going with the policy of offsetting our dilution.

Steven Frankel: Okay. And then on the restructuring, can you give us any details on what particular areas you were deemphasizing or projects you might be pulling people off of versus areas where you’re investing?

Kevin Yeaman: Most of it Steve, it was across a range of areas and there were areas that we identified for efficiency across a broad range of areas. I wouldn’t attribute to any one project or initiative. Some of it was facilities related. And so nothing that is directly — certainly nothing as it relates to a change in any of the business focus areas we’ve been talking about.

Steven Frankel: Okay, great. I’ll jump back in the queue. Thank you.

Operator: Our next question comes from Jim Goss from Dolby [ph]. Please go ahead.

Jim Goss: I don’t — again I’m a couple of moments late, so maybe I missed this but I didn’t hear a lot of comments about music. I’m wondering if there were any further developments in that particular application?

Kevin Yeaman: Yeah. We talked about the fact that we continue to add artists and songs great momentum on the artist side. We did add a new service in India WYNK, which we now have three of the top music services in India and a large catalog of local music with three major labels. So on the content and services side a lot of progress. That’s what creates the demand for the device side and all the ways that people experience music. And then on that front, we noted that NIO and Lotus who had initially launched in China have now launched in Europe. Mercedes launched more models, and we continue to have strong engagement strong pipeline for bringing more auto manufacturers on board.

Jim Goss: Okay. And are you seeing these applications as having any significant impact, in terms of any of the licensing revenues or in any other way?

Kevin Yeaman: Yes. Well, if we look at it, on — it’s always best for us, to look at this on an annual basis. And automotive has consistently been one of the categories Robert highlights, as a driver of increases in other markets. And that really is a result of Dolby Atmos in cars. Other areas for music of course or sound bar speakers, et cetera that falls in our CE category, which on the foundational side has lower unit volumes this year, but then that’s being partially offset by being – yes, that’s being offset to some extent by increased adoption of Atmos and Vision and some of that would be driven by Music.

Jim Goss: Okay. Is that gaming and other 20%, roughly equally split then between gaming and automotive?

Kevin Yeaman: We haven’t broken the categories out yet, but it is — as you point out, it’s gaming, it’s automotive, it’s Dolby Cinema that — to contribute to that category also our patent administrator fees, for our licensing pools. So those are the categories. And when they rise to individually large enough then, that’s when we would make it a category of its own.