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UNITED STATES
SECURITIES AND EXCHANGE COMMISSION
Washington, D.C. 20549
FORM 10-K
| | | | | |
| ☒ | ANNUAL REPORT PURSUANT TO SECTION 13 OR 15(d) OF THE SECURITIES EXCHANGE ACT OF 1934 |
For the Fiscal Year Ended September 30, 2022
OR
| | | | | |
| ☐ | TRANSITION REPORT PURSUANT TO SECTION 13 OR 15(d) OF THE SECURITIES EXCHANGE ACT OF 1934 |
For the Transition Period From To
Commission File Number: 001-32431
DOLBY LABORATORIES, INC.
(Exact name of registrant as specified in its charter)
| | | | | | | | | | | |
| Delaware | | | 90-0199783 |
| (State or other jurisdiction of incorporation or organization) | | | (I.R.S. Employer Identification No.) |
| | | |
| 1275 Market Street | San Francisco | California | 94103-1410 |
| (Address of principal executive offices) | | | (Zip Code) |
(415) 558-0200
Registrant's telephone number, including area code | | | | | | | | |
| Securities registered pursuant to Section 12(b) of the Act: |
| Title of each class | Trading Symbol(s) | Name of each exchange on which registered |
| Class A common stock, $0.001 par value | DLB | The New York Stock Exchange |
| | | | | | | | |
| Securities registered pursuant to Section 12(g) of the Act: |
| Title of each class | | |
| Class B common stock, $0.001 par value | | |
Indicate by check mark if the registrant is a well-known seasoned issuer, as defined in Rule 405 of the Securities Act. Yes ý No ¨
Indicate by check mark if the registrant is not required to file reports pursuant to Section 13 or Section 15(d) of the Act. Yes ¨ No ý
Indicate by check mark whether the registrant (1) has filed all reports required to be filed by Section 13 or 15(d) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 during the preceding 12 months (or for such shorter period that the registrant was required to file such reports), and (2) has been subject to such filing requirements for the past 90 days. Yes ý No ¨
Indicate by check mark whether the registrant has submitted electronically every Interactive Data File required to be submitted pursuant to Rule 405 of Regulation S-T (§ 232.405 of this chapter) during the preceding 12 months (or for such shorter period that the registrant was required to submit such files). Yes ý No ¨
Indicate by check mark whether the registrant is a large accelerated filer, an accelerated filer, a non-accelerated filer, smaller reporting company, or an emerging growth company. See the definitions of "large accelerated filer," "accelerated filer," "smaller reporting company," and "emerging growth company" in Rule 12b-2 of the Exchange Act. | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |
| Large accelerated filer | ☒ | | Accelerated filer | ☐ |
| Non-accelerated filer | ☐ | | Smaller reporting company | ☐ |
| | | Emerging growth company | ☐ |
If an emerging growth company, indicate by check mark if the registrant has elected not to use the extended transition period for complying with any new or revised financial accounting standards provided pursuant to Section 13(a) of the Exchange Act. ¨ |
Indicate by check mark whether the registrant has filed a report on and attestation to its management’s assessment of the effectiveness of its internal control over financial reporting under Section 404(b) of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act (15 U.S.C. 7262(b)) by the registered public accounting firm that prepared or issued its audit report. ☒
Indicate by check mark whether the registrant is a shell company (as defined in Rule 12b-2 of the Exchange Act). Yes ☐ No ☒
The aggregate market value of the voting common equity held by non-affiliates of the registrant as of April 1, 2022 was $4.6 billion. This calculation excludes the shares of Class A and Class B common stock held by executive officers, directors and stockholders whose ownership exceeds 5% of the combined shares of Class A and Class B common stock outstanding as of April 1, 2022. This calculation does not reflect a determination that such persons are affiliates for any other purposes.
On October 28, 2022, the registrant had 59,871,783 shares of Class A common stock, par value $0.001 per share, and 36,085,779 shares of Class B common stock, par value $0.001 per share, outstanding.
DOCUMENTS INCORPORATED BY REFERENCE
Portions of the registrant’s Definitive Proxy Statement to be filed with the Commission pursuant to Regulation 14A in connection with the registrant’s 2023 Annual Meeting of Stockholders, to be filed subsequent to the date hereof, are incorporated by reference into Part III of this Report. Such Definitive Proxy Statement will be filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission not later than 120 days after the conclusion of the registrant’s fiscal year ended September 30, 2022. Except with respect to information specifically incorporated by reference in this Form 10-K, the Definitive Proxy Statement is not deemed to be filed as part of this Form 10-K.
DOLBY LABORATORIES, INC.
FORM 10-K
TABLE OF CONTENTS | | | | | | | | | | | |
| PART I |
| Item 1 | — | | |
| Item 1A | — | | |
| Item 1B | — | | |
| Item 2 | — | | |
| Item 3 | — | | |
| Item 4 | — | | |
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| PART II |
| Item 5 | — | | |
| Item 6 | — | | |
| Item 7 | — | | |
| Item 7A | — | | |
| Item 8 | — | | |
| Item 9 | — | | |
| Item 9A | — | | |
| Item 9B | — | | |
| Item 9C | — | | |
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| PART III |
| Item 10 | — | | |
| Item 11 | — | | |
| Item 12 | — | | |
| Item 13 | — | | |
| Item 14 | — | | |
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| PART IV |
| Item 15 | — | | |
| Item 16 | — | | |
| |
GLOSSARY OF TERMS
The following table summarizes certain terms and abbreviations that may be used within the text of this report: | | | | | | | | | | | | |
| Abbreviation | | Term | | | | |
| AAC | | Advanced Audio Coding | | | | |
| AFS | | Available-For-Sale (Securities) | | | | |
| AOCI | | Accumulated Other Comprehensive Income (Loss) | | | | |
| API | | Application Programming Interface | | | | |
| APIC | | Additional Paid In-Capital | | | | |
| ASC | | Accounting Standards Codification | | | | |
| ASP | | Average Selling Price | | | | |
| ASU | | Accounting Standards Update | | | | |
| ATSC | | Advanced Television Systems Committee | | | | |
| AVC | | Advanced Video Coding | | | | |
| AVR | | Audio/Video Receiver | | | | |
| CE | | Consumer Electronics | | | | |
| | | | | | |
| CODM | | Chief Operating Decision Maker | | | | |
| | | | | | |
| COSO | | Committee Of Sponsoring Organizations (Of The Treadway Commission) | | | | |
| DD | | Dolby Digital® | | | | |
| DD+ | | Dolby Digital Plus™ | | | | |
| DMA | | Digital Media Adapter | | | | |
| DTV | | Digital Television | | | | |
| DVB | | Digital Video Broadcasting | | | | |
| DVD | | Digital Versatile Disc | | | | |
| EPS | | Earnings Per Share | | | | |
| ESP | | Estimated Selling Price | | | | |
| ESPP | | Employee Stock Purchase Plan | | | | |
| FASB | | Financial Accounting Standards Board | | | | |
| FCPA | | Foreign Corrupt Practices Act | | | | |
| | | | | | |
| G&A | | General and Administrative | | | | |
| | | | | | |
| HD | | High Definition | | | | |
| HDR | | High-Dynamic Range | | | | |
| HDTV | | High Definition Television | | | | |
| HE-AAC | | High Efficiency Advanced Audio Coding | | | | |
| HEVC | | High Efficiency Video Coding | | | | |
| | | | | | |
| HTIB | | Home Theater In-A-Box | | | | |
| IC | | Integrated Circuit | | | | |
| IBR | | Incremental Borrowing Rate | | | | |
| | | | | | |
| IP | | Intellectual Property | | | | |
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| LP | | Limited Partner/Partnership | | | | |
| | | | | | |
| NOL | | Net Operating Loss | | | | |
| | | | | | |
| | | | | | |
| OECD | | Organization For Economic Co-Operation & Development | | | | |
| OEM | | Original Equipment Manufacturer | | | | |
| | | | | | |
| OTT | | Over-The-Top | | | | |
| PC | | Personal Computer | | | | |
| PCS | | Post-Contract Support | | | | |
| PP&E | | Property, Plant, and Equipment | | | | |
| PSO | | Performance-Based Stock Option | | | | |
| PSU | | Performance-Based Restricted Stock Unit | | | | |
| R&D | | Research and Development | | | | |
| ROU | | Right-Of-Use | | | | |
| RSU | | Restricted Stock Unit | | | | |
| S&M | | Sales and Marketing | | | | |
| SEC | | U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission | | | | |
| SERP | | Supplemental Executive Retirement Plan | | | | |
| | | | | | |
| | | | | | |
| STB | | Set-Top Box | | | | |
| | | | | | |
| | | | | | |
| TSR | | Total Stockholder Return | | | | |
| UHD | | Ultra High Definition | | | | |
| U.S. GAAP | | Generally Accepted Accounting Principles In The United States | | | | |
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Forward Looking Statements
This Annual Report on Form 10-K contains forward-looking statements reflecting our current expectations that are subject to risks and uncertainties, including, but not limited to statements regarding: operating results and underlying measures; demand and acceptance for our technologies and products; the effect of the coronavirus pandemic ("COVID-19") on our business; market growth opportunities and trends; the development and launch of new products, features, and platforms; our ability to maintain key partnership relationships; our plans, strategies and expected opportunities; future competition; our stock repurchase plan; and our dividend policy. Use of words such as "may," "will," "should," "expect," "plan," "anticipate," "believe," "estimate," "predict," "potential," "continue," "intend," "could," "can," "would," "target," "goal," "outlook," "project," "contemplate," "future," or the negative of these words or other similar terms or expressions that concern our expectations, strategy, plans, or intentions indicates a forward-looking statement. Such forward-looking statements are based on management's reasonable and current assumptions and expectations, but such statements inherently involve substantial risks and uncertainties. Actual results may differ materially from those discussed in these forward-looking statements due to a number of factors, including but not limited to the risks set forth in Part I, Item 1A, "Risk Factors" and key challenges set forth in Part II, Item 7, "Management's Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations." Although we believe that the expectations reflected in the forward-looking statements are reasonable, we cannot guarantee future results, levels of activity, performance, or achievements. We may not actually achieve the plans, intentions, or expectations disclosed in our forward-looking statements, and you should not place undue reliance on our forward-looking statements.
In addition, statements that "we believe" and similar statements reflect our beliefs and opinions on the relevant subject. These statements are based upon information available to us as of the date of this Annual Report on Form 10-K, and while we believe such information forms a reasonable basis for such statements, such information may be limited or incomplete. These statements are inherently uncertain and investors are cautioned not to unduly rely upon these statements. We disclaim any duty to update any of the forward-looking statements after the date of this Annual Report on Form 10-K to conform our prior statements to actual results.
PART I
ITEM 1. BUSINESS
OVERVIEW
Dolby Laboratories creates audio and imaging technologies that transform entertainment and communications for content playback in movies, TV, music, and gaming. Founded in 1965, our strengths stem from expertise in analog and digital signal processing and digital compression technologies that have transformed the ability of artists to convey entertainment experiences to their audiences through recorded media. Such technologies led to the development of our noise-reduction systems for analog tape recordings, and have since evolved into multiple offerings that enable more immersive sound for cinema, DTV transmissions and devices, mobile devices, OTT video and music services, and home entertainment devices. Today, we derive the majority of our revenue from licensing our audio technologies. We also derive revenue from licensing our consumer imaging technologies, as well as audio and imaging technologies for premium cinema offerings in collaboration with exhibitors. In addition, we provide products and services for a variety of applications in the cinema and broadcast markets, and offer audio and video APIs through our developer platform, Dolby.io.
COVID-19
Please refer to the Executive Summary section of Part II, Item 7 "Management's Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations" for information concerning the continuing effect of COVID-19 on our business.
OUR STRATEGY
Key elements of our strategy include:
Advancing the Science of Sight and Sound. We apply our understanding of the human senses, audio, and imaging engineering to develop technologies aimed at improving how people experience and interact with their entertainment and communications content.
Providing Creative Solutions. We promote the use of our solutions as creative tools, and provide our products, services, and technologies to filmmakers, musical artists, sound mixers, and other content creators and providers. Our tools help showcase the quality and impact of their efforts and intent, which in turn may generate market demand.
Delivering Superior Experiences. Our technologies and solutions optimize playback and communications so that users may enjoy richer, clearer, and more immersive sound and sight experiences.
Expanding the Reach of our Technologies. With the launch of our developer platform, Dolby.io, we are expanding our addressable market to enhance a broader range of content, by enabling developers to build high quality, interactive, and media centric applications.
REVENUE GENERATION
The following table presents a summary of the composition of our revenue for all periods presented. Refer to Note 2 "Summary of Significant Accounting Policies" and Note 3 "Revenue Recognition" for further detail. | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |
| | | Fiscal Year Ended |
| Revenue | | | | September 30,
2022 | September 24,
2021 | September 25,
2020 |
| Licensing | | | | 93% | 95% | 93% |
| Products and services | | | | 7% | 5% | 7% |
| Total | | | | 100% | 100% | 100% |
We generate revenue from licensing arrangements with approximately 500 electronics product OEM and software developer licensees.
Licensing
We license our technologies to a range of customers who incorporate them into their products for enhanced audio and imaging functionality for content playback in movies, TV, music, and gaming. Our key technologies are summarized in the table below. As it relates to AAC, HE-AAC, Extended HE-AAC, AVC, and HEVC, we jointly participate in patent licensing programs with other patent owners.
| | | | | |
| Technology | Description |
| AAC, HE-AAC & Extended HE-AAC | Advanced digital audio codec solutions with high bandwidth efficiency used for a wide range of media applications. |
| AVC | A digital video codec with high bandwidth efficiency used in a wide range of media devices. |
| Dolby® AC-4 | A next-generation digital audio coding technology that increases transmission efficiency while delivering new audio experiences, including Dolby Atmos, to a wide range of playback devices. |
| Dolby Atmos® | An object-oriented audio technology for cinema and a wide range of media devices that allows sound to be precisely placed and moved anywhere in the listening environment including the overhead dimension. Dolby Atmos provides an immersive experience that can be provided via multiple Dolby audio coding technologies. |
| DD | A digital audio coding technology that provides multichannel sound to a variety of media applications. |
| DD+ | An advanced digital audio coding technology that offers more efficient audio transmission for a wide range of media applications and devices. |
| Dolby® TrueHD | A digital audio coding technology providing lossless encoding for premium quality media applications. |
| Dolby Vision® | An imaging technology combining high dynamic range and dynamic metadata to deliver ultra vivid colors, sharper contrasts, and richer details for cinema and a wide range of media devices. |
| Dolby Voice® | An audio communications technology with superior spatial perception, voice clarity, and background noise reduction that emulates the in-person meeting experience. |
| HEVC | A digital video codec with high bandwidth efficiency to support ultra-high definition experiences for a wide range of media devices. |
The following table presents the composition of revenue from our licensing business for all periods presented: | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |
| | | Fiscal Year Ended | |
| Market | | | | September 30,
2022 | September 24,
2021 | September 25,
2020 | Main Offerings Incorporating Our Technologies |
| Broadcast | | | | 37% | 39% | 41% | Televisions and STBs |
| Mobile | | | | 21% | 22% | 21% | Smartphones and Tablets |
| CE | | | | 16% | 15% | 14% | DMAs, Blu-ray Disc devices, AVRs, Soundbars, and DVDs |
| PC | | | | 13% | 12% | 12% | Windows and macOS operating systems |
| Other | | | | 13% | 12% | 12% | Gaming consoles, Auto DVD, and Dolby Cinema |
| Total | | | | 100% | 100% | 100% | |
We have various licensing models: a two-tier model, an integrated licensing model, a patent licensing model, recoveries, and collaboration arrangements.
Two-Tier Licensing Model. Most of our consumer entertainment licensing business consists of a two-tier licensing model whereby our decoding technologies, included in reference software and firmware code, are first provided under license to semiconductor manufacturers whom we refer to as "implementation licensees." Implementation licensees incorporate our technologies in ICs which they sell to OEMs of consumer entertainment products, whom we refer to as "system licensees." System licensees separately obtain licenses from us that allow them to make and sell end-user products using ICs that incorporate our technologies.
Implementation licensees incorporate our technologies into their chipsets that, once approved by Dolby, are available for purchase from implementation licensees by OEMs for use in end-user products. Implementation licensees only pay us a nominal initial fee on contract execution as consideration for the ongoing services that we provide to assist in their implementation process. Revenue from these initial fees is recognized ratably over the contractual term as a component of licensing revenue.
System licensees provide us with prototypes of products, or self-test results of products that incorporate our technologies. Upon our confirmation that our technologies are optimally and consistently incorporated, the system licensee may buy ICs under a license for the same Dolby technology from our network of implementation licensees, and may further sell approved products to retailers, distributors, and consumers. For the use of our technologies, our system licensees pay an initial licensing fee as well as royalties, which represent the majority of the revenue recognized from these arrangements. The amount of royalties we collect on a particular product depends on several factors including the nature of the implementations, the mix of Dolby technologies used, and the volume of products using our technologies that are shipped by the system licensee.
Integrated Licensing Model. We also license our technologies to software operating system vendors and to certain other OEMs that act as combined implementation and system licensees. These licensees incorporate our technologies in their software used on PCs, in mobile applications, or in ICs they manufacture and incorporate into their products. As with the two-tier licensing model, the combined implementation and system licensee pays us an initial licensing fee in addition to royalties as determined by the mix of Dolby technologies used, the nature of the
implementations, and the volume of products using our technologies that are shipped, and is subject to the same quality control evaluation process.
Patent Licensing Model. We license our patents through patent pools which are arrangements between multiple patent owners to jointly offer and license pooled patents to licensees. We also license our patents directly to manufacturers that use our IP in their products. Finally, we generate service fees for managing patent pools on behalf of third party patent owners through our wholly-owned subsidiary, Via Licensing Corporation ("Via"). By aggregating and offering pooled IP, patent pools deliver efficiencies that reduce transactional costs for both IP owners and licensees. The Via patent pools enable product manufacturers to efficiently and transparently secure patent licenses for collaboratively developed technologies. We offer our patents related to AAC, HE-AAC, Extended HE-AAC, AVC, HEVC, and other IP through a combination of patent pools and licensing directly to OEMs.
Recoveries. Licensing revenue recognized in any given period may include revenue from licensees and/or settlements with third parties where the use of our technology occurred in previous periods. Within the Results of Operations section of Part II, Item 7 "Management's Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations," revenue attributable to previous periods' usage including settlements are collectively referred to as "recoveries." Such recoveries have become a recurring element of our business and are particularly subject to fluctuation and unpredictability.
Collaboration Arrangements
Dolby Cinema: We partner with exhibitors to deliver a premium cinema offering with Dolby Vision and Dolby Atmos at new and pre-existing venues. We receive revenue at Dolby Cinema sites through a share of box office receipts, which is recognized as licensing revenue.
Products
We design and manufacture audio and imaging hardware and software products for the cinema, television, broadcast, and entertainment industries. Distributed in approximately 90 countries, these products are used in content creation, distribution, and playback to enhance image and sound quality, and improve transmission and playback. Additionally, some of our Dolby Cinema arrangements are classified as sales-type leases, and as a result are included in products sales.
Key products from which we generate products revenue are summarized in the table below: | | | | | | | | |
| Product | Description |
| Cinema | Cinema Imaging Products | Digital Cinema Servers used to load, store, decrypt, decode, watermark, and playback digital film files for presentation on digital cinema projectors and software used to encrypt, encode, and package digital media files for distribution |
| Cinema Audio Products | Cinema Processors, amplifiers, and loudspeakers used to decode, render, and optimally playback digital cinema soundtracks, including those using Dolby Atmos |
| | |
| | |
| | |
| Other | Other Products | 3-D glasses and kits, broadcast hardware and software used to encode, transmit, and decode multiple channels of high-quality audio for DTV and HDTV distribution, monitors, accessibility solutions for hearing and visually impaired consumers, and Dolby.io |
Services
We offer a developer platform, Dolby.io, that enables developers access to our technologies through APIs. These offerings currently include audio and video APIs for building high-quality communications, media, and streaming solutions. Over time, we expect to significantly expand the amount and types of content that can be enhanced through our technologies and capabilities.
In addition, we offer various services to support theatrical and television production for cinema exhibition, broadcast, and home entertainment, including equipment training and maintenance, mixing room alignment, equalization, as well as audio, color, and light image calibration. We also provide PCS for products sold and equipment installed at Dolby Cinema theaters operated by exhibitor partners and support the implementation of our technologies into products manufactured by our licensees.
INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY
We have a substantial base of IP assets, including patents, trademarks, copyrights, and trade secrets developed based on our technical expertise.
As of September 30, 2022, we had approximately 16,900 issued patents and approximately 4,100 pending patent applications in more than 100 jurisdictions throughout the world. Our currently issued patents expire at various times through December 2046.
Some of our patents relating to DD technologies have expired, and others will expire over the next several years. While in the past we derived a significant portion of our licensing revenue from our DD technologies, this is no longer the case as revenue attributed to DD technologies has declined and is expected to continue to decline. The primary products where DD is widely used include DVD players (but not Blu-ray players), TVs, and STBs. We have transitioned a number of our DD licensees to DD+ technologies, an extension of our DD technologies, whose patents generally expire later than the DD patents.
We pursue a general practice of filing patent applications for our technologies in the United States ("U.S.") and foreign countries where our customers manufacture, distribute, or sell licensed products. We actively pursue new applications to expand our patent portfolio to address new technological innovations, and we also make strategic acquisitions of technology and patents from time to time. We have multiple patents covering aspects and improvements for many of our technologies.
We have approximately 1,600 trademark registrations throughout the world for a variety of wordmarks, logos, and slogans. Our trademarks cover our various products, technologies, improvements, and features, as well as the services that we provide. These trademarks are an integral part of our technology licensing program, and licensees typically elect to place our trademarks on their products to inform consumers that their products incorporate our technology and meet our quality specifications.
We protect our IP rights both domestically and internationally. From time to time, OEMs have failed to report or have underreported shipments of their products that incorporate our technologies. We have also had problems with implementation licensees selling ICs with our technologies to third parties that are not system licensees. We anticipate that such problems will continue to occur. Accordingly, we have taken steps in the past to enforce our IP rights and expect to continue doing so in the future.
Moreover, in certain countries, we have relatively few or no issued patents. For example, in China, Taiwan, and India, we have only limited patent protection for our Dolby technologies. Consequently, we may realize less revenue from those regions in the future. Maintaining or growing our licensing revenue in developing countries such as China, Taiwan, and India will depend in part on our ability to obtain patent rights in these countries, which is uncertain. Further, because of the limitations of the legal systems in many countries, the effectiveness of patents obtained or that may in the future be obtained is uncertain.
INDUSTRY STANDARDS
Several Dolby technologies have been adopted as, or are included in, the explicit or de facto industry standard for broadcast, discrete media, and online delivery in various markets worldwide.
Explicit industry standards are adopted through a standardization process whereby government entities, industry standards-setting bodies, trade associations, and others evaluate and then prescribe the use of a technology. For example, as global broadcast standards for digital, HD, and UHD television have developed, Dolby audio technologies have been adopted or mandated in various regions of the world, highlights of which are as follows:
•DD+ and HE-AAC are mandated for use in terrestrial broadcast across many countries including France, Italy, the United Kingdom ("U.K."), Sweden, Germany, Poland, Turkey, and Russia. In addition, DD+ and HE-AAC are included in the digital terrestrial television specifications of emerging digital TV markets in Africa, Brazil, South-East Asia, and India while operators in China have selected DD and DD+ as optional technologies for transmissions using the country’s digital terrestrial television specification.
•DD is mandated for HD broadcast in multiple regions including North America and South Korea, and for DVD players on a global basis.
•AC-4 is Dolby’s next generation of audio coding technology that has been adopted for implementation in certain regions by worldwide standards organizations including the DVB and ATSC. AC-4 has also been adopted or proposed in forthcoming regional and country standards in North America, Europe, and Latin America. The transition for AC-4 continues to gain momentum, and is already being supported in a number of TVs that are available worldwide from major manufacturers. In mobile devices, HE-AAC is specified for various applications in the 3rd Generation Partnership Project suite of standards.
•Extended HE-AAC is included in Digital Radio Mondiale radio broadcasting standards.
In addition, Dolby technologies have become, or are included in, de facto industry standards in many consumer entertainment products. De facto industry standards are adopted by industry participants when technologies are introduced to the marketplace and become widely used, and include the following examples:
•Prior to the adoption of HD terrestrial broadcast standards mandating Dolby technologies, many European HD broadcasters began broadcasting in DD or DD+, leading OEMs to include these technologies in their televisions and STBs for the European market.
•HE-AAC is a de facto audio standard in entertainment services. It is included in popular operating systems and widely used by major broadcasting, streaming, and radio services.
•DD+ is the de facto technology used by a wide range of pay-TV operators and streaming services worldwide and is included in popular operating systems such as iOS and Windows. It is also widely used by major OTT services such as Apple TV+, Disney+, Netflix, and Amazon, and is included in the specifications of these services.
•Extended HE-AAC is a de facto industry standard in streaming applications. It is included in popular operating systems and used in major OTT services.
RESEARCH AND DEVELOPMENT
We conduct R&D activities at numerous locations in the U.S. and internationally. Dolby’s history of producing innovative technology has created many forms of IP. This IP generates licensing revenue that enables us to fund and pursue further innovation.
The majority of our R&D resources are focused on developing leading audio and imaging technologies for consumer entertainment. Each of these technologies can support many offerings, and we anticipate bringing new innovations to market in the future.
PRODUCT MANUFACTURING
Our product quality is enabled through the use of well-established, and in some cases, highly automated, assembly processes along with rigorous testing of our products. Although we have some manufacturing facilities, we rely primarily upon contract manufacturers for the majority of our production capacity. We purchase components and fabricated parts from multiple suppliers; however, we rely on sole source suppliers for certain components used to manufacture our products. We source components and fabricated parts both domestically and internationally.
SALES AND MARKETING
Our marketing efforts focus on demonstrating how our solutions improve entertainment and communications experiences. We sell our solutions primarily using an internal sales organization to various customers in the markets where we operate. We promote our solutions and our brand through industry events such as trade-shows, film festivals, movie premieres, product launches, as well as through our website, public relations, direct marketing, co-marketing programs, and social media. In addition, we hold the naming rights to the Dolby Theatre, home to the Academy Awards® in Hollywood, California, where we showcase our technology and host high-profile events. We maintain more than 20 sales offices in key regions around the globe.
CUSTOMERS
We license our technologies to a broad set of customers that operate in a wide range of industries, and we sell our professional products either directly to the end user or, more commonly, through dealers and distributors. Users of our professional products and services include film studios, content creators, post-production facilities, cinema operators, broadcasters, and video game designers.
COMPETITION
The entertainment and communications industries are highly competitive, and we face aggressive competition in all areas of our business. Some of our current and future competitors may have significantly greater financial, technical, marketing, and other resources than we do, or may have more experience or advantages in the markets in which they compete. In addition, some of our current or potential competitors may be able to offer integrated systems in certain markets for entertainment technologies, including audio and imaging, which could make competing technologies that we develop or acquire obsolete. By offering an integrated system solution, these potential
competitors may also be able to offer competing technologies at lower prices than we can, which could adversely affect our operating results.
Many products that include our audio and imaging technologies also include technologies developed by our competitors. We believe that the principal competitive factors in our markets include some or all of the following:
•Degree of access and inclusion in industry standards;
•Technological performance, flexibility, and range of application;
•Brand recognition and reputation;
•Timeliness and relevance of new product introductions;
•Quality and reliability of products and services;
•Relationships with producers, directors, and distributors in the film and television industry, with television broadcast industry leaders, with OTT industry leaders, and with the management of semiconductor and CE OEMs;
•Availability of compatible high quality audio and video content; and
•Price.
Certain foreign governments, particularly in China, have advanced arguments under their competition laws that exert downward pressure on royalties for IP, which can impact the licensing fees that we are able to collect. The regulatory enforcement activities in such jurisdictions can be unpredictable, in some cases because these jurisdictions have only recently implemented competition laws.
Our technologies, products, and services span the audio and imaging sectors of several distinct and diverse industries, including the broadcast, mobile, consumer entertainment, PC, gaming, automotive, cinema, and other industries. The lack of a clear definition of the markets in which our products, services, and technologies are sold or licensed, the nature of our technologies, their potential use for various commercial applications, and the diverse nature of and lack of detailed reporting by our competitors, make it impracticable to quantify our position.
HUMAN CAPITAL
At Dolby, we strive to act as a good partner to our customers, employees, shareholders, and communities. We are committed to fostering a workplace environment in which every employee can contribute their fullest potential, based on their individual experiences and perspectives, to our common efforts and make a positive impact through their roles.
Details of this work are available in our Sustainability Report, and we encourage you to read it on our website and learn more. Nothing in our Sustainability Report shall be deemed incorporated by reference into this Annual Report on Form 10-K.
As of September 30, 2022, we had 2,336 employees worldwide, of whom 1,102 employees were based outside of the U.S. None of our employees are subject to a collective bargaining agreement.
Employee Well-being
Our workforce strategies prioritize employee well-being and take an integrated approach to mental, physical, and financial well-being for our employees. We have expanded our mental well-being programs to include therapy and access to wellness coaching, mindfulness training and live community sessions.
As the communities we operate in adopt COVID-19 measures, we continue to implement business strategies that support the health and safety of our employees and enable business continuity. We have implemented a flex work program that enables employee connection and effective work delivery in a hybrid work environment. In a company-wide survey in May 2022, Motivation & Commitment scores indicate that we remain highly connected to our work and each other.
Diversity, Inclusion and Belonging ("DIB")
We are committed to being a part of creating a more equitable world. Different backgrounds, perspectives, and beliefs bring critical value to our business, and we’re driven by the knowledge that diverse talent enhances our ability to imagine, innovate, and grow.
To invest in the talent of the future, we provide financial contributions, employee engagement, and in-kind support of science, technology, engineering, arts, and mathematics education and workforce initiatives at the K-12, university, and early-career levels and are engaged in strategic partnerships with universities to help develop the next generation of diverse talent at Dolby.
We have programs and practices in place to support creating an environment where individual experiences and perspectives are welcome and where everyone can belong and thrive. This includes equipping our leaders, colleagues, and peers with tools to have open and authentic conversations with the goal of becoming more aware and more empathetic to others’ experiences. We look at DIB comprehensively through hiring, retention, progression, and employee experiences.
We empower everyone at Dolby to be co-creators of change by offering employees opportunities to learn and grow through educational sessions, hands-on workshops, employee-led Employee Network ("EN") events, and company-led DIB programs. Our EN community encompasses 14 networks, convening around many different dimensions of diversity including gender, race/ethnicity and more, to build community and drive awareness of issues impacting employees identifying with these dimensions of diversity and their allies.
We hold ourselves accountable for our progress and publish our global gender diversity and U.S. race and ethnic diversity workforce data annually. We encourage you to review our Sustainability Report for more detailed information.
Compensation and Benefits
We offer competitive compensation (including salary, incentive bonus, and equity) and benefits packages in each of our locations around the globe. In addition to comprehensive health benefits and the ESPP, depending on the location, employees may also enjoy free or subsidized fitness programs, commuter benefits, wellness credits, tuition reimbursement opportunities, and personal development courses, among other benefits.
Social Impact
Through our social impact programs, employees from our offices around the world organize to volunteer as individuals, as part of a work team or through our diversity, inclusion, and belonging employee networks. From mentoring youth, to supporting adults re-entering the workforce, to aiding people experiencing hardships, our employees are making our communities stronger. We also partner with educational organizations in our local communities around the world, including Bay Area Video Coalition, Girls Who Code, Greene Scholars, IGNITE Worldwide, Inneract Project, Resource Area For Teaching, University of Sydney’s Women in Engineering Program, and Fundacja Rodziny Maciejko in Poland to organize volunteer opportunities. Our educational efforts are intended to share Dolby’s experiences, ideas and approaches from our unique position at the intersection of science, technology and art.
Management Succession Planning
Our Board of Directors works with the Nominating and Governance Committee on succession planning for our Chief Executive Officer, including a process for identifying potential successors. Our Board of Directors has adopted an emergency succession plan in the event of the death, disability, incapacity or unanticipated departure or leave of our Chief Executive Officer. The organization regularly conducts talent reviews for other management roles and key positions for succession management and talent planning purposes.
Board Oversight of Human Capital Management
Through our Compensation Committee, our Board of Directors provides oversight of human capital matters. Our Nominating and Governance Committee works with the Board of Directors on management succession as described above. The Board and Board committees are supported in these efforts by our management team, People, Legal and Compliance.
CORPORATE AND AVAILABLE INFORMATION
We were founded in London, England in 1965 and incorporated in the State of New York in 1967. We reincorporated in California in 1976 and reincorporated in Delaware in September 2004. Our principal corporate offices are located at 1275 Market Street, San Francisco, California 94103. Our telephone number is (415) 558-0200.
Our website is www.dolby.com. We make available on our website, free of charge, our Annual Report on Form 10-K, Quarterly Reports on Form 10-Q, Current Reports on Form 8-K, and any amendments to those reports, as soon as reasonably practicable after we electronically file such material with, or furnish it to, the SEC. Our SEC reports can be accessed through the Investor Relations section of our website at www.investor.dolby.com. The information found on our website is not part of this or any other report we file with or furnish to the SEC. The SEC also maintains a website that contains our SEC filings at www.sec.gov.
ITEM 1A. RISK FACTORS
The following risk factors and other information included in this Annual Report on Form 10-K should be carefully considered. The risks and uncertainties described below are not the only ones we face. Additional risks and uncertainties not currently known to us or that we currently deem less significant may also affect our business operations or financial results. If any of the following risks actually occur, our stock price, business, operating results and financial condition could be materially adversely affected.
REVENUE GENERATION
COVID-19
COVID-19, including the spread of variants of SARS-CoV-2, has impacted and will continue to impact our operations and financial performance. COVID-19 continues to impact several of our partners and has resulted in disruption of the supply chain of consumer products and delays in shipments, product development and product launches. In addition, it is unclear how demand for consumer products that include our technologies may change in response to the ongoing pandemic. These factors have impacted revenue pertaining to customer-shipment royalties. Further, these factors have and may continue to result in delays in the release of new products or services that contain our technologies by partners and licensees. In cases where a partner or licensee’s financial condition has significantly worsened, we may have difficulty collecting or be unable to collect amounts owed to us. We may also be negatively impacted by delays in transaction cycles and our recoveries efforts due to ongoing global restrictions related to the pandemic.
The cinema market has been adversely impacted by COVID-19. At various times, our exhibition partners and customers have had to either partially or fully discontinue operations. Box office receipts at Dolby Cinema sites and general demand for our cinema products and services have been, and we expect to remain, lower than that of pre-pandemic levels. Most cinema locations have been permitted to resume operations, but many such locations are operating under restricted capacity.
Further, the spread of variants of SARS-CoV-2 may result in renewed government responses. The situation is continuing to evolve, and we cannot predict how or to what extent the cinema market, or other markets we target, may be impacted during the course of the pandemic and long-term.
We have modified our workforce policies in light of COVID-19 and changing norms, including implementing a flex work program and modifying health and safety policies. We continue to monitor COVID-19 developments, including community transmission and hospitalization rates along with local requirements and we may take further actions that we determine are in the best interests of our employees, licensees, partners, and community. Such actions may adversely impact our productivity and cause delays, which may negatively impact our revenue. Further, there is no certainty that the measures we have taken or will take will be sufficient to mitigate the risks posed by COVID-19 to the well-being and productivity of our workforce.
The degree to which COVID-19 impacts our results will depend on future developments, which are highly uncertain and cannot be predicted with any certainty, including, but not limited to, the duration and extent of the pandemic, additional actions taken by governments, businesses and consumers in response to the pandemic, additional subsequent outbreaks and variant strains, and how quickly and to what extent normal economic and operating conditions can resume.
Even after COVID-19 has subsided, we may continue to experience an adverse impact to our business as a result of its global economic impact, including any recession that may occur. Specifically, difficult macroeconomic conditions, such as rising inflation, ongoing supply chain constraints, decreases in per capita income and levels of disposable income, increased rates of resignation or a decline in consumer confidence as a result of COVID-19 or otherwise, could have an adverse effect on our results of operations.
Markets We Target
Dependence on Sales by Licensees. Our licensing businesses depend on OEMs and other licensees to incorporate our technologies into their products. Our license agreements generally do not have minimum purchase commitments, are typically non-exclusive, and frequently do not require incorporation or use of our technologies. Our revenue will decline if our licensees choose not to incorporate our technologies into their products or if they sell fewer products incorporating our technologies.
Trends in Media Content Distribution. Changing trends in the way that media is distributed and consumed may
impact our existing business and future opportunities for growth. One such trend is the shift by consumers in certain markets away from subscription-based cable and satellite television providers toward streaming services, commonly referred to as "cord-cutting." While cable and satellite television often require a STB, today consumers can also access streaming media through smart TVs or DMA devices. As consumers trend toward canceling subscriptions to these traditional cable and satellite providers and turn to streaming media, we expect demand for STBs in certain regions to continue to decline. If we are unable to derive additional revenue from the smart TV and DMA markets to make up for decreases in our STB-related revenue, our financial results may be negatively impacted.
Mobile Industry Risks. Successful penetration of the mobile device market is important to our future growth. The mobile device market, particularly smartphones and tablets, is characterized by rapidly changing market conditions, frequent product introductions and intense competition based on features and price. Our technologies usually are not mandated as an industry standard for mobile devices. We must continually convince mobile device OEMs and end users of mobile devices of the value of our technologies. With shorter product lifecycles, it is easier for mobile device OEMs to add or remove our technologies from mobile devices than it is for TV OEMs and other hardware OEMs. In addition, because the mobile industry is concentrated, we rely on a small number of partnerships with key participants in the mobile market. If we are unable to maintain these key relationships, we may experience a decline in mobile devices incorporating our technologies.
In order to increase the value of our technologies in the mobile market and increase OEM and software vendor demand for our decoding technologies, we have worked with online and mobile media content service providers to encode their content with our technologies. However, the online and mobile media content services markets are also characterized by intense competition, evolving industry standards and business and distribution models, disruptive software and hardware technology developments, frequent product and service introductions and short life cycles, and price sensitivity on the part of consumers, all of which may result in downward pressure on pricing or the removal of our technologies by these providers and may result in decreased revenue from our mobile market. Further, current macroeconomic conditions due to inflation, COVID-19, geopolitical instability, and other factors may adversely impact consumer demand for mobile devices, and may continue to adversely impact the ability of our partners to manufacture such devices, supply chain and distribution, timing of the adoption of our technologies into products by partners and licensees, and the timing of launches for new products.
PC Industry Risks. Revenue from our PC market depends on several factors, including underlying PC unit shipments, the extent to which our technologies are included on computers, including through operating systems, the inclusion of optical disc drives or otherwise, and the terms of any royalties or other payments we receive. Further, we rely on a small number of partnerships with key participants in the PC market. If we are unable to maintain these key relationships, we may experience a decline in PCs incorporating our technologies. COVID-19 may also adversely impact consumer demand for PCs, and may continue to adversely impact PC manufacturing, supply chain and distribution, timing of the adoption of our technologies into products by partners and licensees, and the timing of launches for new products.
Cinema Industry Risks. Revenue from Dolby Cinema and cinema product sales is subject to the pace of construction or upgrade of screens, the financial stability of exhibitors, the advent of new or competing technologies, the willingness of movie studios to produce films in our Dolby Atmos and Dolby Vision formats, consumer trends, box-office performance generally, and other events or conditions in the cinema industry. Revenue from Dolby Cinema and cinema products sales is also subject to macroeconomic conditions that could negatively impact discretionary consumer spending, including inflation and recession. Further, although we have invested a substantial amount of time and resources developing Dolby Cinema, and expect to continue to invest and build partnerships in connection with the launch of Dolby Cinema locations, we may not continue to recognize a meaningful amount of revenue from these efforts in the near future. Additionally, we have collaborations with multiple exhibitors in foreign markets, including Asia, Europe, and the Middle East, and we may face a number of risks in expanding Dolby Cinema in these and other new international markets. The revenue we receive from Dolby Cinema exhibitors are based on a portion of box-office receipts from the installed theaters, and the timing of such theater installations is dependent upon a number of factors beyond our control. In addition, the success of our Dolby Cinema offering will be tied to the pipeline and success of motion pictures available at Dolby Cinema locations generally. The success of Dolby Cinema depends in large part on our ability to differentiate our offering, deploy new sites in accordance with plans, provide a compelling experience, and attract and retain a viewing audience. A decrease in our ability to develop and introduce new cinema products and services successfully could affect licensing of our consumer technologies, because the strength of our brand and our ability to use professional product developments to introduce new consumer technologies would be negatively impacted. These factors are subject to increased risk due to COVID-19, including related government responses. Further, it remains uncertain when cinemas will return to full capacity and how quickly moviegoers will
return to theaters at pre-pandemic levels.
Our revenue and associated demand from cinema product sales is dependent upon industry and economic cycles, which are subject to risks including delays in cinematic releases and reduced operating capacity related to COVID-19, along with our ability to develop and introduce new technologies, further our relationships with content creators, and promote new cinematic audio and imaging experiences. A portion of our opportunity lies in the China market, which is subject to unique economic and geopolitical risks. Furthermore, future growth of our cinema products business also depends upon new theater construction and entering into an equipment replacement cycle whereby previously purchased cinema products are upgraded or replaced. To the extent that we do not make progress in these areas, or are faced with pricing pressures, competing technologies, or other global macroeconomic challenges, our revenue may be adversely impacted.
Customers and Distributors
Loss of Key Licensee or Customer. A small number of our licensees or customers may represent a significant percentage of our licensing, products, or services revenue. Although we generally have agreements with these licensees or customers, these agreements typically do not require any minimum purchases or minimum royalty fees and do not prohibit licensees from using competing technologies or customers from purchasing products and services from competitors. Customer demand for our technologies and products can shift quickly as many of our markets are rapidly evolving. As a result of our increased presence across consumer electronic device markets where our technologies are not mandated and are subject to significant competition, the risk that a large licensee may reduce or eliminate its use of our technologies has increased.
Reliance on Semiconductor Manufacturers and Availability of Semiconductor Components. Our licensing revenue from system licensees depends in large part upon the availability of ICs that implement our technologies. IC manufacturers incorporate our technologies into these ICs, which are then incorporated in consumer entertainment products. We do not manufacture these ICs, but rather depend on IC manufacturers to develop, produce, and then sell them to system licensees in accordance with their agreements. We do not control the IC manufacturers’ decisions on whether or not to incorporate our technologies into their ICs, and we do not control their product development or commercialization efforts. Further, current demand levels have resulted in ongoing shortages of semiconductor components and other key materials that may adversely impact the ability of our implementation and system licensees and customers to meet product demand in a timely fashion.
Consumer Spending Weakness. Weakness in general economic conditions due to inflation, rising interest rates, lower consumer confidence, a potential recession, pandemic or other worsening economic conditions, may suppress consumer demand in our markets and consumers going to the movies. Many of the products in which our technologies are incorporated are discretionary goods, such as PCs, TVs, STBs, Blu-ray Disc players, video game consoles, AVRs, mobile devices, in-car entertainment systems, and home-theater systems. Weakness in general economic conditions may also lead to licensees and customers becoming delinquent on their obligations to us or being unable to pay, resulting in a higher level of write-offs. Economic conditions, including business slowdown caused by COVID-19, may increase underreporting and non-reporting of royalty-bearing revenue by our licensees as well as increase the unauthorized use of our technologies.
Reliance on Distributors. We rely significantly on a global network of independent, regional distributors to market and distribute our cinema, broadcast and voice products. Our distributor arrangements are non-exclusive and our distributors are not obligated to buy our products and can represent competing products, and they may be unwilling or unable to dedicate the resources necessary to promote our portfolio of products. Our distributors could retain product channel inventory levels that exceed future anticipated sales, which could affect our future sales to those distributors. In addition, failure of our distributors to adhere to our policies designed to promote compliance with global anticorruption laws, export controls, and local laws, could subject us to criminal or civil penalties and stockholder litigation.
Marketing and Branding
Importance of Brand Strength. Maintaining and strengthening the Dolby brand is critical to maintaining and expanding our licensing, products, and services business, as well as our ability to offer technologies for new markets, including Dolby Cinema, Dolby Vision and other imaging offerings for the consumer market, Dolby.io, and others. Our continued success depends on our reputation for providing high quality technologies, products, and services across a wide range of entertainment markets, including the consumer electronics, PC, broadcast, and gaming markets. If we fail to promote and maintain the Dolby brand successfully in licensing, products or services, our business will suffer.
Furthermore, we believe that the strength of our brand may affect the likelihood that our technologies are adopted as industry standards in various markets and for various applications. Our ability to maintain and strengthen our brand will depend heavily on our ability to develop innovative technologies for the entertainment industry, to enter into new markets successfully, and to provide high quality products and services in these new markets. In addition, our practices and public disclosures related to environmental, social and governance (ESG) matters could impact our brand and reputation. If our ESG practices do not meet evolving investor or other stakeholder expectations and societal and regulatory standards, or if we are unable to make progress on or achieve our goals and objectives in this area, then our reputation, our ability to attract or retain employees, and our attractiveness as an investment or business partner could be negatively impacted, which could adversely affect our operating results.
Industry Standards
The entertainment industry has historically depended upon industry standards to ensure compatibility across delivery platforms and a wide variety of consumer entertainment products. We make significant efforts to design our products and technologies to address capability, quality, and cost considerations so that they either meet, or more importantly, are adopted as industry standards across the broad range of entertainment industry markets in which we participate, as well as the markets in which we plan to compete in the future. To have our products and technologies adopted as industry standards, we must convince a broad spectrum of standards-setting organizations throughout the world, as well as our major customers and licensees who are members of such organizations, to adopt them as such. The market for broadcast technologies has traditionally been heavily based on industry standards, often mandated by governments choosing from among alternative standards, and we expect this to continue to be the case in the future. The continued advancement of OTT media delivery and consumption is altering the landscape for broadcast standards and impacting the importance of the inclusion of our technology in certain broadcast standards, and we cannot predict if and to what extent this may impact our revenue.
Difficulty Becoming Incorporated in an Industry Standard. Standards-setting organizations establish technology standards for use in a wide range of consumer products. It can be difficult for companies to have their technologies adopted as an industry standard, as multiple companies, including ones that typically compete against one another, are involved in the development of new technology standards for use in consumer products. Furthermore, some standards-setting organizations choose to adopt a set of optional standards or a combination of mandatory and optional standards; in such cases, our technologies may be adopted only as an optional standard and not a mandatory standard. Standards may also change in ways that are unfavorable to Dolby.
Participants May Choose Among Alternative Technologies within Standards. Even when a standards-setting organization incorporates our technologies in an industry standard for a particular market or geographic region, our technologies may not be the sole technologies adopted for that market. Furthermore, different standards may be adopted for different markets and regions. Our operating results depend upon participants in that market choosing to adopt our technologies instead of competitive technologies that also may be acceptable under such standard. For example, the continued growth of our revenue from the broadcast market will depend upon both the continued global adoption of DTV generally, including in emerging markets, and the choice to use our technologies where it is one of several accepted industry standards.
Being Part of a Standard May Limit Our Licensing Practices. When a standards-setting organization mandates our technologies, we generally must agree to license such technologies on a fair, reasonable, and non-discriminatory basis, which could limit our control over the use of these technologies. In these situations, we must often limit the royalty rates we charge for these technologies, and we may be unable to limit to whom we license such technologies or to restrict many terms of the license. We have in the past, and may in the future, be subject to claims that our licensing of industry standard technologies may not conform to the requirements of the standards-setting organization. Allegations such as these could be asserted in private actions seeking monetary damages and injunctive relief, or in regulatory actions. Claimants in such cases could seek to restrict or change our licensing practices or our ability to license our technologies.
Royalty Reporting
Our operating results fluctuate based on the risks set forth in this section, as well as, among other factors, on:
•Royalty reports including positive or negative corrective adjustments;
•Retroactive royalties that cover extended periods of time; and
•Timing of revenue recognition under licensing agreements and other contractual arrangements, including
recognition of unusually large amounts of revenue in any given quarter.
Inaccurate Licensee Royalty Reporting. We generate licensing revenue primarily from OEMs who license our technologies and incorporate those technologies into their products. Our license agreements generally obligate our licensees to pay us a specified royalty for every product they ship that incorporates our technologies, and we rely on our licensees to report their shipments accurately. However, we have difficulty independently determining whether our licensees are reporting shipments accurately, particularly with respect to software incorporating our technologies because unauthorized copies of such software can be made relatively easily. A third party may disagree with our interpretation of the terms of a license agreement or, as a result of an audit, a third party could challenge the accuracy of our calculation. We are regularly involved in discussions with third party technology licensees regarding license terms. Most of our license agreements permit us to audit our licensees’ records, and we routinely exercise these rights, but audits are generally expensive, time-consuming, and potentially detrimental to our ongoing business relationships with our licensees. In the past, licensees have understated or failed to report the number of products incorporating our technologies that they shipped, and we have not been able to collect and recognize revenue to which we were entitled. We expect that we will continue to experience understatement and non-reporting of royalties by our licensees. We have been able to obtain certain recovery payments from licensees (either in the form of back payments or settlements), and such recoveries have become a recurring element of our business; however, we are unable to predict with certainty the revenue that we may recover in the future or our ability to continue to obtain such recoveries at all. Ongoing global restrictions and economic impacts related to COVID-19 may also cause longer transaction cycles and delays in royalty reporting, payment, or recoveries efforts.
Estimation of Sales-Based Royalties. We recognize a material portion of our licensing revenue based on our estimate of shipments to which we expect our licensees to submit royalty statements. Upon receipt of actual reporting of sales-based royalties that we estimated previously, we record a favorable or unfavorable adjustment based on the difference, if any, between estimated and actual sales. This may cause volatility in our quarterly figures because of the estimation process and the corresponding true-up adjustments, which we disclose.
Royalties We Owe Others. In some cases, the products we sell and the technologies we license to our customers include IP that we have licensed from third parties. Our agreements with these third parties generally require us to pay them royalties for that use, and give the third parties the right to audit our calculation of those royalties. A third party may disagree with our interpretation of the terms of a license agreement or, as a result of an audit, a third party could challenge the accuracy of our calculation. We are regularly involved in discussions with third party technology licensors regarding license terms. A successful challenge by a third party could result in the termination of a license agreement or an increase in the amount of royalties we have to pay to the third party.
Our results of operations could be significantly affected to the extent that actual revenue differ significantly from estimated revenue, or that we are required to accelerate recognition of revenue under certain arrangements, potentially causing the amount of revenue we recognize to vary materially from quarter to quarter. While our reporting practices do not change the cash flows or total revenue we receive from our contracts with customers, it could result in changes to the timing of our reported revenue and income, which in turn could cause volatility in the price of our Class A common stock.
TECHNOLOGY TRENDS AND DEVELOPMENTS
Technology Innovation. Our revenue growth will depend upon our success in new and existing markets for our technologies, such as digital broadcast, mobile devices, online and mobile media distribution, cinema, consumer imaging and communications. The markets for our technologies and products are defined by:
•Rapid technological change;
•New and improved technology and frequent product introductions;
•Changing consumer and licensee demands;
•Evolving industry standards; and
•Technology and product obsolescence.
Our future success depends on our ability to enhance our technologies and products and to develop new technologies and products that address the market needs in a timely manner. Technology development is a complex, uncertain process requiring high levels of innovation, highly-skilled engineering and development personnel, and the accurate anticipation of technological and market trends. We may not be able to identify, develop, acquire, market, or
support new or enhanced technologies or products on a timely basis, if at all.
Experience with New Markets and Business Models. Our future growth will depend, in part, upon our continued expansion into areas beyond our audio licensing business. For example, we recently introduced Dolby.io, our platform that allows developers to access our technologies through APIs. As we enter into this and other new markets, we will face new sources of competition, new business models, and new customer relationships. In order to be successful in these markets, we will need to cultivate new industry relationships and strengthen existing relationships to bring our products, services, and technologies to market. Our limited experience in this or other new markets could limit our ability to successfully execute on our growth strategy.
Incorporation of Dolby Formats into New Products and Availability of Content in Dolby Formats. The success of many of our newer initiatives, such as Dolby Atmos, Dolby Vision, and Dolby Cinema, is dependent upon the availability and success of (i) products that incorporate Dolby formats and (ii) content produced in Dolby formats. However, there is no guarantee that device makers will continue to incorporate Dolby formats into their products, that content creators will continue to release content in Dolby formats, or that either those products or that content will be commercially successful.
For instance, to broaden adoption of Dolby Vision and Dolby Atmos, we will need to continue to expand the array of products and consumer devices that incorporate Dolby Atmos and Dolby Vision, expand the pipeline of Dolby Atmos and Dolby Vision content available from content creators, and encourage consumer adoption in the face of competing products and technologies. Similarly, the success of Dolby Cinema is dependent upon our ability to partner with movie theater exhibitors to launch new Dolby Cinema sites and deploy new sites in accordance with plans, as well as the continued release and box-office success of new films in the Dolby Vision and Dolby Atmos formats released through Dolby Cinemas. These factors are subject to increased risk due to COVID-19 and related government actions, including the shutdown of cinemas and other non-essential businesses, delay in royalty and other payments and solvency of our exhibitor partners.
Further, the commercial success of products incorporating Dolby formats, content released in Dolby formats, and Dolby Cinemas generally, depends upon a number of factors outside of our control, including, but not limited to, consumer preferences, critical reception, timing of release, marketing efforts of third-parties, and general market conditions. Moreover, release and distribution of such products and content can be subject to delays in production or changes in release schedule, including delays in release and distribution related to COVID-19 and the global response to COVID-19, which can negatively impact the quantity, timing and quality of such products and content released in Dolby formats and available at Dolby Cinema theaters.
INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY
Our business is dependent upon protecting our patents, trademarks, trade secrets, copyrights, and other IP rights, the loss or expiration of which may significantly impact our results of operations and financial condition. Effective IP rights protection, however, may not be available under the laws of every country in which our products and services and those of our licensees are distributed. The efforts we have taken to protect our proprietary rights may not be sufficient or effective. We also seek to maintain select IP as trade secrets, and third parties or our employees could intentionally or accidentally compromise the IP that we maintain as trade secrets. In addition, protecting our IP rights is costly and time consuming. We have taken steps in the past to enforce our IP rights and expect to do so in the future. However, it may not be practicable or cost effective for us to enforce our IP rights fully, particularly in some countries or where the initiation of a claim might harm our business relationships.
We generally seek patent protection for our innovations. However, our patent program faces a number of challenges, including:
•Possibility that innovations may not be protectable;
•Failure to protect innovations that later turn out to be important;
•Insufficient patent protection to prevent third parties from designing around our patent claims;
•Our pending patent applications may not be approved; and
•Possibility that an issued patent may later be found to be invalid or unenforceable.
Patent Royalties and Expiration. Many of the technologies that we license to our system licensees are covered by patents, and the licensing revenue that we receive from those licenses depends in large part upon the life of such patents. In general, our agreements with our licensees require them to pay us a full royalty with respect to a particular
technology only until there are no patents or, in some cases, no patent applications covering that technology in countries where applicable products are made and sold. As of September 30, 2022, we had approximately 16,900 issued patents in addition to approximately 4,100 pending patent applications in more than 100 jurisdictions throughout the world. Our currently issued patents expire at various times through December 2046. If we are unable to expand on our patent portfolio or refresh our technology with new patented inventions, our revenue could decline.
We seek to mitigate this risk in a variety of ways. We regularly look for opportunities to expand our patent portfolio through organic development and acquisitions. We develop proprietary technologies to replace licensing revenue from technologies covered by expiring patents with licensing revenue supported by patents with a longer remaining life. And, we develop and license our technologies in a manner designed to reduce the chance that a system licensee would develop competing technologies that do not include any Dolby IP.
In the case of our patent coverage related to DD, some of our relevant patents have expired, but others continue to apply. DD is our solution that includes technology necessary to implement AC-3 as it has been updated over time. We have continued to innovate and develop IP to support the standard and its implementation. Our customers use our DD implementation for quality, reliability, and performance, even in locations where we have not had applicable patent coverage. While in the past, we derived a significant portion of our licensing revenue from our DD technologies, this is no longer the case as revenue attributed to DD technologies have declined and are expected to continue to decline.
Many of our partners have adopted newer generations of our offerings such as DD+, and the range of products incorporating DD solutions is now limited to DVD players (but not Blu-ray players) and some TVs, STBs and soundbars. To continue to be successful in our audio licensing business, we must keep transitioning our DD licensees to our newer technologies, including our DD+ and Dolby AC-4 technologies.
Unauthorized Use of Our Intellectual Property. We have often experienced, and expect to continue to experience, problems with non-licensee OEMs and software vendors, particularly in China and certain emerging economies, incorporating our technologies and trademarks into their products without our authorization and without paying us any licensing fees. Manufacturers of ICs containing our technologies occasionally sell these ICs to third parties who are not our system licensees. These sales, and the failure of such manufacturers to report the sales, facilitate the unauthorized use of our IP. As emerging economies transition from analog to digital content, such as the transition from analog to digital broadcast, we expect to experience an increase in problems with this form of piracy.
Intellectual Property Litigation. Companies in the technology and entertainment industries frequently engage in litigation based on allegations of infringement or other violations of IP rights. We have faced such claims in the past, and we expect to face similar claims in the future. Any IP claims, with or without merit, could be time-consuming, expensive to litigate or settle, and could divert management resources and attention. In the past, we have settled claims relating to infringement allegations and agreed to make payments in connection with such settlements. An adverse determination in any IP claim could require that we pay damages or stop using technologies found to be in violation of a third party’s rights and could prevent us from offering our products and services to others. In order to avoid these restrictions, we may have to seek a license for the technology, which may not be available on reasonable terms or at all. Licensors could also require us to pay significant royalties. As a result, we may be required to develop alternative non-infringing technologies, which could require significant effort and expense. If we cannot license or develop technologies for any aspects of our business found to be infringing, we may be forced to limit our product and service offerings and may be unable to compete effectively.
In some instances, we have contractually agreed to provide indemnifications to licensees relating to our IP. Additionally, at times we have chosen to defend our licensees from third party IP infringement claims even where such defense was not contractually required, and we may choose to take on such defense in the future. See Note 14 "Commitments and Contingencies" to our consolidated financial statements for a discussion of the Intertrust matter.
Licensee Disputes. At times, we are engaged in disputes regarding the licensing of our IP rights, including matters related to our royalty rates, whether products are royalty-bearing, and other terms of our licensing arrangements. These types of disputes can be asserted by our customers or prospective customers or by other third parties as part of negotiations with us or in private actions seeking monetary damages or injunctive relief, or in regulatory actions. In the past, licensees have threatened to initiate litigation against us based on potential antitrust claims or regarding our licensing royalty rate practices. Damages and requests for injunctive relief asserted in claims like these could be significant, and could be disruptive to our business.
U.S. and Foreign Patent Rights. Our licensing business depends in part on the uniform and consistent treatment of patent rights in the U.S. and abroad. Changes to the patent laws and regulations in the U.S. and abroad may limit our ability to obtain, license, and enforce our rights. Additionally, court and administrative rulings may interpret existing
patent laws and regulations in ways that hurt our ability to obtain, license, and enforce our patents. We face challenges protecting our IP in foreign jurisdictions, including:
•Our ability to enforce our contractual and IP rights, especially in countries that do not recognize and enforce IP rights to the same extent as the U.S., Japan, Korea, and European countries do, which increases the risk of unauthorized use of our technologies;
•Limited or no patent protection for our DD technologies in geographies such as China, Taiwan, and India, which may require us to obtain patent rights for new and existing technologies in order to grow or maintain our revenue; and
•Because of limitations in the legal systems in many countries, our ability to obtain and enforce patents in many countries is uncertain, and we must strengthen and develop relationships with entertainment industry participants worldwide to increase our ability to enforce our IP and contractual rights without relying solely on the legal systems in the countries in which we operate.
OPERATIONS
Reliance on Key Suppliers. Our reliance on suppliers for some of the key materials and components we use in manufacturing our products involves risks, including limited control over the price, timely delivery, and quality of such components, as well as the risk of delay caused by COVID-19, the military conflict between Russia and Ukraine, and other potential interruptions to the supply chain. Due to the relatively small volume of components we purchase for use in manufacturing, we purchase such components primarily through distributors. As such, we have relatively limited influence over the suppliers of such components to, for example, ensure continuity of supply. Although we have identified alternate suppliers for most of our key materials and components, any required changes in our suppliers could cause delays in our operations and increase our production costs. In addition, our suppliers may not be able to meet our production demands as to volume, quality, or timeliness.
Moreover, we rely on sole source suppliers for some of the components that we use to manufacture our products, including specific charged coupled devices, light emitting diodes, and digital signal processors. These sole source suppliers may become unable or unwilling to deliver these components to us at an acceptable cost or at all, which could force us to redesign those specific products. Our inability to obtain timely delivery of key components of acceptable quality, any significant increases in the prices of components, or the redesign of our products could result in production delays, increased costs, and reductions in shipments of our products.
Product Quality. Our products, and products that incorporate our technologies, are complex and sometimes contain software or hardware errors that are not detected during testing, particularly when first introduced or when new versions are released. In addition, we have limited control over manufacturing performed by contract manufacturers, which could result in quality problems. Furthermore, our products and technologies are sometimes combined with or incorporated into products from other vendors, sometimes making it difficult to identify the source of a problem or, in certain instances, making the quality of our implementation dependent in part upon the quality of such other vendors' products. Any negative publicity or impact relating to these product problems could affect the perception of our brand and market acceptance of our products or technologies. These errors could result in a loss of or delay in market acceptance of our products or cause delays in delivering them and meeting customer demands, any of which could reduce our revenue and raise significant customer relations issues. In addition, if our products or technologies contain errors, we could be required to replace or reengineer them or rely upon parties who have incorporated our technologies into their products to implement updates to address such issues, which could cause delays or increase our costs. Moreover, if any such errors cause unintended consequences, we could incur substantial costs in defending and settling product liability claims. Although we generally attempt to contractually limit our liability, if these contract provisions are not enforced, or are unenforceable for any reason, or if liabilities arise that are not effectively limited, we could incur substantial costs in defending and settling product liability claims.
Production Processes and Production. Production difficulties or inefficiencies can interrupt production, resulting in our inability to deliver products on time or in a cost effective manner, which could harm our competitive position. While we have one production facility, we increasingly use contract manufacturers for a significant portion of our production capacity. Our reliance on contract manufacturers for the manufacture of our products involves risks, including limited control over timely delivery and quality of such products. If production of our products is interrupted, we may not be able to manufacture products on a timely basis. A shortage of manufacturing capacity for our products could negatively impact our operating results and damage our customer relationships. We may be unable to quickly adapt our manufacturing capacity to rapidly changing market conditions and a contract manufacturer may encounter similar difficulties. Likewise, we may be unable to quickly respond to fluctuations in customer demand or contract
manufacturer interruptions. At times we underutilize our manufacturing facilities as a result of reduced demand for some of our products. Supply chain disruptions and extended lead times for semiconductor and electrical components may limit the availability of products and result in difficulty meeting demand.
Information Security. We rely on information technology systems in the conduct of our business, including systems designed and managed by third parties. Many of these systems contain sensitive and confidential information, including our trade secrets and proprietary business information, and personal data, as well as content and information owned by or pertaining to our customers, suppliers and business partners. The secure maintenance of this information is critical to our operations and business strategy. Increasingly, companies are subject to a wide variety of attacks on their networks and systems on an ongoing basis. Our information technology and infrastructure may be vulnerable to attacks by malicious actors including nation-states and cyber criminals, malware, software bugs or other technical malfunctions, ransomware attacks, or other disruptions. Our sensitive, confidential or proprietary information may be misappropriated by third-party service providers or others who may inappropriately access or exfiltrate that information from the vendor’s system.
The number and sophistication of malicious attacks and disruptions that companies have experienced has increased over the past few years, including computer viruses, malware, ransomware, cyber extortion, social engineering, denial of service, and other similar attacks and disruptions. These risks could be elevated in connection with the military conflict between Russia and Ukraine. Measures we have undertaken to protect our information technology systems (including physical access controls, encryption, and authentication technologies) may be unsuccessful in deterring or repelling malicious actors. Moreover, system updates and security patches may suffer delayed implementation in endpoint devices during extended remote working circumstances. In addition, because techniques used by malicious actors (many of whom are highly sophisticated and well-funded) to access or sabotage networks and computer systems change frequently and often are not recognized until after they are used, we may be unable to anticipate or immediately detect these techniques. This could delay our response or the effectiveness of our response and impede our operations and ability to limit our exposure to third-party claims and other potential liability. Attacks on our systems are sometimes successful, and, in some instances, we might be unaware of an incident or its nature, magnitude and effects. Such risks are also faced by our vendors and other third parties, and form another vector for malicious attacks on our systems.
We also may suffer data security breaches and the unauthorized access to, misuse or acquisition of, personal data or other sensitive and confidential information as the result of intentional or inadvertent breaches or other compromises, including by our employees or service providers. Any data security breach or other incident, whether external or internal in origin, could compromise our networks and systems, create system disruptions or slowdowns and exploit security vulnerabilities of our products. Any such breach or other incident can result in the information stored on our networks and systems, or our vendors' networks and systems, being improperly accessed or acquired, publicly disclosed, lost, or stolen, which could subject us to liability to our customers, suppliers, business partners and others, as well as regulatory investigations, fines or penalties, and brand and reputational damage. Our efforts to detect and investigate such attempts and incidents and to prevent their recurrence where practicable through changes to our internal processes and tools, but in some cases preventive and remedial action might not be successful. Disruptions to our information technology systems, due to outages, security breaches or other causes, could also have severe consequences to our business, including financial loss and reputational damage.
A variety of provincial, state, national, and international laws and regulations apply to the collection, use, retention, protection, disclosure, transfer and other processing of personal data. These laws and regulations are evolving and may result in ever-increasing regulatory and public scrutiny and escalating levels of enforcement and sanctions. For example, the California Privacy Rights Act (CPRA), which will take effect on January 1, 2023 (with certain provisions having retroactive effect to January 1, 2022), as well as obligations from new privacy laws in Colorado, Connecticut, Utah and Virginia, which will also take effect in 2023, may require us to further modify certain of our information practices and could subject us to additional compliance costs and expenses. Our actual or perceived failure to adequately comply with applicable laws and regulations relating to privacy and data protection (including regimes such as the CPRA and continuing developments in the European Union, U.K., and U.S. data privacy frameworks that are rapidly evolving) could result in regulatory fines, investigations and enforcement actions, penalties and other liabilities, claims for damages by affected individuals, and damage to our reputation, any of which could have a material adverse effect on our operations, financial performance and business. Our commercial and cybersecurity insurance policies may be insufficient to insure us against these risks, and future escalations in premiums and deductibles under these policies may render them uneconomical.
COMPETITION
The markets for our technologies are highly competitive, and we face competitive threats and pricing pressure in our markets. Consumers may perceive the quality of the visual and audio experiences produced by some of our competitors’ technologies to be equivalent or superior to the sight and sound experiences produced by our technologies. Some of our current or future competitors may have significantly greater financial, technical, marketing, and other resources than we do, or may have more experience or advantages in the markets in which they compete. These competitors may also be able to offer integrated systems in markets for entertainment technologies on a royalty-free basis or at a lower price than our technologies, including audio, imaging, and other technologies, which could make competing technologies that we develop less attractive.
Pricing Pressures. The markets for the consumer entertainment products in which our technologies are incorporated are intensely competitive and price sensitive. We expect to face increased royalty pricing pressure for our technologies as we seek to drive the adoption of our technologies into online content and portable devices, such as tablets and smartphones. Such pricing pressures may be exacerbated by increased rates of inflation, which may cause device manufacturers to take additional steps to limit costs. Retail prices for consumer entertainment products that include our sound technologies, such as DVD and Blu-ray players and home theater systems, have decreased significantly, and we expect prices to decrease for the foreseeable future. In response, OEMs have sought to reduce their product costs, which can result in additional downward pressure on the licensing fees we charge. Further, Dolby.io faces significant pricing pressure from other developer platforms offering media and communication APIs that may be able to offer competing services at lower prices.
Customers as Competitors. We face competitive risks in situations where our customers are also current or potential competitors. For example, Samsung and Technicolor are significant licensee customers, but are also competitors with respect to some of our consumer, broadcast, and cinema technologies. Our customers may choose to use competing technologies they have developed or in which they have an interest rather than use our technologies. The existence of important customer relationships may influence which strategic opportunities we pursue, as we may forgo some opportunities in the interests of preserving a critical customer relationship.
Competition from Other Audio Formats, Imaging Solutions, and Integrated System Offerings. We believe that the success we have had licensing our audio and imaging technologies is due, in part, to the high quality of the solutions that our technologies provide and to the strength of our brand. However, both free and proprietary sound and imaging technologies are becoming increasingly prevalent, and we expect competitors to continue to enter these fields with other offerings. Furthermore, to the extent that customers perceive our competitors’ products as providing the same or similar advantages as our technologies at a lower or comparable price, there is a risk that these customers may treat sound and video encoding technologies as commodities, resulting in loss of status of our technologies, decline in their use, and significant pricing pressure. For example, we face competition with respect to our HDR imaging technology, Dolby Vision, and there can be no assurance that additional consumers will adopt Dolby Vision in the near future, or at all, or that we will maintain our existing customers.
In addition, some of our current or potential competitors may be able to offer integrated systems in certain markets for entertainment technologies, including audio and imaging, which could make competing technologies that we develop or acquire obsolete. By offering an integrated system solution, these potential competitors may also be able to offer competing technologies at lower prices than we can, which could adversely affect our operating results.
STRATEGIC ACTIVITIES
Importance of Industry Relationships. To be successful, we must maintain and grow our relationships with a broad range of industry participants, including:
•Content creators, such as film directors, studios, mobile and online content producers, and music producers;
•Content distributors, such as studios, film exhibitors, broadcasters, operators, and OTT video service providers and video game publishers;
•Leading companies in the audio and video conferencing markets;
•Developers relying on media and communication APIs offered by Dolby.io; and
•Device manufacturers.
Industry relationships have historically played an important role in the markets that we serve, particularly in the
entertainment market. For example, sales of our products and services are particularly dependent upon our relationships with major film studios and broadcasters, and licensing of our technologies is particularly dependent upon our relationships with system licensees and IC manufacturers. If we fail to maintain and strengthen these relationships, these entertainment industry participants may be less likely to purchase and use our technologies, products, and services, or create content incorporating our technologies. Industry relationships also play an important role in other markets we serve; for instance, our partner relationships in the audio and video conferencing markets are important to our communications business.
Consequences of M&A Activity. We evaluate a wide array of possible strategic transactions, including acquisitions. We consider these types of transactions in connection with, among other things, our efforts to strengthen our audio and cinema businesses and expand beyond sound technologies. Although we cannot predict whether or not we will complete any such acquisitions or other transactions in the future, any of these transactions could be significant in relation to our market capitalization, financial condition, or results of operations. The process of integrating an acquired company, business, or technology may create unforeseen difficulties and expenditures. Foreign acquisitions involve unique risks in addition to those mentioned above, including those related to integration of operations across different geographies, cultures, and languages; currency risks; and risks associated with the economic, political, and regulatory environment in specific countries, including delays related to COVID-19. Future acquisitions could result in potentially dilutive issuances of our equity securities, the incurrence of debt, contingent liabilities, amortization expenses, and write-offs of goodwill. Future acquisitions may also require us to obtain additional equity or debt financing, which may not be available on favorable terms or at all, particularly during times of market volatility, rising interest rates, and general economic instability. Also, the anticipated benefits of our acquisitions may not materialize.
We face various risks in integrating acquired businesses, including:
•Diversion of management time and focus from operating our business to acquisition integration challenges;
•Cultural and logistical challenges associated with integrating employees from acquired businesses into our organization;
•Retaining employees, suppliers and customers from businesses we acquire;
•The need to implement or improve internal controls, procedures, and policies appropriate for a public company at businesses that prior to the acquisition may have lacked effective controls, procedures, and policies;
•Possible write-offs or impairment charges resulting from acquisitions;
•Unanticipated or unknown liabilities relating to acquired businesses; and
•The need to integrate acquired businesses’ accounting, management information, manufacturing, human resources, and other administrative systems to permit effective management.
LEGAL AND REGULATORY COMPLIANCE
International Business and Compliance. We are dependent on international sales for a substantial amount of our total revenue. Approximately 63%, 67% and 60% of our revenue was derived outside of the U.S. in fiscal year 2022, 2021, and 2020, respectively. We are subject to a number of risks related to conducting business internationally, including:
•U.S. and foreign government trade restrictions or sanctions, including those which may impose restrictions on the importation or exportation of products, equipment, materials, software, technologies, services, on technology transfers, or on the receipt or collection of payments and distribution of royalties, and any political or economic responses or counter-responses to such restrictions or sanctions, including any such restrictions, sanctions, responses, or counter-responses related to the military conflict between Russia and Ukraine or changes in US export controls related to China and other countries;
•Changes in trade relationships, including new tariffs, trade protection measures, import or export licensing requirements, trade embargoes and other trade barriers imposed by the U.S. or by other countries;
•Compliance with applicable international laws and regulations, including antitrust and other competition laws, that may change unexpectedly, differ, or conflict with laws in other countries where we conduct business, or are otherwise not harmonized with one another;
•Foreign government taxes, regulations, and permit requirements, including foreign taxes that we may not
be able to offset against taxes imposed upon us in the U.S., and other laws limiting our ability to repatriate funds to the U.S.;
•Potential adverse changes in the political, social, and/or economic stability of or conflicts within the regions in which we operate (including Europe, Russia, Asia, the Middle East, North Africa, Latin America and other emerging markets) or in diplomatic relations between governments;
•Difficulty in establishing, staffing, and managing foreign operations, including but not limited to restrictions on the ability to obtain or retain licenses required for operation, relationships with local labor unions and works councils, investment restrictions and/or requirements, and restrictions on foreign ownership of subsidiaries;
•Adverse fluctuations in foreign currency exchange rates and interest rates, including risks related to any interest rate swap or other hedging activities we undertake;
•Poor recognition of IP rights;
•Difficulties in enforcing contractual rights;
•Multi-jurisdictional data protection and privacy laws, including the European Union's General Data Protection Regulation and restrictions on transferring personally identifiable information outside of a jurisdiction;
•The global macroeconomic environment and potential slowing of key markets we serve; and
•Changes in the regulatory and compliance landscape resulting from COVID-19.
Any or all of these factors may impact the demand for, and profitability of, our technologies and products, as well as our customers' products that incorporate our technologies.
Certain foreign governments, particularly in China, have advanced arguments under their competition laws that exert downward pressure on royalties for IP. The regulatory enforcement activities in such jurisdictions can be unpredictable, in some cases because these jurisdictions have only recently implemented competition laws. From time to time, we are the subject of requests for information, market conduct examinations, inquiries or investigations by industry groups and/or regulatory agencies in these jurisdictions. For instance, the Korean Fair Trade Commission has requested information relating to our business practices in South Korea on various occasions, and has made findings regarding the audit of a single customer. We do not believe the outcome of this matter will have a material impact on our business or results of operations. In the event that we are involved in significant disputes or are the subject of a formal action by a regulatory agency, our results could be negatively impacted and we could be exposed to costly and time-consuming legal proceedings.
In many foreign countries, particularly in those with developing economies, it is common to engage in business practices that are prohibited by U.S. regulations applicable to us such as the FCPA and U.S. export controls. Although we implement policies and procedures designed to ensure compliance with the FCPA and U.S. export controls, there can be no assurance that all of our employees, distributors, dealers, and agents will not take actions in violation of our policies or these regulations.
Costs of Environmental Laws and Regulation. Our operations use substances regulated under federal, state, local, and international laws governing the environment, including those governing the discharge of pollutants into the air and water, the management, disposal, and labeling of hazardous substances and wastes, and the cleanup of contaminated sites. In addition, future environmental laws and regulations have the potential to affect our operations, increase our costs, decrease our revenue, or change the way we design or manufacture our products. We face increasing complexity in our product design as we adjust to requirements relating to the materials composition of our products. For some products, substituting particular components containing regulated hazardous substances is more difficult or costly, and additional redesign efforts could result in production delays. We could incur costs, fines, and civil or criminal sanctions, third party property damage or personal injury claims, or could be required to incur substantial investigation or remediation costs, if we were to violate or become liable under environmental laws.
Conflict Minerals. SEC rules require the disclosure of the use of tantalum, tin, tungsten, and gold (commonly referred to as "conflict minerals") that are sourced from the Democratic Republic of the Congo and surrounding countries. Certain of those minerals are used in the manufacturing process of electrical components that our products utilize. The potential inclusion of conflict minerals in the materials used in our products could affect the sourcing, availability and pricing of such materials as well as the companies we use to manufacture our products. In
circumstances where sources of conflict minerals from the Democratic Republic of the Congo or surrounding countries are not validated as conflict free, we may take actions to change materials, designs or manufacturers to reduce the possibility that our contracts to manufacture products that contain conflict minerals finance or benefit local armed groups in the region. As there may be only a limited number of suppliers that can certify that they are offering “conflict free” conflict minerals, we cannot be sure that our component suppliers will be able to obtain necessary conflict minerals from such suppliers in sufficient quantities or at competitive prices. These actions could also add engineering and other costs in connection with the manufacturing of our products. If conflict minerals are used in our products, even if inadvertently, disclosure of such use could affect public and investor perception of the Company and our products.
We may not be able to sufficiently verify the origins for the minerals used in our components. Our reputation may suffer if we determine that our components contain conflict minerals that are not determined to be conflict free or if we are unable to sufficiently verify the origins for all conflict minerals used in our components. In addition, some customers may require that all of our products are certified to be conflict free and if we cannot satisfy these customers, they may choose a competitor's products.
Tax Rates and Liabilities. We are a U.S. multi-national company that is subject to tax in multiple U.S. and foreign jurisdictions. We must use judgment to determine our worldwide tax provision. We earn a significant amount of our income outside the U.S. and receive tax benefits from a portion of these foreign sales. Realizability of these benefits are contingent upon existing current tax laws and regulations in the U.S. and countries where we operate. The following could materially affect our effective tax rate:
•Changes in geographic mix of earnings, where earnings are lower than anticipated in countries with lower tax rates and higher than anticipated in countries with higher tax rates;
•Changes in the valuation of our deferred tax assets and liabilities;
•Changes in transfer pricing arrangements;
•Outcomes of tax audits;
•Changes in accounting principles;
•Changes in tax laws and regulations in the countries in which we operate, including an increase in tax rates, or an adverse change in the treatment of an item of income or expense; or
•Our ability to effectively implement changes to our corporate structure in response to changes in applicable tax laws and regulations in the countries in which we operate.
The U.S. tax law changes enacted through the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act ("Tax Act") include provisions that affect our business. These provisions, their interpretations, and proposed changes to this law introduced by the Biden administration could further impact our corporate trading structure and adversely affect our tax rate and cash flow in future years.
In addition, the Organization of Economic Cooperation and Development (“OECD”), an international association of many countries including the U.S., has made changes to many long-standing transfer pricing and cross-border taxation rules that affect our operations. Further, the OECD, European Commission, EU Member States and other individual countries have made and could make additional competing jurisdictional claims over the taxes owed on earnings of multinational companies in their respective countries or regions. To the extent these actions take place in the countries that we operate, it is possible that these law changes and efforts may increase uncertainty and have an adverse impact on our effective tax rates or operations.
We are subject to the periodic examination of our income tax returns by tax authorities. We regularly assess the likelihood of adverse outcomes resulting from these examinations to determine the adequacy of our provision for income taxes and to consider potential responsive actions, but an adverse decision by tax authorities exceeding our reserves could significantly impact our financial results.
STOCK-RELATED ISSUES
Controlling Stockholder. At September 30, 2022, the Dolby family and their affiliates owned 385,589 shares of our Class A common stock and 36,012,733 shares of our Class B common stock. As of September 30, 2022, the Dolby family and their affiliates had voting power of 99.8% of our outstanding Class B common stock, which combined with their shares of our Class A common stock, represented 85.7% of the combined voting power of our outstanding Class A and Class B common stock. Under our certificate of incorporation, holders of Class B common stock are
entitled to ten votes per share while holders of Class A common stock are entitled to one vote per share. Generally, shares of Class B common stock automatically convert into shares of Class A common stock upon transfer of such Class B common stock, other than transfers to certain specified persons and entities, including the spouse and descendants of Ray Dolby and the spouses and domestic partners of such descendants.
As a result of this dual class structure, the Dolby family and their affiliates will, for the foreseeable future, have significant influence over our management and affairs, and will be able to control virtually all matters requiring stockholder approval, including the election of directors and significant corporate transactions such as mergers or other sales of our company or assets, even if they come to own considerably less than 50% of the total number of outstanding shares of our Class A and Class B common stock. Absent a transfer of Class B common stock that would trigger an automatic conversion as described above, there is no threshold or time deadline at which the shares of Class B common stock will automatically convert into shares of Class A common stock.
Moreover, the Dolby family and their affiliates may take actions in their own interests that our other stockholders do not view as beneficial.
Insider Sales of Common Stock. If our large shareholders, officers, directors or employees sell, or indicate an intention to sell, substantial amounts of our Class A common stock in the public market, including shares of Class A common stock issuable upon conversion of shares of Class B common stock, the trading price of our Class A common stock could decline.
Stock Repurchase Program. Our stock repurchase program may reduce the public float of shares available for trading on a daily basis. Such purchases may be limited, suspended, or terminated at any time without prior notice. There can be no assurance that we will buy additional shares of our Class A common stock under our stock repurchase program or that any future repurchases will have a positive impact on our stock price or EPS. Important factors that could cause us to discontinue or decrease our share repurchases include, among others, unfavorable market conditions, the market price of our Class A common stock, the nature of other investment or strategic opportunities presented to us, the rate of dilution of our equity compensation programs, our ability to make appropriate, timely, and beneficial decisions as to when, how, and whether to purchase shares under the stock repurchase program, the tax consequences of any repurchases, and the availability of funds necessary to continue purchasing stock. If we curtail our repurchase program, our stock price may be negatively affected.
Dividend Program. We cannot provide assurance that we will continue to increase dividend payments and/or pay dividends. We are not obligated to pay dividends on our Class A and Class B common stock. In October 2014, we announced a quarterly cash dividend program for our stockholders that was initiated by our Board of Directors. Although we anticipate paying regular quarterly dividends for the foreseeable future, dividend declarations and the establishment of future record and payment dates are subject to the Board of Directors’ continuing determination that the dividend policy is in the best interests of our stockholders. The dividend policy may be changed or canceled at the discretion of the Board of Directors at any time. If we do not pay dividends, the market price of our Class A common stock must appreciate for investors to realize a gain on their investment. This appreciation may not occur and our Class A common stock may in fact depreciate in value.
GENERAL RISK FACTORS
Fluctuations in Foreign Currency Exchange Rates. We earn revenue, pay expenses, own assets and incur liabilities in foreign countries using several currencies other than the U.S. dollar. As a result, we face exposure to adverse movements in currency exchange rates as the financial results of our international operations are translated from local currency into U.S. dollars upon consolidation. The majority of our revenue generated from international markets is denominated in U.S. dollars, while the operating expenses of our foreign subsidiaries are predominantly denominated in local currencies. Therefore, our operating expenses will increase when the U.S. dollar weakens against the local currency and decrease when the U.S. dollar strengthens against the local currency. Additionally, foreign exchange rate fluctuations on transactions denominated in currencies other than the functional currency result in gains or losses that are reflected in our consolidated statements of operations. Further, our hedging programs may not be effective to offset any, or more than a portion, of the adverse impact of currency exchange rate movements. Additional risks related to fluctuations in foreign currency exchange rates are described in the Foreign Currency Exchange Risk section of Part II, Item 7A "Quantitative and Qualitative Disclosures About Market Risk."
Business Interruptions by Natural Disasters and Other Events Beyond Our Control. Although we maintain crisis management plans, our business operations are subject to interruption by natural disasters and catastrophic events beyond our control, including, but not limited to, earthquakes, hurricanes, typhoons, tropical storms, floods, tsunamis,
fires, droughts, tornadoes, public health issues and pandemics, severe changes in climate, war, terrorism, and geopolitical unrest and uncertainties. Further, outbreaks of pandemic diseases, or the fear of such events, could provoke (and in the case of COVID-19 has provoked) responses, including government-imposed travel restrictions and limits on access to entertainment venues. These responses could negatively affect consumer demand and our business, particularly in international markets. War, including the military conflict between Russia and Ukraine and any related political or economic responses and counter-responses or otherwise by various global actors or the general effect on the global economy and supply chain, could also affect our business. For example, we have R&D facilities and a large number of employees in Eastern Europe, and any business interruptions or other spillover effects from such conflict could adversely impact our business.
Additionally, several of our offices, including our corporate headquarters in San Francisco, are located in seismically active regions. Because we do not carry earthquake insurance for earthquake–related losses and significant recovery time could be required to resume operations, our financial condition and operating results could be materially adversely affected in the event of a major earthquake or catastrophic event.
Competition for Employees. In order to be successful, we must attract, develop, and retain employees, including employees to work on our growth initiatives where our current employees may lack experience with the business models and markets we are pursuing. Competition for experienced employees in our markets can be intense. In order to attract and retain employees, we must provide a competitive compensation package, including cash and equity compensation. Our equity awards include stock options and RSUs. The future value of these awards is uncertain, and depends on our stock price performance over time. In order for our compensation packages to be viewed as competitive, prospective employees must perceive our equity awards to be a valuable benefit.
ITEM 1B. UNRESOLVED STAFF COMMENTS
None.
ITEM 2. PROPERTIES
Headquarters
Our principal corporate office and worldwide headquarters, which we own, is at 1275 Market Street, San Francisco, California.
Other Properties
We also own a commercial office building located in Sunnyvale, California, and lease additional R&D, sales, product testing, and administrative facilities from third parties in California, New York, Indiana, Pennsylvania, Missouri, Colorado, and internationally, including in Asia, Europe, Australia, the Middle East, and South America. We believe that our current facilities are adequate to meet our needs for the near future, and that suitable additional or alternative space will be available on commercially reasonable terms to accommodate our foreseeable future operations.
Dolby Wootton Bassett, LLC, of which Dagmar Dolby as Trustee of the Dagmar Dolby Trust under the Dolby Family Trust Instrument dated May 7, 1999 (the "Dagmar Dolby Trust") is the sole member, and the Dagmar Dolby Trust, own a majority financial interest in real estate entities that own and from whom we may lease certain facilities located in Burbank, California and in Wootton Bassett, England. We own the remaining financial interests in these real estate entities. Specifically, we hold a 49.0% minority ownership interest in Dolby Properties Burbank, LLC, which owns a 22,000 square feet facility in Burbank that we are leasing until 2025. We also hold a 10.0% minority ownership interest in Dolby Properties, LP, which owns a 17,500 square foot facility in Wootton Bassett. We are no longer leasing the Wootton Bassett facility.
100 Potrero Avenue, San Francisco, California
Since 1980, we have leased a corporate office located at 100 Potrero Avenue, San Francisco, California from the various Dolby family trusts. The lease for this office expires on October 31, 2024, and provides approximately 70,000 square feet of space. The Dolby family trusts retain the right, which they have exercised, to sublease approximately 1,617 square feet of office space in the premises at a rental rate equal to the then current base rent per square foot paid by us plus $14 per square foot per year (reflecting estimated costs payable by us for the operation and maintenance of the premises, subject to an annual increase of 1.5% per year during each year of the sublease term).
We ceased occupancy of the leased space at 100 Potrero Avenue, and do not intend to re-occupy this location. We remain responsible for operating expenses, taxes, and the condition, operation, repair, maintenance, security, and management of the premises. We have also agreed to indemnify and hold the Dolby family trusts, as landlord, harmless from and against certain liabilities, damages, claims, costs, penalties, and expenses arising from our conduct related to the premises. We also have a sublease with a subtenant for the remaining lease term at 100 Potrero Avenue, pursuant to which the subtenant is required to reimburse us with respect to the foregoing expenses and taxes with respect to the subleased premises and to indemnify and hold us harmless with respect to the subleased premises in the same manner described above.
ITEM 3. LEGAL PROCEEDINGS
We are involved in various legal proceedings that occasionally arise in the normal course of business activities, including claims of alleged infringement of IP rights, commercial, employment, and other matters. In our opinion, resolution of these proceedings is not expected to have a material adverse impact on our operating results or financial condition. Given the unpredictable nature of legal proceedings, it is possible that an unfavorable resolution of one or more such proceedings could materially affect our future operating results or financial condition in a particular period; however, based on the information known by us as of the date of this filing and the rules and regulations applicable to the preparation of our consolidated financial statements, other than the impact of the litigation matter discussed in Note 14 to the consolidated financial statements, any such amounts are either immaterial, or it is not probable that a potential loss has been incurred or the amount of loss cannot be reasonably estimated. For additional information on this litigation matter, see Note 14 "Commitments and Contingencies" to our consolidated financial statements.
ITEM 4. MINE SAFETY DISCLOSURES
Not applicable.
PART II
ITEM 5. MARKET FOR REGISTRANT’S COMMON EQUITY, RELATED STOCKHOLDER MATTERS AND ISSUER PURCHASES OF EQUITY SECURITIES
Market Information
Our Class A common stock is traded on the New York Stock Exchange ("NYSE") under the symbol "DLB." Our Class B common stock is neither listed nor publicly traded. As of October 28, 2022, there were 79 holders of record of our Class A common stock and 34 holders of record of our Class B common stock. The number of Class A beneficial stockholders is substantially greater than the number of holders of record since a large portion of our common stock is held through brokerage firms.
Dividend Policy
In October 2014, we announced a quarterly cash dividend program for our stockholders that was initiated by our Board of Directors. Since the program was initiated, a quarterly dividend has been declared and paid to all eligible stockholders of Class A and Class B common stock. Most recently, on November 17, 2022, we announced a dividend in the amount of $0.27 per share, payable on December 8, 2022, to stockholders of record as of the close of business on November 30, 2022.
Dividend declarations and the establishment of future record and payment dates are subject to the Board of Directors' continuing determination that the dividend policy is in the best interests of our stockholders. The dividend policy may be changed or canceled at the discretion of the Board of Directors at any time. For additional information related to our quarterly dividend, see Note 9 "Stockholders' Equity and Stock-Based Compensation" to our consolidated financial statements and Shareholder Return in Part II, Item 7 "Management's Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations."
Sales of Unregistered Securities
None.
Purchases of Equity Securities by the Issuer and Affiliated Purchasers
In November 2009, we announced a stock repurchase program ("program"), providing for the repurchase of our Class A common stock. Stock repurchases under the program may be made through open market transactions, negotiated purchases, or otherwise, at times and in amounts that we consider appropriate. The timing of repurchases and the number of shares repurchased depend upon a variety of factors, including price, regulatory requirements, the rate of dilution from our equity compensation plans, and other market conditions. The program does not have a specified expiration date, and can be limited, suspended, or terminated at our discretion at any time without prior notice. Shares repurchased under the program will be returned to the status of authorized but unissued shares of Class A common stock.
The following table summarizes the initial amount of authorized repurchases as well as additional repurchases approved by our Board of Directors as of September 30, 2022 (in thousands):
| | | | | |
| Authorization Period | Authorization Amount |
| Fiscal 2010: November 2009 | $ | 250,000 | |
| Fiscal 2010: July 2010 | 300,000 | |
| Fiscal 2011: July 2011 | 250,000 | |
| Fiscal 2012: February 2012 | 100,000 | |
| Fiscal 2015: October 2014 | 200,000 | |
| Fiscal 2017: January 2017 | 200,000 | |
| Fiscal 2018: July 2018 | 350,000 | |
| Fiscal 2019: July 2019 | 350,000 | |
| Fiscal 2021: July 2021 | 350,000 | |
| Fiscal 2022: February 2022 | 250,000 | |
| Fiscal 2022: August 2022 | 350,000 | |
| Total | $ | 2,950,000 | |
The following table provides information regarding our share repurchases made under this program during the fourth quarter of fiscal 2022: | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |
| Repurchase Activity | Total Shares Purchased | Average Price Paid Per Share (1) | Total Shares Purchased As Part Of Publicly Announced Programs | Remaining Authorized Share Repurchases (2) |
| July 2, 2022 - July 29, 2022 | 1,127,366 | | $73.95 | 1,127,366 | | $147.5 million |
| July 30, 2022 - August 26, 2022 | 933,331 | | $77.82 | 933,331 | | $424.9 million |
| August 27, 2022 - September 30, 2022 | 867,939 | | $73.75 | 867,939 | | $360.9 million |
| Total | 2,928,636 | | | 2,928,636 | | |
(1)Average price paid per share excludes commission costs.
(2)Amounts represent the approximate dollar value of the maximum remaining number of shares that may yet be purchased under the stock repurchase program, and excludes commission costs.
Stock Price Performance Graph
The following graph compares the total cumulative return of our Class A common stock with the total cumulative return for the New York Stock Exchange Composite Index ("NYSE Composite") and the Russell 3000 Index ("Russell 3000") for the five fiscal years ended September 30, 2022. The figures represented below assume an investment of $100 in our Class A common stock at the closing price of $57.52 on September 29, 2017, and in the NYSE Composite and Russell 3000 on the same date and the reinvestment of dividends into shares of common stock. The comparisons in the table are required by the SEC and are not intended to forecast or be indicative of possible future performance of our Class A common stock. This graph shall not be deemed "filed" for purposes of Section 18 of Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended ("Exchange Act") or otherwise subject to the liabilities under that Section, and shall not be deemed to be incorporated by reference into any of our filings under the Securities Act or the Exchange Act.
ITEM 6. [RESERVED]
ITEM 7. MANAGEMENT’S DISCUSSION AND ANALYSIS OF FINANCIAL CONDITION AND RESULTS OF OPERATIONS
The following discussion contains forward-looking statements that are subject to risks and uncertainties. Actual results may differ materially from those referred to herein due to a number of factors, including but not limited to key challenges listed below and risks described in Part I, Item 1A, "Risk Factors" and elsewhere in this Annual Report on Form 10-K. We disclaim any duty to update any of the forward-looking statements after the date of this Annual Report on Form 10-K to conform our prior statements to actual results.
Investors and others should note that we disseminate information to the public about our company, our products, services and other matters through various channels, including our website (www.dolby.com), our investor relations website (http://investor.dolby.com), SEC filings, press releases, public conference calls, and webcasts, in order to achieve broad, non-exclusionary distribution of information to the public. We encourage investors and others to review the information we make public through these channels, as such information could be deemed to be material information.
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
COVID-19
The COVID-19 pandemic triggered worldwide shutdowns, supply chain constraints, and other disruptions which in turn have negatively affected the global economy, including consumer purchasing activity. It is unclear how demand for consumer products that include our technologies may change in response to the ongoing pandemic. The issues and circumstances relating to COVID-19 continue to change and are difficult to predict. We continue to monitor the evolving situation and the impact on our business.
The outbreak of COVID-19 has also affected many of our partners, resulting in the disruption of consumer products' supply chains, shortages of certain semiconductor components, and delays in shipments, product development, and product launches. Consumer demand for products that include our technologies may continue to be negatively impacted due to economic uncertainty resulting from COVID-19. These factors may cause delays in the adoption of our technologies by partners. Further, we may be negatively impacted by delays in transaction cycles and our recoveries efforts due to ongoing global restrictions related to the pandemic.
The cinema market has been, and we expect to continue to be, adversely impacted by COVID-19. At various times, our exhibition partners and customers have had to either partially or fully discontinue operations. Box office receipts at Dolby Cinema sites and general demand for our cinema products and services by our broader exhibition partners have been, and we expect to remain, lower than that of pre-pandemic levels. Most cinema locations have been permitted to resume operations, but many such locations are operating under restricted capacity. Further, the spread of variants of SARS-CoV-2 may result in renewed government responses. The situation is continuing to evolve, and we cannot predict how or to what extent the cinema market, or other markets we target, may be impacted during the course of the pandemic and long-term.
At Dolby, we continue to implement business strategies that support the health and safety of our employees and enable business continuity. We have implemented a flex work program that enables connection and effective work delivery in a hybrid work environment. We enable our employees with the tools and infrastructure they need to carry on our operations and progress the business forward in a hybrid working environment. We expect COVID-19 will continue to have an impact for the foreseeable future, with varying degrees of impact depending on geographic location. The degree of impact on our business will depend on several factors. Further discussion of the potential impacts of COVID-19 on our business can be found in Part I, Item 1A "Risk Factors."
MACROECONOMIC CONDITIONS
The current macroeconomic environment has negatively impacted many of our licensees and that directly impacts our financial results. Our revenue has been impacted by macroeconomic conditions, including but not limited to, rising inflation, rising interest rates, COVID-19 related restrictions, supply chain constraints, increased shipping costs, international conflicts, reduced discretionary consumer spending, and reduced new product investment by our customers caused by higher interest rates and lower demand. The future implications of these macroeconomic conditions on our business, results of operations and overall financial position remain uncertain. Across all of our markets, these conditions may affect consumer demand for devices and services, our partners’ ability to manufacture devices, and the timing of adoption of our technologies into new products by partners and licensees. Further
discussion of the potential impacts of these macroeconomic effects on our business can be found in Part I, Item 1A "Risk Factors."
EXPANDING OUR LEADERSHIP IN AUDIO AND IMAGING EXPERIENCES
We are focused on expanding our leadership in audio and imaging solutions for premium entertainment content by increasing the number of Dolby experiences that people can enjoy, which will drive revenue growth across the markets we serve. We can increase our value proposition and create opportunities by broadening Dolby technologies into new types of content, such as music, gaming, live sports, and user-generated content. We are also beginning to make our audio and imaging technologies available for content beyond premium entertainment through Dolby.io, creating new revenue generating opportunities. Following is a discussion of the key markets that we address and the various Dolby technologies and solutions that serve these markets.
LICENSING
The majority of our licensing revenue is derived from the licensing of audio and imaging technologies for premium entertainment playback. Our audio technologies are primarily comprised of DD+, Dolby Atmos, AC-4, and our AAC and HE-AAC technologies. Our imaging technologies are primarily comprised of Dolby Vision and our AVC and HEVC technologies. Licensing revenue is primarily driven by the adoption of our technologies on devices and the number of devices shipped by licensees. DD+, AC-4, and our AAC and HE-AAC audio patents (collectively, our "foundational audio technologies") have broad penetration across a diverse set of devices and end markets. Our revenue from these technologies is primarily driven by device shipments from licensees, and as such, is impacted by consumer spending. Other factors, such as global supply constraints or device lifecycles, may also impact revenue from these technologies. In the future, we expect revenue from our foundational audio technologies to generally reflect market trends in device shipments. The remaining portion of our licensing revenue is derived from offerings such as Dolby Vision, Dolby Atmos, our imaging patents, and Dolby Cinema. These offerings have not been in the market as long as our foundational audio technologies, thus revenue growth is primarily driven by increased adoption and the addition of new licensees.
The availability of content in Dolby formats is an important part of creating the ecosystems that drive adoption of our technologies within a wide range of devices. Our audio and imaging technologies have a strong presence within movie and episodic content through adoption across content creators and streaming services. The availability of content on these platforms has driven strong adoption in devices such as TVs, STBs, and speaker devices. Our audio and imaging technologies are also widely available through many forms of distribution, including broadcast TV, streaming, and optical disc playback.
Major streaming partners and services such as Netflix, Disney+, Apple TV+, Amazon, HBO Max, and Paramount+ continue to enable content in Dolby Vision and Dolby Atmos. These streaming services launch local content in Dolby formats internationally. As we see an increase in new local content, we increase our value proposition for adoption of Dolby Vision and Dolby Atmos across devices in all market segments.
We have also enabled a broader range of content, such as music, gaming, live sports, and user-generated content. In music, in fiscal 2022, Dolby Atmos music became available on Tencent Music’s QQ Music streaming service in China and on Melon, a streaming service in South Korea. In gaming, in fiscal 2022, Xbox's Halo Infinite was released in both Dolby Vision and Dolby Atmos, and popular mobile game PUBG Mobile was made available to play in Dolby Atmos in some markets. In addition, Moong Labs announced the launch of its popular mobile game "Epic Cricket – Big League" in Dolby Atmos for Android smartphone. In live sports, the 2022 UEFA Champions League was broadcast in Dolby Vision and Dolby Atmos in some markets, and the 2023 UEFA Champions League will again be broadcast in Dolby Vision and Dolby Atmos. In addition, during fiscal 2022, the French Open and the German Supercup final match was broadcast in Dolby Atmos.
We have worked with industry leaders to enhance these forms of content through the use of our technologies, creating additional value for the adoption of Dolby within devices such as mobile, PC, gaming consoles, and automotive.
The following are highlights from our fiscal 2022 and key challenges related to audio and imaging licensing, by market.
Broadcast
Highlights: We have an established global presence with respect to our DD+ and HE-AAC audio technologies in broadcast services and devices. We have expanded our offerings in the broadcast market through technologies such as Dolby Atmos and AC-4, Dolby Vision, as well as AVC and HEVC imaging technologies which we license through patent pools.
We work with many TV OEMs and strategic partners to enable and promote Dolby Vision and Dolby Atmos experiences within their TV lineups. Many such partners have continued to expand their support of the combined Dolby Vision and Dolby Atmos experience. For example, in fiscal 2022, LG launched new TVs that support Dolby Vision, Dolby Vision IQ, and Dolby Atmos, and Samsung launched new TVs that support Dolby Atmos. Also in fiscal 2022, Hisense launched their ULED TVs that support Dolby Vision IQ and Dolby Atmos, and launched their laser TV projector that supports Dolby Vision and Dolby Atmos, while TCL launched new TVs with Dolby Vision, Dolby Vision IQ, and Dolby Atmos. We are also seeing more STB providers adopting Dolby Vision in their devices.
Key Challenges: Our pursuit of new licensees and further adoption of our technologies by existing licensees may be impacted by a number of factors. We must continue to present compelling reasons for consumers to demand our audio and imaging technologies, including ensuring that there is a breadth of available content in our formats and such content is being widely distributed. To the extent that OEMs do not incorporate our technologies in current and future products, our revenue could be impacted. Further, in certain countries, such as China, we face difficulties enforcing our contractual and IP rights, including instances in which our licensees fail to accurately report the shipment of products using our technologies. Additionally, we face geopolitical challenges including changes in diplomatic and trade relationships, trade protection measures, and import or export licensing requirements.
Mobile
Highlights: We continue to focus on adoption of our technologies across major mobile ecosystems, including Apple and Android. HE-AAC and HEVC are widely adopted audio and video technologies across mobile devices, and we offer these technologies through our patent licensing programs. We also continue to focus on expanding adoption of our DD+, AC-4, Dolby Atmos, and Dolby Vision technologies in the mobile market.
The breadth of mobile devices supporting Dolby technologies continues to increase globally. In fiscal 2022, Xiaomi launched or announced a number of new smartphones supporting Dolby Vision and Dolby Atmos, including the new 12S series, the first Android phone capable of recording video in Dolby Vision. Additionally, in fiscal 2022, OnePlus launched new Ace Pro smartphones that support Dolby Atmos. For tablets, in fiscal 2022, ASUS released a new tablet that supports Dolby Vision and Dolby Atmos, and Vivo launched the Vivo Pad, which is the first Vivo product with Dolby Vision and Dolby Atmos.
Key Challenges: Growth in this market is dependent on several factors. Due to short product life cycles, mobile device OEMs can readily add or remove certain of our technologies from their devices. Our success depends on our ability to address the rapid pace of change in mobile devices, and we must continuously collaborate with mobile device OEMs to incorporate our technologies. The mobile market is heavily concentrated, so we rely on a small number of partnerships with key participants in this market. If we are unable to maintain these key relationships, we may experience a decline in mobile devices incorporating our technologies. To the extent that OEMs do not incorporate our technologies in current and future products, our revenue could be impacted. We must also continue to support the development and distribution of Dolby-enabled content via various ecosystems. Additionally, we face geopolitical challenges including changes in diplomatic and trade relationships, trade protection measures, and import or export licensing requirements.
Consumer Electronics
Highlights: We have an established presence in the home entertainment market across devices such as AVRs, soundbars, wireless and smart speakers, DMAs, and Blu-Ray players, through the inclusion of our DD+ technology, and increasingly through the inclusion of Dolby Atmos and Dolby Vision. AAC and HE-AAC technologies also have broad adoption through our patent licensing programs. We continue to focus on expanding the availability of Dolby technologies to new devices. In fiscal 2022, Samsung, Hisense, Prism+, and Bose all launched new soundbar models that support Dolby Atmos.
Key Challenges: We must continue to present compelling reasons for consumers to demand our technologies wherever they enjoy entertainment content, while promoting creation and broad availability of
content in our formats. To the extent that OEMs do not incorporate our technologies in current and future products, our revenue could be impacted. Additionally, we face geopolitical challenges including changes in diplomatic and trade relationships, trade protection measures, and import or export licensing requirements.
Personal Computers
Highlights: DD+ continues to enhance audio playback in both Mac and Windows operating systems, including native support in their respective Safari and Microsoft Edge browsers. Dolby's presence in these browsers enables us to reach more users through various types of content, including streaming video entertainment. A number of PCs from partners such as Apple, Lenovo, Dell, Samsung, and ASUS also support Dolby Vision and/or Dolby Atmos, with continued expansion of applications through music, streaming, and gaming. In addition, in fiscal 2022, Dell and ASUS released their latest laptop models that now support Dolby Vision and Dolby Atmos.
Key Challenges: PC revenue from audio technologies such as DD+ has been impacted by a decline in the portion of PCs that have optical disc functionality in recent years, which has resulted in a decline in our ASPs, and we expect this decline in ASPs to continue. We must continuously collaborate and maintain our key partnerships with PC manufacturers to incorporate our technologies, and we must continue to support the development and distribution of Dolby content via various ecosystems. Additionally, we face geopolitical challenges including changes in diplomatic and trade relationships, trade protection measures, and import or export licensing requirements.
Other Markets
Highlights: DD+ is incorporated in the Xbox and PlayStation gaming consoles that support gaming content and streaming for movie and television content. The Xbox Series X and Series S gaming consoles support Dolby Vision and Dolby Atmos for streaming and gaming content. Additionally, our technologies continue to be incorporated into the latest headphones by various OEMs. In fiscal 2022, Cosmic Byte, Alienware, and Zebronics launched headsets that support Dolby Atmos.
We also generate revenue from the automotive industry primarily through disc playback devices as well as other elements of the entertainment system, and more recently through the adoption of Dolby Atmos Music. In fiscal 2022, Mercedes-Benz announced they would be adopting Dolby Atmos in their Mercedes-Maybach models, the EQS and EQS SUV, as well as the EQE and the S-Class with support for Dolby Atmos Music provided by Apple Music. Also in fiscal 2022, Chinese electric car manufacturers NIO, Li Auto, and XPENG launched multiple car models that support Dolby Atmos. Recently, Polestar and Lotus announced that their latest models will be the first of their car models to support Dolby Atmos.
Key Challenges: Consumer demand for devices in the gaming industry is impacted by anticipation of console refresh cycles. In addition, the gaming console market has competition from mobile devices and gaming PCs, which have faster refresh cycles and appeal to a broader consumer base. Also, automotive revenue has been negatively impacted by a decline in the portion of cars that have optical disc playback in recent years. In addition, recent shortages of certain semiconductor components could result in lower implementation of our technologies in vehicles by automotive manufacturers. If OEMs do not incorporate our technologies in current and future products, our revenue will face downward pressure. Additionally, we face geopolitical challenges including changes in diplomatic and trade relationships, trade protection measures, and import or export licensing requirements.
In addition to licensing revenue derived from the licensing of audio and imaging technologies into the markets discussed above, we offer our audio and imaging technologies to create Dolby experiences through Dolby Cinema.
Dolby Cinema
Highlights: We continue to expand our global presence for Dolby Cinema, with over 280 open Dolby Cinema sites located in the U.S. and internationally, subject to capacity restrictions per local regulations. The breadth of motion pictures for Dolby Cinema continues to grow with over 400 theatrical titles in Dolby Vision and Dolby Atmos having been announced or released from all of the major studios as of the end of fiscal 2022.
Key Challenges: Although the premium large format market for the cinema industry has been growing, Dolby Cinema competes with other existing offerings. Our success depends on our partners and their success,
and our ability to differentiate our offering, deploy new sites in accordance with plans, and attract and retain a global viewing audience. In addition, the success of our Dolby Cinema offering is tied to global box office performance generally. COVID-19 has had a significant effect on theatrical exhibition, which could impact the financial viability of our key partners. The response to COVID-19 including the closure of cinemas in China and government-imposed restrictions has had a negative impact on our cinema-related revenue and consumer demand, although consumer demand for the cinema has improved recently. It is uncertain whether consumer demand for the cinema will return to previous levels.
PRODUCTS AND SERVICES
A majority of our products and services revenue is derived from the sale of audio and imaging products for the cinema, television, broadcast, communication, and entertainment industries. Revenue from our developer platform, Dolby.io, is also included in products and services.
Cinema Products and Services
Highlights: To help enable the playback of content in Dolby formats, we offer a range of servers, which include the IMS3000 (an integrated imaging and audio server with Dolby Atmos), and audio processors, such as the CP950, to cinema exhibitors globally. Dolby Atmos has been adopted broadly across studios, content creators, post-production facilities, and exhibitors. As of the end of fiscal 2022, there are over 7,000 Dolby Atmos screens installed or committed and over 2,200 Dolby Atmos theatrical titles have been announced or released.
We also offer a variety of other cinema products, such as the Dolby Multichannel Amplifier and our high-power flexible line of speakers. These products allow us to offer exhibitors a more complete Dolby Atmos solution that is often more cost effective than other commercially available options.
Key Challenges: Demand for our cinema products is dependent upon our partners and their success in the market, industry and economic cycles, box office performance, and our ability to develop and introduce new technologies, further our relationships with content creators, and promote new cinematic audio and imaging experiences. A significant portion of our growth opportunity lies in international markets, such as China, which are subject to economic risks as well as geopolitical risks. Additionally, weakness in general economic conditions due to inflation, recession, pandemic or other worsening economic conditions could have a negative impact on our cinema-related revenue due to reduced consumer discretionary spending. We may also be faced with pricing pressures or competing technologies, which would affect our revenue. We have also experienced supply chain shortages and increased shipping costs that have created challenges to maintain the sufficient supply of cinema products to meet the demand in the market.
Additionally, the effects of COVID-19 such as the closure of cinemas and public health mandates have had a negative impact on Dolby Cinema attendance. As demand continues to recover, supply chain constraints may impact our ability to provide cinema products and services to our customers. COVID-19 has also negatively impacted the financial health of our cinema customers and partners. We continue to closely monitor the ongoing impact of these conditions.
Developer Platform Services
Highlights: We are focused on bringing our expertise in media and communications to a broader range of content and digital experiences. For example, we are increasing our engagement with new customers across different industries through our developer platform, Dolby.io, that enables developers to access our technologies through APIs. The current offerings include audio and video APIs for building high-quality communications, media, and streaming solutions. Following the initial launch of Dolby.io in fiscal 2020, we have seen an expansion of the use cases for the platform. Examples include virtual live performances, online and hybrid events, social audio, premium education, gaming, sports, and content creation and production. Dolby.io provides tools to help developers create immersive experiences through apps and services with high quality audio and video, spatialized sound, and deliver live-streamed content with low latency.
Key Challenges: Dolby.io is an early stage business, and it is uncertain when or if it will be a material revenue driver. Our success in this market will depend on the number of developers we are able to attract and retain, the volume of usage of the service, and our ability to monetize our services. In addition, the development and maintenance needed to provide a reliable and scalable platform may require us to develop new skills internally for our current employees or hire external specialized talent. Although the market for online experiences has been growing, Dolby's API technologies compete with other offerings.
CRITICAL ACCOUNTING POLICIES AND ESTIMATES
Our consolidated financial statements and accompanying notes are prepared in accordance with U.S. GAAP, pursuant to SEC rules and regulations. The preparation of these financial statements requires us to establish accounting policies and make certain estimates and assumptions that affect the reported amounts of assets and liabilities, revenue and expenses. The SEC considers an accounting policy and estimate to be critical if it is both important to a company’s financial condition or results of operations and requires significant judgment by management in its application. On a regular basis, we evaluate our assumptions, judgments, and estimates, and historically, actual results have not differed significantly from them. If actual results or events differ materially from our judgments and estimates, our reported financial condition and results of operation for future periods could be materially affected. We have reviewed the selection and development of the critical accounting policies and estimates discussed below with the Audit Committee of our Board of Directors.
Revenue Recognition
We derive our revenue primarily from the licensing of our technologies and patents. In determining how revenue should be recognized, a five-step process is used, which requires judgment and estimates within the revenue recognition process. Generally, revenue is recognized upon transfer of control of promised products, services or IP rights to customers in an amount that reflects the consideration that we expect to receive in exchange for those products, services or licensing of the IP rights. The primary judgments include estimating sales-based revenue in advance of receiving statements from our licensees, estimating variable consideration, identifying the performance obligations in the contract, and determining whether the performance obligations are distinct, and allocating consideration accordingly.
Most of our licensing arrangements are structured as sales-based whereby we are paid a unit-based royalty. The unit-based sales data that triggers the royalty obligation is generally reported to us in the quarter after triggering the royalty obligation. We apply the royalty exception to these arrangements, which requires that we recognize sales-based royalties at the later of when the sales occur based on our estimates or the completion of our performance obligations. Our estimates of royalty-based revenue take into consideration the macroeconomic effect of global events, such as inflation, COVID-19, or other economic conditions, which may impact supply chain activities as well as demand for shipments. These estimates also involve the use of historical data and judgment for several key attributes including industry estimates of expected shipments, the percentage of markets using our technologies, and average sale prices. Generally, our estimates represent the current period’s shipments for which we expect our licensees to submit royalty statements in the following quarter. Upon receipt of royalty statements from the licensees with the actual reporting of sales-based royalties that we previously estimated, we record a favorable or unfavorable adjustment based on the difference, if any, between estimated and actual sales.
We also enter into fixed and guaranteed licensing fees arrangements, which require the licensee to pay a fixed, non-refundable fee. In these cases, control is transferred and the transaction price - the amount we expect to be entitled to in exchange for the license right - is recognized upon the later of contract execution or the effective date. Transaction price is determined at contract execution and, to the extent variable consideration applies, is updated each subsequent reporting period until the completion of the contract. We evaluate whether other distinct performance obligations exist, such as PCS, and determine the stand-alone selling price based on the actual selling prices made to customers. If the performance obligation is not sold separately, we estimate the stand-alone selling price. We do so by considering market conditions such as competitor pricing strategies, customer specific information and industry technology lifecycles, internal conditions such as cost and pricing practices, or applying the residual approach method when the selling price of the good, most commonly a license, is highly variable or uncertain. In addition, we evaluate whether a significant financing component exists when we recognize revenue in advance of customer payments that occur over time and extend beyond one year. In general, if the payment arrangements extend beyond the first year of the contract, we treat a portion of the payments as a financing component. The discount rate used for each arrangement reflects the rate that would be used in a separate financing transaction between us and the licensee at contract inception and takes into account the credit characteristics of the licensee and market interest rates as of the date of the agreement. If we assess the financing component to be significant to the contract, the amount of fixed fee revenue recognized at the beginning of the license term will be reduced by the calculated financing component. The portion related to the financing component is recorded as interest income, and is not material to our consolidated financial statements.
For additional information, see Note 3 "Revenue Recognition" to our consolidated financial statements in Part II, Item 8 of this Annual Report on Form 10-K.
IMPACT OF NEW ACCOUNTING STANDARDS NOT YET ADOPTED
For information on recent accounting standards that have not been adopted yet and the impact of these standards on our consolidated financial statements, refer to Note 2 "Summary of Significant Accounting Policies" to our consolidated financial statements in this Annual Report on Form 10-K.
RESULTS OF OPERATIONS
For each line item included on our consolidated statements of operations described and analyzed below, the significant factors identified as the leading drivers contributing to the overall fluctuation are presented in descending order of their impact on the overall change (from an absolute value perspective). This discussion and analysis highlights comparisons of material changes in the consolidated financial statements for the years ended September 30, 2022 and September 24, 2021. For the discussion and analysis highlighting comparisons of material changes in the consolidated financial statements for the years ended September 24, 2021 and September 25, 2020, refer to Part II, Item 7 "Management's Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations" included in our Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended September 24, 2021, which is incorporated herein by reference. Note that adjustments related to previously under-reported sales-based royalties as well as unlicensed settlement activity, are collectively referred to as "recoveries." Amounts displayed, except percentages, are in thousands.
Revenue and Gross Margin
Licensing
Licensing revenue consists of fees earned from licensing our technologies to customers who incorporate them into their products and services to enable and enhance audio and imaging capabilities. The technologies that we license are either internally developed, acquired, or licensed from third parties. A significant portion of our licensing revenue pertains to customer-shipment royalties that we recognize based on estimates of our licensees’ shipments. To the extent that shipment data reported by licensees differs from estimates we made and recorded, we recognize an adjustment to revenue for such difference in the period we receive the reported shipment data.
Our cost of licensing consists mainly of amortization of certain purchased intangible assets and intangible assets acquired in business combinations, depreciation, third party royalty obligations, and patent pool fees. | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |
| | | | | Fiscal Year Ended | | Change | | |
| Licensing | | | | | | September 30,
2022 | September 24,
2021 | | | $ | % | | | |
| Revenue | | | | | | $1,164,533 | $1,214,147 | | | $(49,614) | (4)% | | | |
| Percentage of total revenue | | | | | | 93% | 95% | | | | | | | |
| Cost of licensing | | | | | | 61,597 | 55,421 | | | 6,176 | 11% | | | |
| Gross margin | | | | | | 1,102,936 | 1,158,726 | | | (55,790) | (5)% | | | |
| Gross margin percentage | | | | | | 95% | 95% | | | | | | | |
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| | | Fiscal Year Ended | | | |
| Licensing Revenue By Market | | | | | September 30, 2022 | | September 24, 2021 | | |
| Broadcast | | | | | | | $ | 433,992 | | 37 | % | | $ | 475,648 | | 39 | % | | | |
| Mobile | | | | | | | 238,735 | | 21 | % | | 261,232 | | 22 | % | | | |
| CE | | | | | | | 186,285 | | 16 | % | | 181,944 | | 15 | % | | | |
| PC | | | | | | | 151,079 | | 13 | % | | 141,919 | | 12 | % | | | |
| Other | | | | | | | 154,442 | | 13 | % | | 153,404 | | 12 | % | | | |
| Total licensing revenue | | | | | | | $ | 1,164,533 | | 100 | % | | $ | 1,214,147 | | 100 | % | | | |
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| Factor | Licensing Revenue | Gross Margin |
| Broadcast | â | Lower foundational audio revenue due to lower TV unit shipments globally and lower recoveries, partially offset by higher adoption of Dolby Vision and Dolby Atmos technologies in TVs and STBs | ßà | No significant fluctuations |
| Mobile | â | Lower revenue due to timing, including recoveries, partially offset by higher adoption of Dolby Vision and Dolby Atmos technologies and new licensees in our imaging patent programs |
| PC | á | Higher adoption of Dolby Vision and Dolby Atmos technologies and new licensees in our imaging patent programs, and higher recoveries, partially offset by lower unit shipments |
| CE | á | Higher adoption of Dolby Atmos and Dolby Vision across devices, partially offset by lower unit shipments |
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| Other | ßà | Higher Dolby Cinema revenue due to more screens being open and strong box office performance in fiscal 2022, partially offset by lower gaming and automotive revenue |
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Products and Services
Products revenue is generated from the sale of audio and imaging hardware and software products for the cinema, television, broadcast and entertainment industries. Also included in products revenue are amounts relating to certain Dolby Cinema arrangements that are considered sales-type leases that involve fixed or minimum fees. Cost of products includes materials, labor, manufacturing overhead, amortization of certain intangible assets, and certain third party royalty obligations.
Services revenue consists of fees charged to support theatrical and television production for cinema exhibition, broadcast, and home entertainment, including equipment training and maintenance, mixing room alignment, equalization, as well as audio, color, and light image calibration. Services revenue also includes PCS for products sold and equipment installed at Dolby Cinema theaters operated by exhibitor partners and support for the implementation of our technologies into products manufactured by our licensees. Also included in services revenue are amounts generated through our Dolby.io developer platform. Cost of services consists of personnel and personnel-related costs for providing our professional services, software maintenance and support, external consultants, and other direct expenses incurred on behalf of customers. | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |
| | | | | | Fiscal Year Ended | | Change | | |
| Products and Services | | | | | | | September 30,
2022 | September 24,
2021 | | | $ | % | | | |
| Revenue | | | | | | | $89,260 | $67,109 | | | $22,151 | 33% | | | |
| Percentage of total revenue | | | | | | | 7% | 5% | | | | | | | |
| Cost of products and services | | | | | | | 79,763 | 74,604 | | | 5,159 | 7% | | | |
| Gross margin | | | | | | | 9,497 | (7,495) | | | 16,992 | (227)% | | | |
| Gross margin percentage | | | | | | | 11% | (11)% | | | | | | | |
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| Factor | Products and Services Revenue | Gross Margin |
| Products | á | Increased demand for cinema equipment as the exhibitor market continues to recover following COVID-19-related shutdowns | á | Higher gross margin primarily due to higher products revenue |
| Services | á | Higher services revenue primarily due to revenue from our cloud initiatives such as Dolby.io, cinema production services, partially offset by lower Dolby Voice hardware services | â | Lower gross margin due to increased warranty expense on Dolby Cinema equipment, higher contractor expenses, and higher computer equipment and web hosting fees for our cloud initiatives, offset by higher revenue |
Operating Expenses
Research and Development
R&D expenses consist primarily of employee compensation and benefits expenses, stock-based compensation, contractor and contract labor costs, depreciation and amortization, facilities costs, costs for outside materials, and information technology expenses.
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| | | | | | Fiscal Year Ended | | Change | | |
| | | | | | | September 30,
2022 | September 24,
2021 | | | $ | % | | | |
| Research and development | | | | | | | $261,174 | $253,640 | | | $7,534 | 3% | | | |
| Percentage of total revenue | | | | | | | 21% | 20% | | | | | | | |
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| Category | Key Drivers |
| Compensation & Benefits | â | Lower costs of $10.5 million due to our annual bonus program, partially offset by higher salaries expense due to the extra week in the current fiscal year |
| Stock-based Compensation | á | Higher costs of $7.0 million due to increased fair value of RSUs |
| Systems, Telecommunications and Computer Equipment | á | Higher costs of $4.1 million primarily due to higher cloud hosting costs |
Sales and Marketing
S&M expenses consist primarily of employee compensation and benefits expenses, stock-based compensation, marketing and promotional expenses for events such as trade shows and conferences, marketing campaigns, travel-related expenses, consulting fees, facilities costs, depreciation and amortization, information technology expenses, and legal costs associated with the protection of our IP. | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |
| | | | | | Fiscal Year Ended | | Change | | |
| | | | | | | | September 30,
2022 | September 24,
2021 | | | $ | % | | | |
| Sales and marketing | | | | | | | $358,716 | $332,671 | | | $26,045 | 8% | | | |
| Percentage of total revenue | | | | | | | 29% | 26% | | | | | | | |
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| Category | Key Drivers | | |
| Legal, Professional, & Consulting | á | Higher costs of $13.1 million primarily due to legal support for patents and licensee audits, and higher consulting expense for the increased development of digital marketing programs | | |
| Stock-based Compensation | á | Higher costs of $6.0 million primarily due to increased fair value of RSUs, offset by lower costs of $1.4 million due to fewer outstanding unearned options | | |
| Travel | á | Higher costs of $4.5 million for increased company travel as a result of fewer COVID-19 travel restrictions | | |
| Compensation & Benefits | â | Lower costs of $7.6 million primarily due to our annual bonus program, partially offset by higher costs of $7.1 million for higher salaries expense primarily due to increased headcount and the extra week in the current fiscal year | | |
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General and Administrative
G&A expenses consist primarily of employee compensation and benefits expenses, stock-based compensation, depreciation, facilities and information technology costs, as well as professional fees and other costs associated with external consulting and contract labor. | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |
| | | | | | Fiscal Year Ended | | Change | | |
| | | | | | | | September 30,
2022 | September 24,
2021 | | | $ | % | | | |
| General and administrative | | | | | | | $275,315 | $224,161 | | | $51,154 | 23% | | | |
| Percentage of total revenue | | | | | | | 22% | 17% | | | | | | | |
On August 7, 2019, Intertrust Technologies ("Intertrust") filed complaints against each of our customers AMC Entertainment Holdings, Inc., Cinemark Holdings, Inc., and Regal Entertainment Group in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Texas, alleging that the use of systems including certain cinema products, which were supplied under commercial agreements that we acquired as a part of an acquisition in 2014, infringed various Intertrust patents, and seeking damages based on the revenues of the defendants. We recorded $34.4 million in fiscal 2022 within G&A expenses, reflecting a settlement payment and an immaterial accrual. We believe that these amounts fully resolve all claims relating to Intertrust’s patent assertions.
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| Category | Key Drivers |
| Other Miscellaneous Expenses | á | Higher costs of $34.4 million related to the resolution of the legal matter discussed above |
| Credit Loss Expense | á | Higher credit loss expense of $8.4 million primarily due to aging license receivable balances |
| Compensation & Benefits | â | Lower costs of $6.3 million primarily due to our annual bonus program, partially offset by higher costs of $5.9 million for higher salaries expense primarily due to increased headcount and the extra week in the current fiscal year |
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Gain on Sale of Assets | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |
| | Fiscal Year Ended | | Change |
| September 30,
2022 | September 24,
2021 | | $ | % |
| Gain on sale of assets | $— | $(13,871) | | $13,871 | 100% |
| Percentage of total revenue | —% | (1)% | | | |
In fiscal 2021, we finalized the sale of a property, which included land and a building, resulting in a gain of $13.9 million, which was recorded to gain on sale of assets on the consolidated statements of operations. Refer to "Net (Income)/Loss Attributable to Controlling Interest" section below for more information.
Restructuring Charges
Restructuring charges recorded as operating expenses in our consolidated statements of operations represent costs associated with separate individual restructuring plans implemented in various fiscal periods. The extent of our costs arising as a result of these actions, including fluctuations in related balances between fiscal periods, is based on the nature of activities under the various plans. | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |
| | | | Fiscal Year Ended | | Change | | |
| | | | | | | | September 30,
2022 | September 24,
2021 | | | $ | % | | | |
| Restructuring charges | | | | | | | $10,623 | $10,240 | | | $383 | 4% | | | |
| Percentage of total revenue | | | | | | | 1% | 1% | | | | | | | |
Restructuring charges was flat due to the restructuring events in fiscal 2022 and the restructuring events in fiscal 2021, to align resources with a revised business strategy and outlook, and to support our higher priority focus areas. For additional information on our Restructuring programs, see Note 13 "Restructuring" to our consolidated financial statements.
Other Income/Expense
Other income/expense primarily consists of interest income earned on cash and investments and the net gains or losses from foreign currency transactions, derivative instruments, our proportionate share of net income or losses from our equity method investment, and sales of marketable securities from our investment portfolio. | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |
| | | | | | Fiscal Year Ended | | Change | | |
| Other income/(expense) | | | | | | | September 30,
2022 | September 24,
2021 | | | $ | % | | | |
| Interest income | | | | | | | $6,568 | $3,493 | | | $3,075 | 88% | | | |
| Interest expense | | | | | | | (394) | (479) | | | 85 | (18)% | | | |
| Other income, net | | | | | | | 2,500 | 7,108 | | | (4,608) | (65)% | | | |
| Total | | | | | | | $8,674 | $10,122 | | | $(1,448) | (14)% | | | |
| | | | | | | | |
| Category | Key Drivers |
| Interest Income | á | Higher yields on current year investment balances due to increased interest rates |
| Other Income | â | Lower income primarily due to lower yields on our SERP balances in the current year |
| | |
| | |
| | |
Income Taxes
Our effective tax rate is based on our fiscal year results and is affected by several factors. These reflect the current statutory rates in our domestic and foreign jurisdictions, the relative income earned in our foreign jurisdictions, and nonrecurring items such as changes to our unrecognized tax benefits that may occur in but are not necessarily consistent between periods. For additional information related to effective tax rates, see Note 12 "Income Taxes" to our consolidated financial statements. | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |
| | | | Fiscal Year Ended | | | |
| | | | | September 30,
2022 | September 24,
2021 | | | | |
| Provision for income taxes | | | | $(31,381) | $(36,689) | | | | |
| Effective tax rate | | | | 15% | 10% | | | | |
| | | | | | | | |
| Factor | Impact On Effective Tax Rate |
| Stock-based Compensation | á | Lower benefit related to the settlement of stock-based awards. |
| Foreign Operations | á | Lower benefit from earned income in lower tax jurisdictions. |
| Research and Development | â | Higher benefit from R&D tax credits. |
| | |
| | |
| | |
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| | |
Net (Income)/Loss Attributable to Controlling Interest | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |
| | Fiscal Year Ended | | Change |
| September 30,
2022 | September 24,
2021 | | $ | % |
| Net (income)/loss attributable to controlling interest | $189 | $(7,596) | | $7,785 | (102)% |
| Percentage of total revenue | —% | (1)% | | | |
In fiscal 2021, we finalized the sale of a property, which included land and building, and as a result, we recognized a gain of $13.9 million to gain on sale of assets on the consolidated statements of operations. The property was 51% owned by the controlling interest, and therefore 51% of the gain on sale of assets has been attributed to the controlling interest.
LIQUIDITY, CAPITAL RESOURCES, AND FINANCIAL CONDITION
Our principal sources of liquidity are cash, cash equivalents, and investments, as well as cash flows from operations. We believe that these sources will be sufficient to satisfy our currently anticipated cash requirements through at least the next twelve months.
As of September 30, 2022, we had cash and cash equivalents of $620.1 million, which mainly consisted of cash and highly-liquid money market funds. In addition, we had short and long-term investments of $291.7 million, which consisted primarily of corporate bonds, government bonds, municipal debt securities, certificates of deposit, commercial paper, and U.S. agency securities.
The following table presents selected financial information as of September 30, 2022 and September 24, 2021 (in thousands): | | | | | | | | | |
| September 30,
2022 | | September 24,
2021 |
| Cash and cash equivalents | $ | 620,127 | | | $ | 1,225,380 | |
| Short-term investments | 189,213 | | | 38,839 | |
| Long-term investments | 102,514 | | | 62,819 | |
| Accounts receivable, net | 243,593 | | | 232,609 | |
| Accounts payable and accrued liabilities | 244,408 | | | 280,507 | |
| Working capital | 1,033,376 | | | 1,444,781 | |
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| |
| | | |
| |
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| | | |
| | | |
| | | |
| | | |
Capital Expenditures and Uses of Capital
Our capital expenditures consist of purchases of land, building, building fixtures, laboratory equipment, office equipment, computer hardware and software, leasehold improvements, and production and test equipment. Additionally, included in capital expenditures are amounts associated with Dolby Cinema locations. We continue to invest in S&M and R&D to promote the overall growth of our business and technological innovation.
We retain sufficient cash holdings to support our operations and we also purchase investment grade securities diversified among security types, industries, and issuers. We have used cash generated from our operations to fund a variety of activities related to our business in addition to our ongoing operations, including business expansion and growth, acquisitions, and repurchases of our Class A common stock. We have historically generated significant cash from operations. However, these cash flows and the value of our investment portfolio could be affected by various risks and uncertainties, as described in Part I, Item 1A "Risk Factors."
Shareholder Return
We have returned cash to stockholders through both repurchases of Class A common stock under our repurchase program initiated in fiscal 2010 and our quarterly dividend program initiated in fiscal 2015. Refer to Note 9 "Stockholders' Equity and Stock-Based Compensation" to our consolidated financial statements for a summary of dividend payments made under the program during fiscal 2022 and additional information regarding our stock repurchase program.
Stock Repurchase Program. Our stock repurchase program was approved in fiscal 2010, and since then we have completed approximately $2.6 billion of stock repurchases under the program.
The Inflation Reduction Act and CHIPS and Science Act were signed into law in August 2022. The Inflation
Reduction Act introduced a one percent non-deductible excise tax on certain public company stock buybacks made
after December 31, 2022. We are currently analyzing the impact of the excise tax on our future operations.
Quarterly Dividend Program. During fiscal 2015, we initiated a recurring quarterly cash dividend program for our stockholders. For fiscal 2022, quarterly dividends of $0.25 per share were paid on our Class A and Class B common stock to eligible stockholders of record.
Cash Flows Analysis
For the following comparative analysis performed for each of the sections of the statement of cash flows, the significant factors identified as the leading drivers contributing to the fluctuation are presented in descending order of their impact relative to the overall change (in thousands).
Operating Activities | | | | | | | | |
| Fiscal Year Ended |
| September 30,
2022 | September 24,
2021 |
| |
| Net cash provided by operating activities | $ | 318,576 | | $ | 447,753 | |
Net cash provided by operating activities decreased $129.2 million in fiscal 2022 compared to fiscal 2021, primarily due to the following: | | | | | | | | |
| Factor | Impact On Cash Flows |
| Net Income | â | Lower revenue, higher costs associated with the resolution of a legal matter discussed in Note 15 to the consolidated financial statements, and higher S&M expenses |
| Working Capital | â | Decrease due to lower accounts payable and accrued liabilities and higher inventories, partially offset by lower accounts receivable and contract assets |
| | |
| | |
| | |
Investing Activities | | | | | | | | |
| Fiscal Year Ended |
| September 30,
2022 | September 24,
2021 |
| |
| Net cash used in investing activities | $ | (295,935) | | $ | (44,905) | |
| | |
Net cash used in investing activities was $251.0 million higher in fiscal 2022 compared to fiscal 2021, primarily due to the following: | | | | | | | | | |
| Factor | | Impact On Cash Flows |
| Purchase of Investments | | â | Higher outflows for the purchase of marketable investment securities, and other investments |
| Proceeds from Investments | | á | Higher inflows from the sale and maturity of marketable investment securities |
| | | |
| | | |
| Business Combinations | | â | Higher outflows for the acquisition of Millicast, Inc. ("Millicast") completed in fiscal 2022 |
| Sale of Assets | | â | Lower inflows for the sale of property in the prior year that was 51% owned by the controlling interest |
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| | | |
| | | |
Financing Activities | | | | | | | | |
| Fiscal Year Ended |
| September 30,
2022 | September 24,
2021 |
| |
| Net cash used in financing activities | $ | (610,558) | | $ | (252,515) | |
| | |
Net cash used in financing activities was $358.0 million higher in fiscal 2022 compared to fiscal 2021, primarily due to the following: | | | | | | | | |
| Factor | Impact On Cash Flows |
| Share Repurchases | â | Higher outflows from increases in common stock repurchases |
| Common Stock Issuance | â | Lower inflows from employee stock option exercises |
| Dividend Payments | â | Higher outflows for the payment of our quarterly cash dividend to common stockholders primarily as a result of a $0.03 per share increase compared to the prior fiscal year |
| Distribution to Controlling Interest | á | Lower outflows for distributions to controlling interest due to the sale of property that was 51% owned by the controlling interest in fiscal 2021, that did not recur in fiscal 2022 |
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Contractual Obligations and Commitments
The following table presents a summary of our contractual obligations and commitments as of September 30, 2022 (in thousands): | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |
| | Payments Due By Fiscal Period |
| | 1 Year | 2 - 3
Years | 4 - 5
Years | More Than
5 Years | Total |
| Naming rights | $ | 12,474 | | $ | 25,920 | | $ | 22,006 | | $ | 44,316 | | $ | 104,716 | |
| Operating leases, including imputed interest | 15,995 | | 21,626 | | 10,595 | | 12,240 | | 60,456 | |
| Purchase obligations | 28,228 | | 9,695 | | 252 | | — | | 38,175 | |
| Donation commitments | 1,797 | | 232 | | 202 | | 417 | | 2,648 | |
| Total | $ | 58,494 | | $ | 57,473 | | $ | 33,055 | | $ | 56,973 | | $ | 205,995 | |
Naming Rights. We are party to agreements for naming rights of certain facilities, most significantly for naming rights and related benefits with respect to the Dolby Theatre in Hollywood, California, the location of the Academy Awards®. The term of the agreement is 20 years, over which we will make payments on a semi-annual basis until fiscal 2032. For additional details regarding our naming rights commitments, see Note 14 "Commitments and Contingencies" to our consolidated financial statements.
Operating Leases. Operating lease payments represent our commitments for future minimum rent made under non-cancelable leases for office space, including those payable to our principal stockholder and portions attributable to the controlling interests in our wholly owned subsidiaries. For additional details regarding our leases, see Note 7 "Leases" to our consolidated financial statements.
Purchase Obligations. Purchase obligations primarily consist of our non-cancelable commitments made under agreements to purchase goods and services related to Dolby Cinema and for purposes that include information technology and telecommunications, marketing and professional services, and manufacturing and other R&D activities.
Donation Commitments. Our donation commitments relate to non-cancelable obligations that consist of maintenance services and installation of imaging and audio products in exchange for various marketing, branding, and publicity benefits. For additional details regarding our donation commitments, see Note 14 "Commitments and Contingencies" to our consolidated financial statements.
Unrecognized Tax Benefits. As of September 30, 2022, we had an accrued liability for unrecognized tax benefits without interest, penalties, and related deferred tax assets, totaling $69.7 million. We are unable to estimate when any cash settlement with a taxing authority might occur and, therefore, have not reflected these anticipated future outflows in the table above.
Indemnification Clauses
We are party to certain contractual agreements under which we have agreed to provide indemnification of varying scope and duration to the other party relating to our licensed IP. Since the terms and conditions of the indemnification clauses do not explicitly specify our obligations, we are unable to reasonably estimate the maximum potential exposure for which we could be liable. In addition, we have entered into indemnification agreements with our officers, directors, and certain employees, and our certificate of incorporation and bylaws contain similar indemnification obligations. For additional details regarding indemnification clauses within our contractual agreements, see Note 14 "Commitments and Contingencies" to our consolidated financial statements.
In fiscal 2022, there have been no material changes in either our off-balance sheet financing arrangements or contractual obligations outside the ordinary course of business, and we did not enter into any off-balance sheet arrangements that are expected to have a material effect on Dolby's liquidity or the availability of capital resources.
ITEM 7A. QUANTITATIVE AND QUALITATIVE DISCLOSURES ABOUT MARKET RISK
Interest Rate Sensitivity
As of September 30, 2022, we had cash and cash equivalents of $620.1 million, which consisted of cash and highly liquid money market funds and U.S. agency securities. In addition, we had both short and long-term investments of $291.7 million, which consisted primarily of corporate bonds, municipal debt securities, government bonds, commercial paper, U.S. agency securities, and certificates of deposit. Our investment policy is focused on the preservation of capital and support for our liquidity requirements. Under the policy, we invest in highly rated securities with a minimum credit rating of A- while limiting the amount of credit exposure to any one issuer other than the U.S. government. As of September 30, 2022, the weighted-average credit quality of our investment portfolio was AA+, with a weighted-average maturity of approximately ten months. We do not invest in financial instruments for trading or speculative purposes, nor do we use leveraged financial instruments. We utilize external investment managers who adhere to the guidelines of our investment policy.
The investments within our fixed-income portfolio are subject to fluctuations in interest rates, which could affect our financial position, and to a lesser extent, results of operations. Based on our investment portfolio balance as of September 30, 2022, hypothetical changes in interest rates of 1% and 0.5% would have an impact on the carrying value of our portfolio of approximately $2.3 million and $1.1 million, respectively.
Foreign Currency Exchange Risk
We maintain business operations in foreign countries, most significantly in Australia, China, Germany, the Netherlands, Poland, and the U.K. Additionally, a portion of our business is conducted outside of the U.S. through subsidiaries with functional currencies other than the U.S. dollar, most notably:
•Australian Dollar
•British Pound
•Chinese Yuan
•Euro
•Polish Zloty
As a result, we face exposure to adverse movements in currency exchange rates as the financial results of our international operations are translated from local currency into U.S. dollars upon consolidation. The majority of our revenue generated from international markets is denominated in U.S. dollars, while the operating expenses of our foreign subsidiaries are predominantly denominated in local currencies. Therefore, our operating expenses will increase when the U.S. dollar weakens against the local currency and decrease when the U.S. dollar strengthens against the local currency. Additionally, foreign exchange rate fluctuations on transactions denominated in currencies
other than the functional currency result in gains or losses that are reflected in our consolidated statements of operations. Our foreign operations are subject to the same risks present when conducting business internationally, including, but not limited to, changes in economic conditions and geopolitical climate, differing tax structures, foreign exchange rate volatility and other regulations and restrictions.
We also enter into forward currency contracts exclusively designated as cash flow hedges, which have a maturity of thirteen months or less, to reduce the impact of currency volatility on U.S. dollar operating expenses. The gains and losses from the effective portions of cash flow hedges are recorded at fair value as a component of AOCI, until the hedged item is subsequently reclassified into earnings in the same period in which the hedged transaction affects earnings, with the corresponding hedged item. Amounts reclassified are recorded to the same line item in the consolidated statements of operations as the impact of the hedge transaction, concurrently with the hedged costs.
The pre-tax loss attributed to the effective portion of cash flow hedges recognized in AOCI was $2.6 million in fiscal 2022. The pre-tax loss attributed to the effective portion of cash flow hedges recognized in AOCI was $12.7 million in fiscal 2021.
The pre-tax effective portion of the loss reclassified to the consolidated statements of operations was $2.1 million in fiscal 2022, and the pre-tax effective portion of the gain reclassified to the consolidated statements of operations was $9.0 million in fiscal 2021.
We also enter into foreign currency forward contracts to hedge against assets and liabilities for which we have foreign currency exchange rate exposure and selected anticipated expenses. The contracts hedging receivables and payables are carried at fair value with changes in the fair value recorded to other income/(expense), net, in our consolidated statements of operations. The contracts hedging foreign currency denominated operating expenses are carried at fair value with changes in the fair value recorded to other comprehensive income until the hedged expenses are reported in our consolidated statements of operations.
As of September 30, 2022, the outstanding derivative instruments had maturities of equal to or less than 12 months. As of September 30, 2022 and September 24, 2021, the total notional amounts of outstanding contracts were $130.8 million and $51.0 million, respectively.
For additional information related to our foreign currency forward contracts, see Note 2 "Summary of Significant Accounting Policies" to our consolidated financial statements.
A sensitivity analysis was performed on all of our foreign currency forward contracts as of September 30, 2022. This sensitivity analysis was based on a modeling technique that measures the hypothetical market value resulting from a 10% shift in the value of exchange rates relative to the U.S. dollar. For these forward contracts, duration modeling was used where hypothetical changes were made to the spot rates of the currency. A 10% increase in the value of the U.S. dollar would lead to a decrease in the fair value of our financial instruments by $7.1 million. Conversely, a 10% decrease in the value of the U.S. dollar would result in an increase in the fair value of these financial instruments by $7.1 million.
ITEM 8. CONSOLIDATED FINANCIAL STATEMENTS
DOLBY LABORATORIES, INC.
INDEX TO CONSOLIDATED FINANCIAL STATEMENTS
Report of Independent Registered Public Accounting Firm
To the Stockholders and Board of Directors
Dolby Laboratories, Inc.:
Opinions on the Consolidated Financial Statements and Internal Control Over Financial Reporting
We have audited the accompanying consolidated balance sheets of Dolby Laboratories, Inc. and subsidiaries (the Company) as of September 30, 2022 and September 24, 2021, the related consolidated statements of income, comprehensive income, stockholders’ equity, and cash flows for each of the years in the three-year period ended September 30, 2022 and the related notes (collectively, the consolidated financial statements). We also have audited the Company’s internal control over financial reporting as of September 30, 2022, based on criteria established in Internal Control – Integrated Framework (2013) issued by the Committee of Sponsoring Organizations of the Treadway Commission.
In our opinion, the consolidated financial statements referred to above present fairly, in all material respects, the financial position of the Company as of September 30, 2022 and September 24, 2021, and the results of its operations and its cash flows for each of the years in the three-year period ended September 30, 2022, in conformity with U.S. generally accepted accounting principles. Also in our opinion, the Company maintained, in all material respects, effective internal control over financial reporting as of September 30, 2022 based on criteria established in Internal Control – Integrated Framework (2013) issued by the Committee of Sponsoring Organizations of the Treadway Commission.
Basis for Opinions
The Company’s management is responsible for these consolidated financial statements, for maintaining effective internal control over financial reporting, and for its assessment of the effectiveness of internal control over financial reporting, included in the accompanying Management’s Report on Internal Control over Financial Reporting. Our responsibility is to express an opinion on the Company’s consolidated financial statements and an opinion on the Company’s internal control over financial reporting based on our audits. We are a public accounting firm registered with the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board (United States) (PCAOB) and are required to be independent with respect to the Company in accordance with the U.S. federal securities laws and the applicable rules and regulations of the Securities and Exchange Commission and the PCAOB.
We conducted our audits in accordance with the standards of the PCAOB. Those standards require that we plan and perform the audits to obtain reasonable assurance about whether the consolidated financial statements are free of material misstatement, whether due to error or fraud, and whether effective internal control over financial reporting was maintained in all material respects.
Our audits of the consolidated financial statements included performing procedures to assess the risks of material misstatement of the consolidated financial statements, whether due to error or fraud, and performing procedures that respond to those risks. Such procedures included examining, on a test basis, evidence regarding the amounts and disclosures in the consolidated financial statements. Our audits also included evaluating the accounting principles used and significant estimates made by management, as well as evaluating the overall presentation of the consolidated financial statements. Our audit of internal control over financial reporting included obtaining an understanding of internal control over financial reporting, assessing the risk that a material weakness exists, and testing and evaluating the design and operating effectiveness of internal control based on the assessed risk. Our audits also included performing such other procedures as we considered necessary in the circumstances. We believe that our audits provide a reasonable basis for our opinions.
Definition and Limitations of Internal Control Over Financial Reporting
A company’s internal control over financial reporting is a process designed to provide reasonable assurance regarding the reliability of financial reporting and the preparation of financial statements for external purposes in accordance with generally accepted accounting principles. A company’s internal control over financial reporting includes those policies and procedures that (1) pertain to the maintenance of records that, in reasonable detail, accurately and fairly reflect the transactions and dispositions of the assets of the company; (2) provide reasonable assurance that transactions are recorded as necessary to permit preparation of financial statements in accordance with generally accepted accounting principles, and that receipts and expenditures of the company are being made only in
accordance with authorizations of management and directors of the company; and (3) provide reasonable assurance regarding prevention or timely detection of unauthorized acquisition, use, or disposition of the company’s assets that could have a material effect on the financial statements.
Because of its inherent limitations, internal control over financial reporting may not prevent or detect misstatements. Also, projections of any evaluation of effectiveness to future periods are subject to the risk that controls may become inadequate because of changes in conditions, or that the degree of compliance with the policies or procedures may deteriorate.
Critical Audit Matter
The critical audit matter communicated below is a matter arising from the current period audit of the consolidated financial statements that was communicated or required to be communicated to the audit committee and that: (1) relates to accounts or disclosures that are material to the consolidated financial statements and (2) involved our especially challenging, subjective, or complex judgments. The communication of a critical audit matter does not alter in any way our opinion on the consolidated financial statements, taken as a whole, and we are not, by communicating the critical audit matter below, providing a separate opinion on the critical audit matter or on the accounts or disclosures to which it relates.
Assessment of revenue estimate related to sales-based licensing arrangements
As discussed in Note 3 to the consolidated financial statements, revenue is derived principally from the licensing of technologies and patents to various types of licensees. The Company recognized total licensing revenue of $1.2 billion for the year ended September 30, 2022. The Company estimates and records sales-based licensing revenue from its licensees’ shipments in the same period in which those shipments occur. After receiving the royalty statements from the licensees, which is generally in the quarter after those shipments have occurred, the Company will record an adjustment based on the difference between the estimated and actual sales-based licensing revenue.
We identified the assessment of the revenue estimates related to the Company’s sales-based licensing arrangements as a critical audit matter. Auditor judgement was required to evaluate the Company’s estimation of sales-based licensing revenue, which included the use of historical data, industry estimates of expected shipments, market penetration, and average sales prices.
The following are the primary procedures we performed to address this critical audit matter. We evaluated the design and tested the operating effectiveness of certain internal controls over the Company’s sales-based licensing revenue estimation process. This included controls related to the review of (1) historical data, (2) third-party industry expectations for shipments of units, (3) the estimated percentage of market penetration, and (4) estimated average sales prices. We tested the Company’s process to develop the sales-based licensing revenue estimate. Specifically, we evaluated the sources of the historical data and assumptions that the Company used by considering their relevance and reliability. We performed sensitivity analyses over certain assumptions to assess the impact on the sales-based licensing revenue estimate of reasonably possible changes to the assumptions. In addition, we compared the Company’s historical sales-based licensing revenue estimates to actual sales-based licensing royalties received from licensees during the year, to assess the Company’s ability to accurately estimate.
/s/ KPMG LLP
We have served as the Company’s auditor since 2002.
San Francisco, California
November 17, 2022
DOLBY LABORATORIES, INC.
CONSOLIDATED BALANCE SHEETS
(in thousands, except share and per share amounts)
| | | | | | | | | |
| September 30,
2022 | September 24,
2021 | |
| ASSETS | | | |
| Current assets: | | | |
| Cash and cash equivalents | $ | 620,127 | | $ | 1,225,380 | | |
| Restricted cash | 8,244 | | 7,652 | | |
| Short-term investments | 189,213 | | 38,839 | | |
Accounts receivable, net of allowance for credit losses of $11,834 and $8,744 | 243,593 | | 232,609 | | |
Contract assets, net of allowance for credit losses of $125 and $208 | 176,093 | | 182,316 | | |
| Inventories, net | 23,549 | | 10,965 | | |
| | | |
| Prepaid expenses and other current assets | 50,075 | | 62,737 | | |
| Total current assets | 1,310,894 | | 1,760,498 | | |
| Long-term investments | 102,514 | | 62,819 | | |
| Property, plant, and equipment, net | 513,481 | | 534,381 | | |
| Operating lease right-of-use assets | 46,530 | | 67,128 | | |
| Intangible assets, net | 112,265 | | 122,890 | | |
| Goodwill | 365,147 | | 340,694 | | |
| Deferred taxes | 183,568 | | 156,020 | | |
| Other non-current assets | 55,149 | | 61,257 | | |
| Total assets | $ | 2,689,548 | | $ | 3,105,687 | | |
| | | |
| LIABILITIES AND STOCKHOLDERS’ EQUITY | | | |
| Current liabilities: | | | |
| Accounts payable | $ | 14,171 | | $ | 17,779 | | |
| Accrued liabilities | 230,237 | | 262,728 | | |
| Income taxes payable | 1,265 | | 1,334 | | |
| Contract liabilities | 18,588 | | 18,473 | | |
| Operating lease liabilities | 13,257 | | 15,403 | | |
| Total current liabilities | 277,518 | | 315,717 | | |
| Non-current contract liabilities | 23,203 | | 23,713 | | |
| Non-current operating lease liabilities | 37,685 | | 56,715 | | |
| | | |
| Other non-current liabilities | 100,122 | | 105,310 | | |
| Total liabilities | 438,528 | | 501,455 | | |
| | | |
| Stockholders’ equity: | | | |
Class A, $0.001 par value, one vote per share, 500,000,000 shares authorized: 59,798,862 shares issued and outstanding at September 30, 2022 and 64,986,316 at September 24, 2021 | 53 | | 59 | | |
Class B, $0.001 par value, ten votes per share, 500,000,000 shares authorized: 36,085,779 shares issued and outstanding at September 30, 2022 and 36,086,779 at September 24, 2021 | 41 | | 41 | | |
| | | |
| Retained earnings | 2,297,730 | | 2,607,909 | | |
| Accumulated other comprehensive loss | (51,641) | | (10,030) | | |
| Total stockholders’ equity – Dolby Laboratories, Inc. | 2,246,183 | | 2,597,979 | | |
| Controlling interest | 4,837 | | 6,253 | | |
| Total stockholders’ equity | 2,251,020 | | 2,604,232 | | |
| Total liabilities and stockholders’ equity | $ | 2,689,548 | | $ | 3,105,687 | | |
See accompanying notes to consolidated financial statements
DOLBY LABORATORIES, INC.
CONSOLIDATED STATEMENTS OF OPERATIONS
(in thousands, except per share amounts)
| | | | | | | | | | | | | | |
| | | Fiscal Year Ended |
| | | | September 30,
2022 | September 24,
2021 | September 25,
2020 |
| Revenue: | | | | | | |
| Licensing | | | | $ | 1,164,533 | | $ | 1,214,147 | | $ | 1,078,577 | |
| Products and services | | | | 89,260 | | 67,109 | | 83,215 | |
| Total revenue | | | | 1,253,793 | | 1,281,256 | | 1,161,792 | |
| | | | | | |
| Cost of revenue: | | | | | | |
| Cost of licensing | | | | 61,597 | | 55,421 | | 50,822 | |
| Cost of products and services | | | | 79,763 | | 74,604 | | 95,676 | |
| Total cost of revenue | | | | 141,360 | | 130,025 | | 146,498 | |
| | | | | | |
| Gross margin | | | | 1,112,433 | | 1,151,231 | | 1,015,294 | |
| | | | | | |
| Operating expenses: | | | | | | |
| Research and development | | | | 261,174 | | 253,640 | | 239,045 | |
| Sales and marketing | | | | 358,716 | | 332,671 | | 335,933 | |
| General and administrative | | | | 275,315 | | 224,161 | | 219,753 | |
| Gain on sale of assets | | | | — | | (13,871) | | — | |
| Restructuring charges | | | | 10,623 | | 10,240 | | 1,821 | |
| Total operating expenses | | | | 905,828 | | 806,841 | | 796,552 | |
| | | | | | |
| Operating income | | | | 206,605 | | 344,390 | | 218,742 | |
| | | | | | |
| Other income/(expense): | | | | | | |
| Interest income | | | | 6,568 | | 3,493 | | 12,725 | |
| Interest expense | | | | (394) | | (479) | | (186) | |
| Other income, net | | | | 2,500 | | 7,108 | | 8,434 | |
| Total other income | | | | 8,674 | | 10,122 | | 20,973 | |
| | | | | | |
| Income before income taxes | | | | 215,279 | | 354,512 | | 239,715 | |
| Provision for income taxes | | | | (31,381) | | (36,689) | | (8,096) | |
| Net income including controlling interest | | | | 183,898 | | 317,823 | | 231,619 | |
| Less: net (income)/loss attributable to controlling interest | | | | 189 | | (7,596) | | (256) | |
| Net income attributable to Dolby Laboratories, Inc. | | | | $ | 184,087 | | $ | 310,227 | | $ | 231,363 | |
| | | | | | |
| Net income per share: | | | | | | |
| Basic | | | | $ | 1.84 | |
