管理層發言
If you would like to ask a question, please press 1 to raise your hand. To withdraw your question, press 1 again. As a reminder, this call is being recorded Thursday, 07/30/2026. I would now like to turn the conference over to Mr. Peter L. Goldmacher, Vice President of Investor Relations. Peter? Please go ahead.
Good afternoon. Welcome to Dolby Laboratories Third Quarter Fiscal Year 26 Earnings Conference Call. Joining me today are Kevin J. Yeaman, Dolby Laboratories' CEO, and Robert J. Park, CFO. As a reminder, today's discussion will include forward-looking statements, including our fiscal 26 fourth quarter and full year outlook and our assumptions underlying that outlook. These statements are subject to risks and uncertainties that may cause results to differ materially from the statements made today, including, among other things, the impact of macroeconomic events, supply chain issues, inflation rates, changes in consumer spending, and geopolitical instability on our business. A discussion of these and additional risks and uncertainties can be found in the earnings press release that we issued today under the section captioned Forward-Looking Statements as well as in the Risk Factors section of our most recent annual report on Form 10-K. Dolby assumes no obligation and does not intend to update any forward-looking statements made during this call as a result of new information or future events. During today's call, we will discuss non-GAAP financial measures. A reconciliation between GAAP and non-GAAP financial measures is available in our earnings press release and in the Interactive Analyst Center on the Investor Relations section of our website. With that, I would like to turn the call over to Kevin.
Thanks, Peter, and thanks to everyone joining us on the call today. Revenue and earnings for the third quarter were within the range of guidance we provided on the last earnings call. We are narrowing the range of guidance for the full year and keeping the midpoint of revenue the same. We expect strong sequential growth in Q4, driven by momentum in a number of our key growth areas. We have strong visibility into the pipeline of deals for the quarter, and many of them have closed early in Q4. Robert will share more details on this and on the financials overall in a few minutes. Dolby has maintained its leadership position for over 60 years by innovating and raising the bar on the entertainment experience. We do this by working with creatives, content distributors, and device makers, giving us a unique view on the collective needs, challenges, and opportunities of the entertainment ecosystem, which enables us to deliver experiences that come to life in the highest possible quality. This quarter, I would like to start with our focus on expanding our total addressable market beyond device licensing. We are working with a growing number of content partners that are looking to differentiate on experience and drive deeper engagement with their audiences. We are making good progress on our target for 10% of revenue from these partners by the end of FY28. Let's start with the video distribution program, the patent pool that licenses imaging patents to content streamers. Meta, one of the world's largest streamers of video content, became a licensee of the program covering its Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp platforms. Also, Alibaba became a licensee this quarter to cover its video operations, including e-commerce, entertainment, and digital media platforms. We are encouraged by the early traction and the quality of the participants joining the pool. In less than one year since inception, 45 licensors have already attracted some of the biggest names in streaming as licensees to the pool, including ByteDance, Kuaishou, Meta, Roku, Tencent, and Alibaba. We remain excited by the early momentum from this pool, and we expect it to continue. Moving on to Dolby OptiView, we closed a number of key deals in the quarter, including a multiyear agreement with Roberts Communications Network, the largest provider of horse racing content in the U.S., for ultra-low-latency video streaming. Also in the quarter, Google announced that Dolby OptiView Ads, our ad insertion engine, was the first product certified through their Ad Manager Technology Partner Program. This certification recognizes the performance and monetization improvements that Dolby OptiView Ads delivers when integrated with Google Ad Manager. While this partnership is early days, we are looking forward to working with Google to win new customers. Last quarter, I talked about how at the NAB show in Las Vegas, we showed new solutions for fan engagement in live sports. These solutions use AI to predict viewer behavior and to generate compelling stories for individual fans based on the action and their interests. Fan engagement is a top focus for the sports industry, and we have seen strong interest in these new solutions, which will be shipping in the coming months. We believe that the Dolby OptiView platform, which brings together these capabilities with ad monetization, low-latency streaming, and cross-platform playback, is a unique system that will lead the future of the live sports experience. We are excited by the progress we are making in expanding our addressable market to include content platforms where we earn revenue based on usage. Moving on, Dolby Vision and Dolby Atmos continue to bring the most immersive experiences to life. Starting with the World Cup, viewers in all three World Cup host countries were able to enjoy the World Cup in Dolby through partners including Peacock and Comcast in the U.S., Bell in Canada, and TV Azteca in Mexico. Fans in some of the most passionate football countries like Brazil, Colombia, Germany, and Spain were also able to enjoy the World Cup in Dolby. On TVs, Dolby Vision 2.0 is now in market with some Hisense TVs, and by the end of this calendar year, TCL and Philips will also be shipping televisions with Dolby Vision 2.0. Moving on to auto, we have announced agreements with over 40 auto OEMs since the program started. A few of our new OEM wins this quarter include Volkswagen in China launching its first Dolby Atmos vehicle, and Buick announcing presales for the Electra E7, a plug-in hybrid SUV with Dolby Atmos, also in China. Also this quarter, Google announced support for Dolby Atmos through Android Auto with launch partners including BMW, Genesis, Mahindra, Mercedes, Renault, and Skoda. With Dolby Atmos supported across Apple CarPlay and now Android Auto, it has never been easier for users to stream Dolby Atmos to their car. It also makes it easier for dealers to demo and sell the Dolby Atmos experience in the car. We are excited about the continued momentum in car entertainment, which continues to be a top focus for the industry. Moving on to user-generated content and social media. High-quality user-generated content is an important factor in driving engagement, and we have strong adoption of Dolby Vision on many of the world's largest social media platforms, like Instagram, Facebook, and Douyin. In addition to driving demand for Dolby on mobile phones, we are starting to make our way into new device categories, like smart glasses and video cameras. RayNeo, the leading provider of augmented reality glasses, launched the RayNeo GT Max, the world's first AR smart glasses equipped with Dolby Vision. And Insta360, the market share leader in action and panoramic cameras, launched the Luna Ultra, which supports Dolby Vision capture. We are pleased by the momentum behind user-generated content in Dolby and expect it to continue to grow as a priority for device OEMs. Wrapping up, we remain confident in our opportunity to drive growth beyond device licensing with progress on both the video distribution program and Dolby OptiView. We continue to bring more Dolby experiences to more people around the world with the growing adoption of Dolby Atmos and Dolby Vision across a wide range of devices and use cases. All of this gives us confidence in our ability to drive long-term growth. With that, I would like to turn the call over to Robert to cover the financials.
Thank you, Kevin, and thanks to everyone joining us on the call today. Revenue for the quarter came in at $305 million, which was within the guidance we shared last quarter. We saw better-than-expected revenue in Dolby Atmos, Dolby Vision, and imaging patents, offset by deal timing and foundational audio revenue. Non-GAAP earnings per share was $0.69, just above the middle of the range of guidance. The lower-than-expected operating expenses offset lower-than-expected revenue and higher tax. Licensing revenue was $282 million and products and services revenue was $23 million. We generated approximately $167 million in operating cash flow and repurchased 1.2 million shares, or $65 million, of common stock. We recently received Board approval to increase the existing share-repurchase authorization by $350 million, bringing our total authorization to about $427 million. We declared a $0.36 dividend, up 9% from our dividend a year ago, and ended the quarter with cash and investments of $756 million. Q3 GAAP operating expenses include a $4 million restructuring charge for organizational changes made as we align our resources to focus on the most impactful areas. Detailed licensing performance by end market can be found on our IR website. As a reminder, end market growth rates are typically smoother on an annual basis as the timing of recoveries, minimum volume commitments, and true-ups could drive quarterly volatility. End market performance for the quarter came in mostly as expected with no significant outsized moves. Turning to guidance. For Q4 fiscal 2026, we expect revenue to be between $362 million and $392 million. Within that, we expect licensing revenue to be between $335 million and $365 million. Gross margin should be approximately 90% on a non-GAAP basis, and we expect non-GAAP operating expenses to be between $195 million and $205 million. Non-GAAP earnings per share is expected to be between $1.13 to $1.28. Let me provide more context on Q4. Our Q4 revenue guidance at the midpoint represents a 23% year-over-year increase in revenue. This reflects momentum we are seeing in key growth areas we have been prioritizing, namely the video distribution patent program, including a large deal with Meta that signed early in Q4, higher units from Dolby Atmos in the car, revenue from new device categories like wearables. In addition, Q4 is also benefiting from timing of deals like minimum volume commitments. For fiscal year 2026, we expect total revenue to range from $1.41 billion to $1.44 billion. Within that, licensing revenue is expected to be between $1.31 billion and $1.34 billion. We are targeting non-GAAP operating expenses to be between $785 million and $795 million. We expect non-GAAP earnings per share to be between $4.25 and $4.40. This reflects the higher tax expense from discrete items in Q3. We are expecting an annual operating margin improvement of approximately 100 basis points for the year on a non-GAAP basis, up from the range between 50 basis points to 100 basis points we guided to last quarter. For the full year, we are expecting other revenue to be up high teens driven by auto and the video distribution program, broadcast to be up mid single digits due to higher recoveries in imaging patents. Mobile, which includes wearables, is expected to be up mid single digits driven by adoption of Dolby Atmos and Dolby Vision. CE should come in flattish with lower unit volumes offset by higher recoveries and Dolby Atmos adoption. PC is down low single digits primarily due to lower unit shipments and lower recoveries. We expect foundational audio revenue to be down slightly for the year. Dolby Atmos, Dolby Vision, and imaging patents revenue to be up roughly 15% year-over-year. In summary, the team has executed well, and our performance reflects the operational focus on our key growth areas, despite an environment that has remained dynamic all year. As we have demonstrated over multiple economic cycles, our approach is to control what we can control. We remain focused on our growth strategy, driving innovation, and allocating resources to the areas that will have the greatest impact. Our financials remain solid with organic revenue growth, high gross margins, expanding operating margins, healthy cash flows, and a strong balance sheet. With that, I will turn it over to the operator to open the line for any questions.
分析師問答
We will now begin the question-and-answer session. If you would like to ask a question, please press *1 to raise your hand. To withdraw your question, press *1 again. We ask that you pick up your handset when asking a question to allow for optimum sound quality. If you are muted locally, please remember to unmute your device. Please stand by while we compile the Q&A roster. Your first question comes from the line of Ralph Schackart with William Blair. Your line is open. Please go ahead.
Good afternoon. Thanks for taking the question. Robert, I want to circle back on your Q4 commentary with extra color. You talked about 23% year-over-year growth. You called out some momentum, I think, in the video distribution program that was signed early in the quarter, building in-car and wearables. Historically, this business has been difficult for analysts to forecast on a quarterly basis, but that growth rate is a standout, and I know revenue can move in and out of quarters. A little long-winded, but basically asked: can you talk about maybe the sustainability or durability of this growth rate? And how much of this could also be impacted by maybe some quarterly revenue shifting out of Q3 and Q4?
Hi, Ralph. Those are the areas driving the growth and the momentum we are seeing: both the video distribution program, including the large deal signed at the beginning of this quarter; higher units from Dolby Atmos in the car; and new device categories like wearables. I would also mention that Q4 benefits from timing of things like minimum volume commitments, particularly in mobile, which tend to be a bit more back-end loaded than they were last year. Last year's Q4 was a little softer if you look at the quarterization; it is primarily timing of certain things that come in.
Great. And then, you had some large licensees on the video distribution program part — Meta, and I think you talked about Alibaba. Maybe talk about after signing these larger companies, what that does in terms of encouraging participation from future licensees. They seem like pretty standout announcements this quarter.
Thanks, Ralph. It is one of the things that is giving us confidence in the program and our long-term growth. It is about a year into the program, and we have seen a lot of these programs come together. This one is coming together really well, both in terms of the pace and the breadth. We are at 45 licensors. We have a number of high-profile licensees; you mentioned Meta and Alibaba signing this quarter. The impact that has is it does tend to make it easier to get the next deals. In any given point in time in a program like this, there is a group of customers that are looking for a solution to the problem of operating in a fragmented IP environment, for which patent pools are a very helpful solution. There is a group of companies that are doing their homework. They want to know: is the pool comprehensive enough? Is it the right pool? Is it the right price? More people coming along starts to move them faster along their process. And then, of course, any given program will have some holdouts and you keep working each of those phases of the pipeline. But clearly, after one year, this program is coming along very nicely, and it was great to see some really nice wins this quarter.
Great. Thank you.
Your next question comes from the line of Steven Frankel with Rosenblatt Securities. Your line is open. Please go ahead.
Good afternoon. Thank you for the opportunity. Kevin, when you first introduced the concept of the video distribution program, you talked about targeting some of the large domestic streaming networks. Meta is a great win, and hopefully we'll get more like that. But what is the level of discussion with these targets in the streaming space today? Do you still feel like that is a realistic potential win on the horizon?
Thanks, Steve. Meta is one of the largest streamers of video content on the planet, and the pipeline is strong and includes streamers of all types of video content. I'm not going to go into the details of the pool's discussion with any one customer, but relative to a year ago, looking at how execution has gone, we feel really good about how this program has come along. Every time you get another licensee on board, it makes it that much easier to get the next licensee. So we are, frankly, feeling increasingly confident in that program.
Great. Given the strength in other areas — auto seems to be continuing its ramp, you are announcing new customers, and now you have expanded to Android Auto — are we getting closer to a point where the auto business might get broken out?
Yes. We are getting closer. As you know, we have typically done that when it reaches about 10% of licensing. I think as we go into the next year, that is something we are going to have a close look at because it is the highest-growing end market for us and it is the largest within 'other.'
Robert, a couple questions on the numbers. What were true-ups? Were any of the buckets affected by large catch-up payments?
The true-up was really negligible this quarter, Steve. It is less than a million dollars positive, so really small.
Second question regarding recoveries.
Nothing notable this quarter in terms of outsized movements, as I noted on the call.
Great. And then, from a macro perspective, there has been a lot of concern that rising memory costs were going to impact how CE customers thought about new product introductions. What can you tell us as you look at the pipeline using your technology? Do you feel like the plans they talked about at CES are still going forward, or have they been impacted in any way?
At CES we were largely focused on our big areas: automotive, where we continue to see strong adoption and a strong pipeline; and Dolby Vision 2.0, where we now have Hisense customers with products in market and are on track for TCL and Philips by the end of the year. Memory is a hot topic. Mobile is by far the market most impacted by memory prices. Our largest device market is TV, which is one of the lesser-impacted markets in terms of percentage of BOM. PC is the second most impacted market. For this year, all of this is factored into our guidance. Mobile has prevalence of minimum volume commitments that can have a delaying effect, and that is factored in. As we look into next year, the longer high memory costs persist, the more they start to flow through. We do expect to grow with strength in the video distribution program, automotive, new categories like wearables, and Dolby OptiView. How much that is offset by memory cost is something we are watching closely. Each customer approaches this differently: some may absorb costs, some may raise prices, others may eliminate lower-end lines. It is dynamic. We are watching it closely and expect to grow with the strengths we have in our focus areas, but memory prices are an important variable.
Great. Thank you so much.
Your next question comes from the line of Patrick Sholl with Barrington Research. Your line is open. Please go ahead.
Hi. Thanks for taking the question. Within Dolby Vision 2, I was wondering if there was any sort of differentiation in terms of the pace of adoption between the various tiers on that new technology.
I would say there is no change in pace from what we have talked about. We have those three customers: Hisense has some in-market TVs updated, and we expect TCL and Philips to be shipping by the end of the year. We are at the point in the year where CES will become the focal point for most of our customers that will be adopting it going forward. On the content side, Canal+ and Peacock are both on track; they are integrating now and getting ready to provide content in Dolby Vision 2.0.
On the video distribution program, is there a content-type focus within that and how do you expect the pace of getting licensees to be a part of the program? Is it a specific type of content you are focusing on initially?
At the center of it are companies that, at scale, take advantage of the best in video codec technologies to achieve their business objectives. That is a broad range of content, as you can tell from some of our first licensees, from Meta to Roku to ByteDance, and Alibaba's coverage includes e-commerce. It is really a function of anybody who is relying on the IP covered by this patent pool, growing with more licensors joining and the success it has had over the last year to deliver video at scale.
Your next question comes from the line of John Rigatti with Baird. Your line is open. Please go ahead.
Hi. Thanks for the question. This is John on for Vikram Kesavabhotla. A couple for me. I wanted to start with auto. Could you unpack what you think has driven some of the faster adoption with your technology in international autos, and then what needs to change in the U.S. market for you to unlock more of that segment here? I have a couple of follow-ups.
If I go back to the beginning of the program, a lot of our initial momentum was in China where manufacturers were becoming leading innovators in EVs and putting a really high focus on the in-car entertainment experience. China is also the largest vehicle market in the world, and that got the attention of auto manufacturers around the world to compete in China, which then makes it a step away from shipping those cars globally. In Europe we have Mercedes and BMW. In India we now have Mahindra and Tata. In the U.S., we do have Cadillac. We are pleased with the pace and how it has grown — 40 OEMs since the program began — and the next big milestone is getting further penetration in mainstream, higher-volume models. That will benefit us in the U.S. and around the world.
And on OptiView, could you talk more about the vision there and some examples of what is resonating most as you have taken it out to partners?
At the highest level, the vision is that we are no longer in a one-to-many world where everyone experiences the exact same sports feed at the exact same time. We are in a streaming world where we should be able to understand what engages you and personalize that experience in real time and allow interaction with friends around the experience. Dolby OptiView is intended to provide a solution that allows sports organizations and streamers to do that. We started with ultra-low latency streaming so you are not seeing the touchdown far later than others. We have an integrated player, and we are beginning to add capabilities that create personalized experiences. One thing I talked about today was OptiView Ads, which we mentioned a couple of quarters ago. We have been in market with the first customers and are testing the third generation of the product. Once testing is complete, we plan to scale this in the fall. The big difference from a customer perspective is revenue generation potential: one of our customers is seeing increases of 75%. This is because our server-guided technology requires far less lead time than competing solutions to pick and deliver the ad, which means we can fill the ad slot just before it is needed, better target the ad to the viewer when they are still there, and increase fill rate. The solution is also integrated with the player, which prevents the ads from being blocked. It was the first certified technology in the Google Ad Manager partner program because it is designed to slot into their workflows. As we scale in the fall, we look forward to working with Google to highlight benefits to their customers. At NAB we previewed our sports intelligence platform and continue to get good engagement from customers. We look forward to having specific solutions in market next year. This focuses on understanding fan engagement and when interest is waning, and importantly, being able to do something with the audio-visual experience to keep them engaged. The vision is to provide customers the ability to better engage fans with real-time personalized experiences, and we are excited about how the portfolio is coming together.
A couple more: you touched on Dolby Vision 2.0 and some demand. Could you talk about the impact that Dolby Vision 2.0 being in the market is having on adoption of Dolby Vision 1, possibly in terms of segmentation or tiering OEMs can do across both? And Robert, on capital allocation: if I look at repurchase activity, year-to-date in 2026 you are at about twice the rate of 2025. Any color on how you are thinking about capital allocation for the balance of this year and going forward would be great.
On Dolby Vision 2.0, it is early days. We are focused on getting the first three customers in market; these are examples where they are moving from Dolby Vision to Dolby Vision 2.0 starting with higher-end models. We have strong engagement, and CES is probably when we would expect customers to say more about their go-forward plans with Dolby Vision 2.0.
Thanks for noticing the buybacks. We have increased the velocity and volume of our buyback activity, and we will continue to execute our policy of at least offsetting dilution from stock-based compensation. We make our decisions quarterly based on facts and circumstances and the needs of the business, but yes, we have been stepping up year to date.
Okay, every quarter. Great. Thank you, guys.
There are no further questions at this time. This concludes today's call. Thank you for attending. You may now disconnect.