WiLAN's (WILN) CEO Jim Skippen on Q2 2016 Results - Earnings Call Transcript

WiLAN, Inc. (NASDAQ:WILN)

Q2 2016 Results Earnings Conference Call

July 28, 2016, 10:00 AM ET

Executives

Jim Skippen - President & CEO

Shaun McEwan - CFO

Analysts

Doug Taylor - Canaccord Genuity

Daniel Kim - Paradigm Capital

Todd Coupland - CIBC

Operator

Good morning. And welcome to WiLAN's Second Quarter Fiscal 2016 Financial Results Conference Call. At this time, all participants are in a listen-only mode. [Operator Instructions]

Earlier this morning, WiLAN issued a news release announcing its fiscal financial results for the second quarter which ended on June 30, 2016. This news release is available on WiLAN’s website and will be filed on SEDAR and EDGAR.

On this morning's call, we have Jim Skippen, WiLAN's President and Chief Executive Officer and Shaun McEwan, WiLAN's Chief Financial Officer. Following prepared remarks by Mr. Skippen and Mr. McEwan, analysts will have an opportunity to ask questions.

Certain matters discussed in today's conference call or answers that maybe given to questions could constitute forward-looking statements. Actual results could differ materially from those anticipated. Risk factors that could affect results are detailed in the company's annual information form and other public filings that are made available on SEDAR and EDGAR.

During this conference call, WiLAN will refer to EBITDA. EBITDA does not have any standardized meaning prescribed by U.S GAAP. EBITDA is defined in the company's quarterly and annual filings that are made available on SEDAR and EDGAR. Please note that all financial information provided is in U.S dollars, unless otherwise specified.

I would now like to turn the meeting over to President and CEO, Jim Skippen. Please go ahead sir.

Jim Skippen

Good morning, everyone. And thank you for joining us on our Q2, 2016 conference call. I will also in the call we will look at operational highlights for the quarter and then pass it over to Shaun to closely look at the numbers.

Starting with highlights. Revenues in Q2 were $16 million, EBITDA was $7.1 million and cash from operations was $8.3 million. Our cash balance stood at $103.7 million at quarter end, up $1.8 million from the end of Q1 and up $9.1 million since the beginning of the year.

The Board also declared a dividend of CAD$0.125 per share. The most existing business closing this quarter concerns to policy business development opportunities. First, we acquired an important portfolio from the Stanford Research Institute.

These patents cover advances and technology that became the popular SIRI voice-activated assistance program used in Apple devices. Apple is already licensed for this portfolio but many other players in the market are not licensed for similar products, this creates what we believe is a significant market opportunity. This is the second important portfolio we have acquired from Stanford Research Institute.

A second key development was the status and partnerships with both the University of Waterloo and the University of Saskatchewan. The two candidates top the universities as SIRI assistance to help license and promote these technologies, speaks to our high stature in the licensing world and also speaks to our potential to develop new and existing markets in the future.

Now some further thoughts on our revenues this quarter. There is no question that our business performance can be lumpy and we experienced that dynamic this quarter. Both Q4 and Q1 were positive surprises with revenues exceeded our expectations. Revenues were lower this quarter but as we said in the past, this lumpiness is just business as usual for us. It reflects the fact that timing on license agreements can vary from quarter-to-quarter. That’s how it’s been in the past and this is how we expect it to be in the future.