WiLAN Concludes Strategic Review; Formulates Growth Plan
$200 million sustainable annual revenue opportunity in five years Quarterly dividend to increase 25% to a current per share yield of 5.6% Company to hold conference call on May 14, 2014 at 5:00 PM ET
OTTAWA, CANADA--(Marketwired - May 14, 2014) - Wi-LAN Inc. ("WiLAN" or the "Company") (TSX:WIN) (NASDAQ:WILN) today announced that its Board of Directors has concluded its review of strategic alternatives for the Company. Following a comprehensive process involving financial advisor Canaccord Genuity, the Board of Directors determined that it is in the best interests of the Company and our shareholders to execute an updated business plan focused on business diversification, licensing partnerships, improved profitability and increasing the return of cash generated from operations to shareholders.
"We entered into the strategic review process highly confident in the strength of our stand-alone business," said Paul McCarten, Chairman of the Board of Directors. "After conducting a comprehensive review of a wide range of strategic options in collaboration with our financial advisor, Canaccord Genuity, we have concluded that shareholders are best served by modifying the Company's business strategy to address current market dynamics. In our view, continuing with an updated strategy is the best way to maximize shareholder value."
"Since we commenced this review process our business has made significant progress," said Jim Skippen, President & CEO. "We have:
Delivered two quarters with very strong revenues and GAAP earnings; Signed a partnership deal with Panasonic that anchors several new semiconductor licensing programs which we expect to begin generating revenue in the near term; Entered licensing partnerships in the automotive, networking, and industrial products markets; Signed license agreements with HTC, Sierra Wireless, Toshiba, and Hon Hai; Signed our first license in the network management market with a US based cellular carrier; Signed our first two licenses in a partnership program for technology used in video games; Succeeded in having the Judge overturn a jury's determination in our Texas case against Apple that our '802 patent was invalid; and In our California case involving Apple and LTE- related technology, succeeded in having the court clarify certain claim constructions, which we believe help our overall case.""However, successful companies do not stand still, but embrace change," continued Skippen. "WiLAN has identified a number of strategies that we believe will enhance the value of the enterprise over the short and long term:
First, we will diversify our revenue base by moving our focus from licensing WiLAN's entire portfolio to licensing smaller subsets of the portfolio. We will also continue to add licensing programs in new market segments; Second, to reduce the risk in our business model, we will limit the outright purchases of patent portfolios we make. Instead, we will focus on attracting portfolios from companies seeking a licensing partner that are willing to share with us the risk of the success of the licensing program; Third, we will focus on increasing the profitability of our business by ensuring that law firms working with us share in some of the risk of our licensing programs; and Fourth, we will consider selling some of the non-core patents in our portfolio to generate revenues and reduce the maintenance costs of the portfolio."Incorporating these strategies, we have established a roadmap to increase GAAP earnings to at least $0.30 per share by 2018 by more than doubling our revenues and increasing our operating leverage. If these targets are achieved, the strong profitability of our business will drive higher returns to shareholders through quarterly dividends that we will strive to increase regularly. The first increase, to $0.05 per quarter per share, represents a 25% increase and will take effect with the Q2 2014 declaration. At today's share price, this represents a yield of approximately 5.6%."
The board has also approved the entering into of a Normal Course Issuer Bid to repurchase for cancellation upto 10% of the issued and outstanding common shares of the Company subject to the receipt of regulatory and other approvals.
Conference Call Information - May 14, 2014 - 5:00 PM ET
WiLAN will conduct a conference call at 5:00 PM Eastern Time (ET) today. WiLAN President & CEO, Jim Skippen and other members of the Company's management team will be on the call.
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