CEVA, Inc. (NASDAQ:CEVA) Q3 2023 Earnings Call Transcript

And this is a growth engine for us as we go to next year. Overall, I will provide more details and explanation of all that in the coming Investor Day, and we really like to see everyone, and welcome, everyone.

David O’Connor: Thanks for that. And maybe a follow-on just on the WiFi side of things. Clearly, Bluetooth massively successful. Yaniv, mentioned $1 billion last year. I kind of watch the stage or what do we need to happen for kind of WiFi to reach that hockey stick where we’re really talking kind of significant upward kind of shipments on the WiFi side of things. Is that revenue growth you talk about next year? Or is that kind of further out to kind of hit those of shipments?

Yaniv Arieli: Yes. So, we started with our WiFi meaningful penetration with WiFi four generation, but that was really the early stage of the penetration and a much more successful and broad-based penetration came with the transition to WiFi 6, and that’s where we really started establishing our de facto leadership as an IP provider. Those licensing activities has been in the last two years. So, we are expecting the royalty growth to really pick up nicely in 2024 and then with that into 2025 and six even further. So I don’t know exactly when the hockey stick will starts, but definitely we’ll see a meaningful ramp in 2024, and that will continue into the next two years very, very strongly. The number of licensing that we have right now more than 40 and really across pretty much all the consumer and market segments as well as some automotive and other places.

And considering it’s across the different configuration of station and access points with much higher ASP on average than Bluetooth. That will be a very strong royalty growth for us in 2024 and moving forward.

David O’Connor: [Technical Difficulty]

Operator: David, I’m sorry, this is the operator. You’re breaking up pretty badly, sir.

David O’Connor: Can you hear me now?

Operator: A little bit better. Yes, sir, please proceed.

David O’Connor: Just one quick one on the M&A, given the Intrinsix divestments, any change really on the strategy on the M&A side of things? Thank you.

Amir Panush: Yes, David, we will discuss it more on the Analyst Day. But generally speaking, I would say is that my focus with the team is really on IP business model and how we are going to leverage that. We have established in the last several years and more recently, a very, very well on machines of how to drive a good success of licensing and then from the royalty. And we strongly believe that are out there, very good assets related to that business model that we can go and create synergy and long-term success for our companies moving forward. So definitely, this is an important priority for me and the team.

David O’Connor: Thank you.

Operator: Thank you. And our next question today comes from Suji Desilva with ROTH Capital. Please go ahead.

Suji Desilva: Hi Amir, Yaniv. I echo my thoughts and hoping you and your families are staying safe. Can you talk about the licensing activity in China, the update there and whether there is a recovery there or pause or whether it’s tracking as it has in the past?

Amir Panush: Yes, I would say that if you compare to last year or during the hype of COVID, it’s definitely slower, and we shared it already last quarter and discussed it to some degree over the last few months. But I would say right now, from our perspective, that has stabilized. We see right now the demand stabilizing. As I mentioned, we really have a strong incumbency of customer base, and we see a strong demand from there to basically go to the next generation to add more technologies and investments in China, while it slowed down versus last year overall now it has stabilized. And companies are coming back to basically go to the next product that they want to deliver to market and go and ask for the IP that they need. We also see in China, the demand for not only connectivity, but also for edge AI and other technologies that we have. So, overall, it has stabilized and we have an opportunity to create growth as we go and progress in 2024.