Technicolor in advanced talks to sell patent licensing business

Technicolor is in advanced negotiations to sell its patent licensing business, as part of its plan to simplify the group’s structure and allocate capital and resources to its operating business.

In a statement Technicolor said that while there is no assurance that a transaction will take place, the company is “confident it will reach an agreement”.

In a conference call following the release of the statement, Technicolor said: “We have to inform you that as negotiations entered into an advanced stage, we had to suspend commercial patent licensing discussions across a number of different licensing programmes, as these were in conflict and complicated tremendously the strategic transaction we are negotiating.”

“What this means, in other words, is there will be no additional deals signed between now and the year-end. However we have cleaned up one matter from the past, which is our ongoing litigation with Samsung in Germany and France.”

Technicolor said it has now reached a settlement with Samsung, ending this litigation. However it also estimated down its full-year earnings as a consequence of suspending its commercial patent licensing discussions.

Technicolor said it now expects its technology segment to generate around €70 million of adjusted EBITDA and around €25 million of free cash flow, instead of an estimated €115 million of adjusted EBITDA and €100 million of free cash flow that was incorporated in the low end of the group’s full-year guidance.

It said that the performance of the operating businesses is still in line with the group’s expectations and anticipates generating an adjusted EBITDA around €370 million, including a negative forex impact of between €5 million and €10 million.