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Adeia Inc

For the period ended Dec 31, 2023. Filed Feb 23, 2024.

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A company's yearly report to the SEC, with audited financial statements. It is the fullest account a company gives of its business, its finances and the risks it sees.

FY2023 · Filed Feb 23, 2024

ADEA$16.28+5.0%Stored close · as of Nov 9, 2026

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Contents

Item 1. Business

Corporate Information

Our principal executive offices are located at 3025 Orchard Parkway, San Jose, California. Our telephone number is 408-473-2500. We maintain a corporate website atwww.adeia.com. The reference to our website does not constitute incorporation by reference of the information contained on this website. Adeia and the Adeia logo are trademarks or registered trademarks of Adeia Inc. or its affiliated companies in the U.S. All other company, brand and product names may be trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective companies.

Overview

We (the “Company,” “Adeia,” “we,” “our,” and “us”) are an innovation incubator and have spent decades investing in advanced research and development to create market-leading technologies for the entertainment, media, consumer electronics, and semiconductor industries. Our innovative solutions touch practically every aspect of consumers' day-to-day interaction with media, consumer electronics and entertainment, enabling our customers to build customized, next-generation solutions for users around the globe. Our commitment to innovation has resulted in a leading intellectual property (“IP”) licensing platform in these industries, with a diverse portfolio of media and semiconductor IP. In order to serve an increasingly connected world, we invent, develop, acquire and license fundamental innovations that enhance billions of devices and shape the way millions of people explore and experience entertainment across a variety of platforms.

Ideas are at the heart of our business and are embedded in our name, which means “to license” in Greek. Licensing these ideas is how we go to market – by making our ideas broadly available to the media and semiconductor industries. Our innovations address one of the biggest consumer trends in entertainment today – the massive proliferation of entertainment content and the rapidly changing habits of how consumers are finding, watching and enjoying entertainment.

Our IP licensing platform provides access to innovations that allow our customers, who are some of the largest media, entertainment, consumer electronics, social media and semiconductor companies in the world, to create cutting-edge technology solutions and products. Our engineers and scientists are focused on innovating and creating the most advanced and forward-thinking solutions to help solve challenges facing the media and semiconductor industries. Our internal innovation engine accounts for approximately 85% of our combined patent portfolio and generates ideas that are converted into our powerful IP, which enables fundamental technologies in our target markets.

We have a long history of innovation across a diverse set of applications and technologies and have grown an IP portfolio of approximately 10,950 media and semiconductor patent assets, which are specifically designed to meet the evolving needs of businesses and consumers. Our media portfolio covers fundamental aspects of the entertainment experience across platforms, including how users search, save, stream, discover, consume, personalize and interact with content. Many of our media solutions have become ubiquitous across the industry and are being incorporated into emerging solutions that span new and adjacent markets. Our semiconductor portfolio is comprised of patents and technology know-how that enable the new era in semiconductors, including the next generation of logic and memory semiconductors that are powering the increasing demand for generative artificial intelligence applications. Our semiconductor portfolio generally covers three fundamental technology areas, hybrid bonding (or Direct Bond Interconnect (DBI)), advanced processing nodes, and advanced packaging solutions. Specifically, our portfolio enables us to address the semiconductor market demands of higher bandwidth, improved compute performance and cost management in heterogeneous integration.

Business Separation

In February 2022, Xperi Holding Corporation (“Xperi Hold Co”) introduced “Adeia” as the new brand for its IP licensing business. On October 1, 2022, Xperi Hold Co’s product business was separated from Xperi Hold Co through a tax-efficient spin-off transaction (the “Separation”) and became an independent, publicly-traded company named Xperi Inc. The IP licensing business was retained by Xperi Hold Co, which was renamed Adeia Inc.

Following the Separation, Xperi Inc. became an independent, publicly-traded company, and we retain no ownership interest in Xperi Inc. Xperi Inc.’s historical financial results for periods prior to the Separation are reflected in our consolidated financial statements as discontinued operations for the periods presented. For further details, refer to “Note 9 –Discontinued Operations”, in Notes to Consolidated Financial Statements in Item 8 of Part II of this Annual Report on Form 10-K.

Our Strategy

We have adopted a proactive strategy designed to protect and extend our technology and IP. We continue to grow our patent portfolios in size and relevance through ongoing investment in internal innovation, strategic management and targeted acquisitions within our target markets.

We conduct our business primarily by licensing our innovations to leading companies in the broader media and semiconductor industries and companies adopting new technologies that will help drive these industries forward. License arrangements include access to one or more of our foundational IP portfolios and may also include access to some of our industry-leading technologies and proven know-how.

Media Strategy

We invent, develop, and license fundamental innovations that shape the way millions of people explore and experience entertainment and enhance media services that span billions of devices in an increasingly connected world. From TVs to smartphones, in almost any place you can think of, from home to work to on the go, and in all types of entertainment experiences, from Pay-TV to over-the-top (“OTT”) to social media and to the metaverse, managing content and connections in a way that is smart, immersive, and personal is precisely what our innovations do.

Our patented innovations broadly cover all aspects of the entertainment experience, including (i) guidance, (ii) discovery, (iii) search, (iv) recommendations, (v) multi-screen, (vi) personalization, (vii) data analytics, (viii) advertising, (ix) computer vision, (x) content storage and (xi) high-performance computing.

We license our patented media innovations for use with traditional linear television, both in North America and internationally, as well as in connection with OTT and social media services that provide access to entertainment inside and outside the home on a broad array of devices. We believe the continued growth of video consumption, the evolution of how consumers explore and experience video, and the need for content storage and high-performance computing present new opportunities for us to continue to develop patentable innovations, expand the industries we serve and license additional patent rights.

Semiconductor Strategy

Our semiconductor business invents, develops, and licenses the fundamental technologies that enable the current and next generation devices that we use to watch and enjoy entertainment. We are focused on two emerging technologies, hybrid bonding and advanced processing nodes, both of which address semiconductor market demands for higher bandwidth, improved compute performance and cost management with 2.5 and 3D heterogeneous integration. We license our patented innovations to leading semiconductor companies, and partner with the industry to accelerate the adoption of these technologies. We believe that the multi-generational nature of our DBI platforms will be beneficial to the greater semiconductor sector for years to come.

Recently, we have also launched a co-optimization effort that builds on our core fundamental semiconductor IP. Co-optimization is a holistic approach whereby the circuit design, process design and system design are optimized simultaneously. We believe that co-optimization is necessary given the limitations of Moore’s Law and that we are uniquely positioned to capitalize on this need given our existing portfolio of semiconductor technologies.

IP Portfolio Licensing Markets

Our business has a strong foundation of recurring, annual revenue. That revenue is derived from licensing our patent portfolios across multiple markets, including:

Multichannel Video Programming Distributors (“MVPD”): includes cable, satellite and telecommunications television providers that aggregate and distribute linear content over their own networks (MVPDs), as well as television providers that aggregate and stream linear content over broadband networks (virtual MVPDs). Customers typically pay us a monthly per-subscriber fee and include many of the leading MVPDs and virtual MVPDs such as Altice USA (including Optimum), AT&T (including DirecTV and DirecTV Stream), Charter, Comcast (including Sky), Cox, DISH Network (including Sling TV), Google (including YouTube TV), Verizon and Vodafone.

OTT Video Service Providers: includes subscription video-on-demand (“SVOD”) and free advertising-supported streaming service (FAST) providers that offer online services and devices that enable internet streaming and downloading of movies, television shows, music and other types of media content, as well as content providers, networks and media companies that provide content directly to consumers through a variety of business models. Customers have typically paid us fixed fees for specified periods of time and include some of the leading media companies and services including DAZN, Google (including YouTube), Starz and Peacock.

Consumer Electronics (“CE”) Manufacturers: includes producers of content access points such as smart televisions, streaming media devices, video game consoles, mobile devices, content storage devices and other connected media devices. Our CE licenses are typically structured as license fees based on the number of units licensed, for specified products, in defined territories. Our agreements with some of the larger CE manufacturers generally allow customers to ship an unlimited number of units, provided they pay us fixed fees for specified periods of time. Select customers include Panasonic, Roku, Samsung and TCL.

Social Media Companies: includes social media companies that allow users to stream and upload user-generated content, often leveraging a variety of computer vision technologies. Customers have typically paid us fixed fees for specified periods of time and include several of the leading social media companies.

Semiconductors: includes providers of memory, logic, sensors, and radio frequency (“RF”) devices commonly used in electronic products such as mobile phones, laptops, PCs, game consoles and servers. Our agreements with our semiconductor customers can include fixed fees, per-unit fees, milestone based fees, or a combination of these fees. These agreements are typically for specified periods of time, and our customers include Kioxia, Micron, OmniVision, Samsung, SK hynix, Sony, UMC and Western Digital.

We continue to grow our business with several specific opportunities, including:

Greater penetration in OTT: The OTT market is currently experiencing explosive growth. For example, the leading provider of SVOD now has worldwide subscribers in excess of 200 million. While these services have significantly lower ARPUs as compared to traditional Pay-TV, the scale of the overall OTT video market continues to grow and presents an increasingly important licensing opportunity for our business. While we are at a comparatively earlier stage of licensing the key providers in this market, we are confident that the fundamental innovations from our patent portfolios will be similarly relevant to these new and widely-adopted OTT video services.

Accelerate the Semiconductor licensing business: With the rising cost and complexity of developing cutting-edge semiconductor manufacturing processes, the industry is increasingly looking beyond Moore’s Law towards advanced packaging and 3D integration technologies. Leveraging the combination of our highly-experienced technologists, scientists and engineers and our advanced research and development (“R&D”) labs, we continue to develop industry-leading 3D integration solutions such as hybrid bonding that meet the demand for greater functionality, higher performance and smaller size for the next generation of electronics.

Expand into new and adjacent markets: With the proliferation of media discovery and distribution and computer vision technologies into new and adjacent markets outside of our current MVPD, OTT, and social media markets, new opportunities have emerged for us to leverage our existing IP portfolios to seek license arrangements with many new companies. Some of these new markets include companies that provide advertising technology, automotive, e-commerce, gaming, and music streaming products and services.

Expansion of MVPD licensing internationally: We continue to license MVPDs internationally and have already successfully licensed several leading providers. Licensing unlicensed international MVPD providers presents a significant opportunity for expanding our business.

Research & Development

As demonstrated by our portfolio of industry recognized, widely-deployed, advanced technologies and IP, we have a long track record of innovating in the fields of media and semiconductors. We believe that ongoing investment in R&D is required for us to remain competitive in the markets we serve. Today, we have a collection of world-class talent and strong R&D capabilities. Our ongoing investment in R&D, which is supported by a strong industry network of partners, enables us to create original inventions which shape and anticipate future market trends in markets we serve. We continue to focus our R&D efforts on IP development and next generation technology solutions, including semiconductor hardware research, machine learning, generative AI and advanced algorithm development. Our R&D projects follow a forward-looking technology roadmap and execute a pragmatic technology strategy to position us with a sustainable competitive advantage for decades to come.

Competition

Due to the exclusionary nature of patent rights, we do not compete, in a traditional sense, with other patent holders for patent licensing relationships. Other patent holders do not have the same rights to the inventions and technologies encompassed by our patent portfolio. In any service, device, or piece of equipment that contains IP, the provider or manufacturer may need to obtain licenses from multiple holders of the IP. In licensing our patent portfolios, we compete with other patent holders for a share of the licensing fees that comprise the total potential revenue that is supported by a certain service or product.

Protecting Our Investment

We operate in an industry in which innovation, investment in new ideas and protection of our IP rights are critical for success. We protect our innovations and inventions through a variety of means, including applying for patent protection domestically and internationally. As of December 31, 2023, we held approximately 10,950 patent and patent applications worldwide, including approximately 4,800 United States issued patents and 1,600 patent applications, as well as approximately 3,500 foreign issued patents and 1,050 patent applications. The last of our currently issued patents are set to expire in 2042. From time to time, we acquire complementary IP portfolios. Our criteria for patent acquisitions include: compatibility with our existing portfolios, the number and jurisdiction of patent assets, the technical and legal strength of the patents, the actual or likely adoption by the industry and the economic value of the inventions.

Litigation

Although we are engaged with and have successfully licensed and transferred our technologies to many companies, some of the companies that use our patented technologies have nonetheless chosen not to enter into license agreements with us. Consequently, we have, at times, initiated litigation to enforce our IP rights and protect our investment. We view litigation as an instrument of last resort, and we use it only when our efforts to reach negotiated licenses have stalled or failed. If we are unable to secure license agreements on favorable terms through negotiations, or if licensees do not comply with the terms of their licenses, we might have to file new litigation to enforce our rights.

Human Capital Resources

The opportunities for our success and growth depend in large part on our ability to attract, develop and retain a talented and engaged workforce. In particular, we are competing for technical talent and we need to offer not only robust and attractive compensation packages but also provide broad opportunities for our employees to make an impact, grow and develop. As of December 31, 2023, we had a talent base consisting of approximately 130 full-time employees, with substantially all of our employees located in the U.S.

To enable our talent to actively contribute to, and have a positive impact on, our overall business and culture, we develop and maintain a set of programs and initiatives. These programs and initiatives include competitive compensation and benefits offerings, company culture initiatives, diversity and inclusion initiatives and goal and performance management. In support of these efforts, our Board of Directors monitors many of these programs and initiatives and provides guidance and feedback as appropriate. Our goal is to provide a work environment that empowers our teams and enables employees to enjoy a healthy and productive work-life balance for themselves, their families and our community.

Our incentives are based on merits, and we have a strong pay-for-performance culture. We benchmark our total rewards annually to ensure our compensation and benefit programs remain competitive with industry peers. Our compensation framework for employees reflects a combination of fixed and variable pay including base salary, bonuses, performance awards and stock-based compensation. We offer competitive employee benefits that are designed to meet or exceed local laws.

We invest in the career growth of our employees by providing a wide range of development opportunities, including face-to-face (where possible), virtual, social and self-directed learning, mentoring, coaching, training and external development. We also conduct annual assessments of employees to identify development needs based on department goals. We believe in the principles of a learning organization and strive to provide continuous educational opportunities for our employees.

We leverage our manager ecosystem to align corporate goals with employee objectives. We have delivered management training and supplementary resources to enable our management community to provide excellent support and guidance to their teams. Employees are encouraged to create and align individual, functional and team-based goals, track performance against goals, write self-evaluations and provide feedback to supervisors or management members.

None of our employees are covered by a collective bargaining agreement or are represented by a labor union. We have not experienced any organized work stoppages, and we consider the relationships with our employees to be positive.

Available Information

Our internet address is www.adeia.com, where we make available, free of charge, our annual reports on Form 10-K, quarterly reports on Form 10-Q, current reports on Form 8-K and any amendments to those reports, as soon as reasonably practicable after we electronically file such material with, or furnish it to, the SEC. Our SEC reports can be accessed through the investor relations section of our website. The information found on our website is not incorporated into this or any other report we file with or furnish to the SEC.

ContentsView on SEC.gov

The text of this filing, as the company filed it with the SEC, without its images or exhibits. This is not investment advice.