Ceva’s return to IP licensing hits revenue, profits
Cette publication existe aussi en Français
Ceva reported 2023 revenue down 19% to $97.4 million as it returned to a pure IP licensing model with a loss of $13.5m.
Ceva had 53 license agreements in the year, including 10 with OEMs. Over 1.6 billion units with Ceva IP were shipped in the year, including more than 1 billion shipments for Bluetooth and Wi-Fi.
Q4 saw revenue of $24.2 million, down 20% year-on-year. Q4 royalty revenue of $12.3 million was up 13% year-over-year and third consecutive quarter of royalty revenue growth.
“Looking back on my first year as CEO of Ceva, we have made significant progress in returning the company to a pure IP licensing and royalty business model, where we see the greatest potential for success,” said Amir Panush, Chief Executive Officer of Ceva. “Our fourth quarter revenues were in line with our expectations, despite the challenges in the markets we served.”
During the year the company sold off its Intrinsix design services business which it had bought in 2021 as part of a $33m move into custom chip design.
“Our royalty business grew for the third consecutive quarter and returned to year-over-year growth, driven by a recovery in mobile and strength across consumer IoT and industrial IoT end markets. Although our licensing revenue fell short of our expectations in the quarter, we continue to see myriad licensing opportunities for our diversified technology portfolio and expect to enhance our range of products as we push forward in developing new AI-related offerings.”
Customers shipped 1.2 billion smart edge IoT devices and more than 280 million smartphones wirelessly connected by Ceva IP in 2023. More than 1.6 billion Ceva-powered smart edge devices were shipped, including record cellular IoT device shipments of 130 million units, more than 950 million Bluetooth devices, of which more than 100 million were Wi-Fi + Bluetooth combo devices.
- RISC-V security IP for chiplet die-to-die communication ..
- Ceva buys spatial audio tech for hearables
“In sense and inference, we have bolstered our product offerings during the year with the introduction of our NPU family for edge AI and through the acquisition of spatial audio software from VisiSonics,” he said.
“2023 overall was a transformational year for Ceva, as we realigned our resources to focus on the key growth markets of automotive, consumer, industrial, and infrastructure. As we enter 2024, we are laser-focused on profitable growth and remaining agile to deal with any challenges,” said Yaniv Arieli, Chief Financial Officer of Ceva.
“In addition, following the divestment of the non-core Intrinsix design services business, our balance sheet has been significantly bolstered, which ensures we are well positioned to pursue non-organic investments that can accelerate the company’s growth in the coming years.”
If you enjoyed this article, you will like the following ones: don't miss them by subscribing to :
