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Summary of Significant Accounting Policies (Policies)
6 Months Ended
Jun. 30, 2024
Accounting Policies [Abstract]  
Basis of Accounting

The accompanying interim unaudited Condensed Consolidated Financial Statements have been prepared by the Company in accordance with generally accepted accounting principles (“GAAP”) in the United States (“U.S.”) and the applicable rules and regulations of the Securities and Exchange Commission (“SEC”) for interim financial information. The amounts as of December 31, 2023 have been derived from the Company’s annual audited Consolidated Financial Statements included in its Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2023, filed on February 23, 2024 (the “Form 10-K”). These Condensed Consolidated Financial Statements should be read in conjunction with the annual audited Consolidated Financial Statements and notes thereto included in the Form 10-K as of and for the year ended December 31, 2023.

Use of Estimates

Use of Estimates

The preparation of financial statements in conformity with U.S. GAAP requires management to make estimates and assumptions that affect the amounts reported in the financial statements and accompanying notes. The accounting estimates and assumptions that require management’s most significant, challenging, and subjective judgment include identifying the performance obligations in the contract, estimating variable consideration, estimating quarterly royalties prior to receiving the royalty reports from the licensee, determining standalone selling price, and allocating consideration in a contract with multiple performance obligations, the assessment of the recoverability of goodwill, the assessment of useful lives and recoverability of other intangible assets and long-lived assets, recognition and measurement of current and deferred income tax assets and liabilities, the assessment of unrecognized tax benefits and purchase accounting resulting from business combinations, among others. Actual results experienced by the Company may differ from management’s estimates. These estimates may change, as new events occur and additional information is obtained, and are recognized in the consolidated financial statements as soon as they become known.

Recent Accounting Pronouncements

Recently Adopted Accounting Pronouncements

In March 2020, the FASB issued ASU 2020-04, Reference Rate Reform (Topic 848): Facilitation of the Effects of Reference Rate Reform on Financial Reporting (“ASU 2020-04”). ASU 2020-04 provides optional expedients and exceptions for applying U.S. GAAP to contracts, hedging relationships, and other transactions affected by reference rate reform if certain criteria are met. The amendments in ASU 2020-04 apply only to contracts, hedging relationships, and other transactions that reference the London Interbank Offered Rate (“LIBOR”) or another reference rate expected to be discontinued because of reference rate reform. In December 2022, the FASB issued ASU 2022-06, Reference Rate Reform (Topic 848): Deferral of the Sunset Date of Topic 848 (“ASU 2022-06”), which deferred the application dates of Topic 848 to December 31, 2024. In the second quarter of 2023, the Company adopted Topic 848 and modified its debt agreement to reference the other rate. The adoption did not have a material impact to the Company’s Condensed Consolidated Financial Statements.

Recently Issued Accounting Pronouncements Not Yet Adopted

In November 2023, the FASB issued ASU 2023-07, Segment Reporting (Topic 280): Improvements to Reportable Segment Disclosures (“ASU 2023-07”), which requires public entities to disclose information about their reportable segments’ significant expenses and other segment items on an interim and annual basis. Public entities with a single reportable segment are required to apply the disclosure requirements in ASU 2023-07, as well as all existing segment disclosures and reconciliation requirements in ASC 280 on an interim and annual basis. ASU 2023-07 is effective for fiscal years beginning after December 15, 2023, and for interim periods within fiscal years beginning after December 15, 2024, with early adoption permitted. The Company is currently evaluating the impact of adopting ASU 2023-07.

In December 2023, the FASB issued ASU 2023-09, Income Taxes (Topic 740): Improvements to Income Tax Disclosures (“ASU 2023-09”), which requires public entities, on an annual basis, to provide disclosure of specific categories in the rate reconciliation, as well as disclosure of income taxes paid disaggregated by jurisdiction. ASU 2023-09 is effective for fiscal years beginning after December 15, 2024, with early adoption permitted. The Company is currently evaluating the impact of adopting ASU 2023-09.

Revenue Recognition

Revenue Recognition

General

Revenue is recognized when control of the intellectual property (“IP”) rights is transferred to a customer in an amount that reflects the consideration the Company expects to be entitled to in exchange for the licensing of the Company’s IP, which may include various combinations of IP rights and services which are generally capable of being distinct and accounted for as separate performance obligations. In situations where foreign withholding taxes are withheld by the Company’s licensee, revenue is recognized gross of withholding taxes that are remitted directly by the licensee to a local tax authority.

Some of the Company’s contracts with customers contain multiple performance obligations. For these contracts, the individual performance obligations are separately accounted for if they are distinct. In a contract with multiple performance obligations, the transaction price is allocated among the separate performance obligations on a relative standalone selling price basis. The determination of standalone selling price considers market conditions, the size and scope of the contract, customer and geographic information, and other factors. When observable prices are not available, standalone selling price for separate performance obligations is based on the adjusted market assessment approach to estimate the price that a customer in the relevant market would be willing to pay for licensing the Company’s IP rights. The allocation of transaction price among performance obligations in a contract may impact the amount and timing of revenue recognized in the Consolidated Statements of Income during a given period.

When a contract with a customer includes variable consideration, an estimate of the consideration which the Company expects to be entitled to for transferring the promised IP rights or services is made at contract inception and in each subsequent reporting period until the uncertainty associated with the variable consideration is resolved. The amount of variable consideration is estimated by considering all available information (historical, current, and forecast) and is updated as additional information becomes available. The estimate of variable consideration is included in the transaction price to the extent it is probable that a significant reversal of cumulative revenue recognized will not occur when the uncertainty associated with the variable consideration is resolved. When the uncertainty associated with variable consideration relates to potential price adjustments as a result of a legal contract dispute, the Company estimates variable consideration using the expected value method or the most likely amount method, whichever is more appropriate in the circumstances, and considers all available information, including historical data and experience. Estimating variable consideration related to potential future price adjustments requires significant judgment in evaluating the possible outcomes. Subsequent changes in the transaction price resulting from changes in the estimate of variable consideration are allocated to the performance obligations in the contract on the same basis as at contract inception.

When variable consideration is in the form of a sales-based or usage-based royalty in exchange for a license of IP, revenue is recognized at the later of when the subsequent sale or usage occurs or the performance obligation to which some or all of the sales-based or usage-based royalty has been allocated has been satisfied or partially satisfied.

Description of Revenue-Generating Activities

IP License Arrangements

The Company licenses (i) its media patent portfolio (“Media IP licensing”) to multichannel video programming distributors, over-the-top video service providers, consumer electronics manufacturers, social media, and other new media companies and (ii) its semiconductor technologies and associated patent portfolio (“Semiconductor IP licensing”) to memory, logic, sensors, radio frequency component, and foundry companies. The Company generally licenses its IP portfolios under three models: (i) fixed-fee Media IP licensing, (ii) fixed-fee or minimum guarantee Semiconductor IP licensing, and (iii) per-unit or per-subscriber Media IP or Semiconductor IP royalty licensing.

Fixed-fee Media IP licensing

The Company’s long-term fixed-fee Media IP licensing contracts provide its customers with rights to future patented technologies over the term of the contract that are highly interdependent or highly interrelated to the patented technologies provided at the inception of the contract. The Company treats these rights as a single performance obligation with revenue recognized on a straight-line basis over the term of the fixed-fee license contract. The transaction price is adjusted for the effect of any significant financing components calculated using borrower-specific, risk-adjusted interest rates, with the related interest income or expense being recognized over time on an effective rate basis.

Fixed-fee or minimum guarantee Semiconductor IP licensing

The Company enters into Semiconductor IP licenses that have a fixed fee or a minimum guarantee, whereby licensees pay a fixed fee for the right to incorporate the Company’s IP technologies in the licensee’s products over the license term. In contracts with a minimum guarantee, the fixed fee component corresponds to a minimum number of units or dollars that the customer must produce or pay, with additional per-unit fees for any units or dollars exceeding the minimum. The Company generally recognizes the full fixed fee as revenue at the beginning of the license term when the customer has the right to use the IP and begins to benefit from the license, adjusted for the effect of any significant financing components calculated using borrower-specific, risk-adjusted interest rates, with the related interest income or expense being recognized over time on an effective rate basis. For minimum guarantee contracts where the customer exceeds the minimum, the Company recognizes revenue relating to any additional per-unit fees in the periods it believes the customer has exceeded the minimum and adjusts the revenue based on actual usage once that is reported by the customer.

Per-unit or per-subscriber Media IP or Semiconductor IP royalty licensing

The Company recognizes revenue from per-unit or per-subscriber IP royalty licenses in the period in which the licensee’s sales or production are estimated to have occurred, which results in an adjustment to revenue when actual sales or production are subsequently reported by the licensee, which is generally in the month or quarter following usage or shipment. Estimating customers’ monthly or quarterly royalties prior to receiving the royalty reports requires the Company to make significant assumptions and judgments related to forecasted trends and growth rates used to estimate quantities shipped or manufactured by customers, which could have a material impact on the amount of revenue it reports on a quarterly basis.

IP license contracts with multiple performance obligations

At times, the Company enters into long-term license contracts with more than one performance obligation, which may include releases from past patent infringement claims or one or more prospective licenses. In these arrangements, the Company allocates the transaction price between releases for past patent infringement claims and prospective licenses based on their relative standalone selling prices, which requires significant management judgment.

In determining the standalone selling price of each performance obligation, the Company considers such factors as the number of past and projected future subscribers, units shipped, and units manufactured, as well as the per-subscriber or per-unit licensing rates the Company generally receives from licensees of comparable sizes in comparable markets and geographies.

As a release from past patent infringement claims is generally satisfied at execution of the contract, the transaction price allocated to the release from past patent infringement claims is generally recognized in the period the contract is executed. Transaction price allocated to prospective Media IP licenses is recognized ratably over the license term, and transaction price allocated to prospective Semiconductor IP licenses is recognized upon execution of the contract.

Practical Expedients and Exemptions

The Company applies a practical expedient to not perform an evaluation of whether a contract includes a significant financing component when the timing of revenue recognition differs from the timing of cash collection by one year or less.

The Company applies a practical expedient to expense costs to obtain a contract with a customer as incurred as a component of selling, general and administrative expenses when the amortization period would have been one year or less.

The Company applies a practical expedient when disclosing revenue expected to be recognized from unsatisfied performance obligations to exclude contracts with customers with an original duration of less than one year; amounts attributable to variable consideration arising from (i) a sales-based or usage-based royalty of an intellectual property license or (ii) when variable consideration is allocated entirely to a wholly unsatisfied performance obligation; or to a wholly unsatisfied promise to transfer a distinct good or service that forms part of a single performance obligation.