Quarterhill Inc T.QTRH

Thinking out loud

[wilander]

I also wonder if maybe there was a significant deal/acquisition to be done fitting well into ETC and Hill was nu-uh in the end, while Kidd was all for it. (we did raise $50 million for a reason) That discussion got heated and the question eventually became "what is our direction and how are we getting there and can I buy into it?"  and one had one way and the other another and an ultimatum was thrown out. And that Kidd, in the end, was the one who came out on top with the backing of the board.

If so I would like to think that some moving parts wont be put on hold and may even excelerate them. Particularly since the hiring is internal rather than a complete outsider.  Normally I would excpect many many months for a new guy to get settled in before any substantial moves/acquisitions happen.  This may not be the case with this scenerio.

[whaler83]

no need to settle in. Quarterhill is now ETC.  lets move this thing forward and get Wilan sold ASAP

[cabbieJBJ]

Wilander, I agree that it is unlikely that there will be a hiatus in QTRH's M&A plan as a result of the C-Suite change.  The reorg was bound to happen within the next 12 months imo, although some catalyst may have triggered it yesterday.  A more likely trigger was divergent POVs on the divestiture of Wilan - or at least the timing.  As all posters here know, that topic drew

[whaler83]

i imagine even Wilan was not privy to this information. They were buying patents as of recently.

[cabbieJBJ]

Whaler, not buying. Signing partnership deals. Wilan has bought very few patents since 2017.

[Lagger95]

Obviously there was a power struggle with Hill and Kidd. No reason to believe that Hill was hesitant to pull the trigger on any deals. They said the plan is the same.  Could just as easily (and more likely in my opinion) be that Kidd didn't want to play second fiddle and would leave if he didn't get the job. ETC is a much larger part of QTRH.

[cabbieJBJ]

not likely larger. Kidd signed a contract as part of the acquisition and was locked in. If there was a policy disagreement it was more likely between Hill and the BoD. That said, there may not have been any disagreement; it may simply have been time, or near time, to move to the next stage. Gillberry used a relay race analogy and described it as passing the baton. Once the decision was made to

[pcyl21]

I have been thinking also. The whole thing seems like Quarterhill is merging into ETC instead of acquiring it. New CEO came in for ETC and promoted to CEO of QTRH in short time under strategic change. Wilan to be sold, QTRH head office integrated with ETC and moved south? Will IRD be integrated with ETC later and go south too? What would happen to the present BOD, move south or be resolved? Kidd

[cabbieJBJ]

pcyl, the only thing I'd like to point out is that there will be no change in the strategy. Gillberry said so unequivocally yesterday. What has changed is the pace and size of the possible acquisitions, based on the amount generated from the sale of Wilan versus tapping into the projected $30M/year EBIDTA. A corollary benefit is the elimination of ~$10M per year in corporate overhead.

[onlygame]

I keep seeing the $10mil/yr in corporate overhead savings. What about the litigation expenses that would also be eliminated. Just looking at the the 2021 Q3 P&L, Cost of Licensing was just over $16mil for 3 Q's. Couldn't that be extrapolated to ~$21mil for the year. Then in the previous year, 2020, cost of licensing was extremely high $41mil over 3 Q's. Depreciation and

[whaler83]

$1/shr in savings

[Justhalffull]

But of course.  However, the whole Wi-Lan model has been to have several quarters of losses and then a big patent infringement hit.  Just look at the patent revenue numbers.  Lumpy is what rthey used.  That's the way it works.  Sure you eliminate the legal expenses, but you also lose the periodic wins.  And I just want one more.  APPLE

[v_guerriero]

I do get the sense that the Quarterhill parent structure was not attractive to continue the M&A path.  Maybe we lost out on an M&A deal and that was feedback to Quarterhill. [What no one has mentioned, is that the lack of an orderly transition, there is the potential that there could have been a code of conduct breach.  We will see at the next quarterly release if there isn

[Joey67]

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