CC Notes at Needham - 1/14/14
- Earnings will be reported on 2/27. They will provide a 2014 revenue forecast at that time.
- They said the Galaxy S5 will be a 5.6" AMOLED display. That is larger than recent reports, not sure if he has the size correct - hope so.
- If anyone were to develop a blue phosp. emitter it would violate UDC's patents.
- It would be impossible to develop an OLED device using just the single patent invalidated in Europe.
- They have 5 OLED lighting license agreements but all are on pilot lines, they need someone to build a Gen5-type line to get the costs down.
- Discussed the Samsung agreement at length, said the invalidating of patents in other jurisdictions does not negate the agreement. Further said if there were redacted portions of the agreement that allowed for this type of thing they would be required to disclose it in their risk factors.
- Stated their core portfolio of phosph. patents run through 2020 and you could not make a phosp. OLED device without violating them. They further believe they have architectural patents that will extend their licensing beyond 2020. On the materials patents, re-iterated the example of the new green emitter patent running through 2029.
- Said research they fund at the various Universities is for 3-5 years down the road, while the research they do in-house at UDC is near term - today and over the next several years.
- Believes in 2H2014 you will see higher volume, lower price OLED TV's. Expects new capacity and new manufacturers to come online in 2015. Said LG's Gen8 plant has a capacity of 28K substrates/month producing 6 TV's per substrate, so a fully functional run rate of 2M TV's.
- Said the cost differential for the 5" OLED displays Samsung is making is less than 10% greater than a high-end LCD.
- Said LG uses RGB in their mobile devices, including the flexible, mobile devices.
- They are continuing to enhance and perfect their emissive materials. The materials they are selling today will not be the ones they are selling in 3 years.
- Stated the LCD industry as a whole is operating at a loss, Samsung is the most profitable display company due to OLED. He used figures of -5% for LCD industry and +10% for Samsung, not sure of the context.
- Believes TV makers can get a 20-25% premium for OLED vs. LCD due to the picture quality.
