RealD Plan to Commercialize ‘Intelligent Backlight’ Off Table for 2015

RealD’s plan by 2015 to commercialize "intelligent backlight" technology for smartphones and tablets through third-party licensees is off the table now that the company has begun evaluating options for restructuring its research and development operations, spokesman Rick Heineman emailed us Monday. "Given we are in the middle of this evaluation process we are not providing updates on our timelines." The restructuring goal will be reducing future R&D "capital outlays," partnering with "outside third parties to speed the path to commercialization" and maximizing the company’s "future economic participation," CEO Michael Lewis said on a quarterly earnings call Monday. "We expect the outcome of this process to result in a further streamlining of our organization and additional efficiencies in our cost structure." RealD is "extremely serious about our cost reductions," Lewis warned. Two quarters ago (see 1406060056), Lewis described the intelligent backlight initiative, developed in RealD’s R&D lab in Boulder, Colorado, as "a collective technology that has both benefits to stereoscopic viewing as well as the added benefit of power savings." RealD expects "to have a product with partners available in the marketplace and start to generate revenue in calendar 2015," Lewis said then, refusing to answer other questions about the initiative. RealD thinks its looming R&D restructuring will enhance shareholder value, so the RealDs board has decided unanimously "not to pursue" the offer from New York investment firm Starboard Value to buy the company and take it private, Lewis said Monday. Starboard doesn’t think RealD "is best positioned to execute against its future opportunities as a public company," the company said last month when it made the offer (see 1410030027). But RealD thinks its low market value "does not adequately reflect the strength of our core cinema platform and upcoming film slate," or "the value inherent" in its patent portfolio and the changes being made to reduce R&D expenses, Lewis said Monday.