sctovc
UNITES STATES
SECURITIES AND EXCHANGE COMMISSION
Washington, D.C. 20549
SCHEDULE TO
Tender Offer Statement under Section 14(d)(1) or 13(e)(1)
of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934
WIDERTHAN CO., LTD.
(Name of Subject Company (issuer))
REALNETWORKS, INC.
RN INTERNATIONAL HOLDINGS B.V.
(Names of Filing Persons (identifying status as offeror, or other person))
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Common Stock, par value KRW 500 per share |
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American Depositary shares, as evidenced by American depositary receipts, each
representing one common share |
(Title of Class of Securities)
The Common Stock, which is not traded on U.S. markets, has not been assigned a CUSIP number.
The CUSIP number for the related American Depositary Shares is 967593104.
(CUSIP Number of Class of Securities)
Robert
Kimball, Senior Vice President, Legal and Business Affairs, General Counsel and Corporate Secretary
RealNetworks, Inc.
2601 Elliott Avenue, #1000
Seattle, Washington 98121
(206) 674-2700
(Name, address, and telephone numbers of person authorized to receive notices and communications on
behalf of filing persons)
Copies of all Communications should be sent to:
Patrick J. Schultheis, Esq.
Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati Professional Corporation
701 Fifth Avenue, Suite 5100
Seattle, WA 98104-7036
(206) 883-2500
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* A filing fee is not required in connection with this filing as it relates solely to preliminary
communications made before the commencement of a tender offer.
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Check the box if any part of the fee is offset as provided by Rule 0-11(a)(2) and identify the
filing with which the offsetting fee was previously paid. Identify the previous filing by
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third-party tender offer subject to Rule 14d-1. |
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SEC2559(6-05)
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Persons who respond to the collection of information contained in this form are not required to
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Conference Call Transcript
RNWK RealNetworks to Acquire WiderThan for $350 Million
Event Date/Time: Sep. 12. 2006 / 2:00PM PT
CORPORATE PARTICIPANTS
Michael Eggers
RealNetworks, Inc. SVP and CFO
Rob Glaser
RealNetworks, Inc. Chairman and CEO
S.J. Park
WiderThan Co., Ltd. CEO
John Giamatteo
RealNetworks, Inc. EVP Worldwide Products and Solutions and International Operations
Hoseok Kim
WiderThan Co., Ltd. CFO
Vern Poyner
WiderThan Co., Ltd. CEO WiderThan Americas
CONFERENCE CALL PARTICIPANTS
Jennifer Connelly
Goldman Sachs Analyst
Aaron Kessler
Piper Jaffray Analyst
Sterling Auty
JPMorgan Analyst
Derrick Wood
Pacific Growth Equities Analyst
Steven Frankel
Canaccord Adams Analyst
Heath Terry
Credit Suisse First Boston Analyst
Sasa Zorovic
Oppenheimer & Co. Analyst
Kit Spring
Stifel Nicolaus Analyst
Scott Kessler
Standard & Poors Equity Analyst
John Bright
Avondale Partners Analyst
PRESENTATION
Operator
Ladies and gentlemen, thank you for standing by and welcome to this RealNetworks Conference
Call. [OPERATOR INSTRUCTIONS.] As a reminder, this conference is being recorded today, Tuesday,
September 12, 2006.
I would now like to turn the conference over Mr. Eggers. Please go ahead, Mr. Eggers.
Michael Eggers - RealNetworks, Inc. SVP and CFO
Thank you, operator, and thank you everyone for joining us on our call today.
Id like to note that there is a slide presentation that will accompany this call. For those of you
calling in, the presentation is available for download from our website or, for those of you
listening on the web, it will be integrated into our webcast. Both the slide presentation and
webcast can be accessed from our website at http://investor.realnetworks.com.
As a reminder, during the course of this call we may make forward-looking statements that involve
risks, uncertainties and assumptions. If such risks or uncertainties materialize or such
assumptions prove incorrect, the results of RealNetworks, WiderThans, and their respective
consolidated subsidiaries could differ materially from those expressed or implied by such
forward-looking statements and assumptions.
All statements, other than statements of historical fact, are statements that could be deemed
forward-looking statements, including the expected benefits and costs of the transaction,
management plans relating to the transaction, the expected timing of the completion of the
transaction, the ability to complete the transaction considering the various closing conditions,
including those conditions related to regulatory matters, any projections of earnings, revenues,
synergies, accretions, margins, or other financial items relating to RealNetworks or WiderThan, the
expected global market of Ringback Tones and Music on Demand, any statements of the plans,
strategies and objectives of management for future operations, including the execution of
integration plans, any statements of expectation or belief, and any statements of assumptions
underlying any of the foregoing.
Risks, uncertainties and assumptions include the possibility that expected benefits may not
materialize as expected; risks related to the timing or ultimate completion of the transaction;
that, prior to the completion of the transaction, WiderThans business or RealNetworks business
may not perform as expected due to uncertainty; that the parties are unable to successfully
implement integration strategies; and other risks that are described from time to time in
RealNetworks and WiderThans Securities and Exchange Commission reports and other filings,
including but not limited to the risks described in RealNetworks Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q for
the fiscal quarter ended June 30, 2006, and other reports filed after RealNetworks Annual Report
on Form 10-K for the fiscal year ended December 31, 2005, and WiderThans Annual Report on Form
20-F for the fiscal year ended December 31, 2005. RealNetworks assumes no obligation and do not
intend to update these forward-looking statements.
In this call, we will make reference to certain non-GAAP financial measures, including adjusted
EBITDA. The reconciliation of this non-GAAP measure to the most directly comparable GAAP measure
can be found in our press release, which was filed on EDGAR on Form 8-K, and is posted on our
website, at www.realnetworks.com.company.press. The slides presented accompanying this conference
call, as well as statements we make during this call are for informational purposes only and are
not an offer to buy or the solicitation of an offer to sell any securities. The solicitation and
the offer to buy WiderThans common shares and American depository shares will only be made
pursuant to an offer to purchase and related materials that RealNetworks intends to file with the
Securities and Exchange Commission.
WiderThans stock holders and other investors should read the tender offer statement, the offer to
purchase and related materials carefully because they contain important information, including the
terms and conditions of the tender offer. Once filed, WiderThans stockholders and other investors
will be obtain copies of the tender offer statement on schedule TO, the Offer to Purchase and
related documents without charge from the Securities and Exchange Commission through the
Commissions website at www.sec.gov.
Stockholders and other investors are urged to read carefully those materials prior to making any
decisions with respect to the offer.
Here with me on the call today at RealNetworks headquarters is Rob Glaser, Chairman and CEO of
RealNetworks; Hoseok Kim, CFO of WiderThan; and joining us from Los Angeles at the CTIA conference
is John Giamatteo, Executive Vice President of Worldwide Business Products and Services and
International Operations of RealNetworks; S.J. Park, CEO of WiderThan; and Vern Poyner, CEO of
WiderThan Americas.
Id like to start of the call with a brief description of our announced acquisition of WiderThan
and then turn things over to Rob and S.J. and John to talk about WiderThans business and what this
acquisition means for RealNetworks. Today we are pleased to announce a definitive agreement under
which RealNetworks will acquire WiderThan, a leading provider of integrated mobile music and
entertainment solutions, through a cash tender offer for $17.05 per share, or approximately $350
million.
WiderThan has approximately $90 million of cash and cash equivalent resulting gin a net purchase
price of approximately $260 million. At the end of our second quarter RealNetworks had cash, net of
our debt, of approximately $669 million. As a result, the net purchase price of this acquisition
represents less than 40% of our net cash at June 30th.
Id also like to remind everyone that, in addition to our cash on hand, we expect to receive up to
$185 million in additional payments related to our agreements with Microsoft through the first
quarter of 2007.
Additionally, we expect this transaction to be completed during the first quarter of 2007 and we
expect this acquisition to be accretive in 2007, excluding acquisition charges.
With that summary of the transaction, Id now like to turn things over to Rob.
Rob Glaser - RealNetworks, Inc. Chairman and CEO
Well, thank you all and thank everyone for joining us. And I want to thank the group down in
Los Angeles as well. Im now on slide 5. And what we will do for those of you that are not
following along on the internet, is we will say the slide numbers as John Giamatteo and I go
through the presentation so that to make it easier for you to follow along.
As you see here, our agenda for the rest of this is John rather I and S.J. Park, the CEO of
WiderThan, are going to make a few introductory comments. Then were going to have a discussion led
by John Giamatteo explaining to the audience some information about WiderThan that we think is
especially relevant for this audience, and hopefully youll get a sense of why weve gotten so
excited about this joining forces.
Then Ill take back the microphone and talk about that in more detail, where we see the
opportunities for synergy and then well open it up for Q&A for the audience to talk to either the
three of us here in Seattle or the three participants that are live in Los Angeles.
Just where to start. We got to know the team at WiderThan over the past 5, 6 months. And it is
really an outstanding team that has done an amazing job, first starting in Korea and then in the
United States and North America, in pioneering amazing applications that are very much in and sort
of consistent with the philosophy of the innovative products and services that RealNetworks has
been developing and delivering for about a dozen years now. And so for us, the more we got to know
each other, the better we liked the team at WiderThan and the more excited we got about he prospect
of putting this together.
This is our first public-to-public transaction. Its the largest acquisition weve done in our
history. So, in terms of the amount of rigor that we put into looking into this and getting to know
each other and figuring out all the dynamics. I think that its fair to say that weve taken this
very, very seriously and very rigorously, and we couldnt be more enthusiastic based on all of
that. And Ill have more to say about that later.
Now, I want to turn things over to S.J. Park, whose been outstanding to work with, for a few
comments from his perspective. S.J.?
S.J. Park - WiderThan Co., Ltd. CEO
Thank you for your kindness, Rob. On behalf of the 415 employees of WiderThan I want to tell
you how excited we are to be joining the RealNetworks family. [Inaudible] WiderThan is a highly
innovative company. WiderThan was founded in year 2000 and, since then, has pioneered a number of
innovative entertainment solutions for the mobile platform such as the worlds first Ringback
service and [inaudible] Music on Demand service such as Verizons VCast Music and [inaudible]. We
look forward to collaborating with our new colleague at Real to deliver exciting [inaudible] to
consumers around the world.
Rob Glaser - RealNetworks, Inc. Chairman and CEO
Well, thank you, S.J. for that. Now, let me turn things over to John Giamatteo, whos starting
on slide 6, will take you all through what our perspective on WiderThan and what weve learned
during the last several months. John?
John Giamatteo - RealNetworks, Inc. EVP Worldwide Products and Solutions and International
Operations
Thanks, Rob. Good afternoon, everyone, and thanks for joining us today.
Id like to take you on a little through a little more detail on who WiderThan is and why were
so excited about joining forces with them. So, were on slide 6 now.
WiderThan is a leading provider of Ringback Tones, Music on Demand and other mobile entertainment
services. The Company has a broad carrier footprint, providing deeply integrated services to more
than 50 wireless carriers in 25 countries, including SK Telecom in Korea, Verizon, T-Mobile, Sprint
and Cingular in the U.S., RT Airtel in India, and Globe Telecom in the Philippines, to name a few.
WiderThan has a rich technology background and history of innovation, including helping SK Telecom
launch one of the worlds first commercial Ringback Tone services, and a leading end-to-end mobile
Music on Demand service. WiderThan has a long history of delivering strong financial results, with
a high proportion of recurring revenues with scaleable margins. They achieved profitability in 2001
and have been incrementally profitable ever since.
Now, let me tell you a little bit more about this history, so please proceed to the next slide, 7.
The company was formed in Korea in 2000 and has a long-standing strategic relationship with SK
Telecom. Korea is arguably the most advanced wireless market in the world, and the Company strategy
has been to innovate and deploy services in Korea and then, upon consumer adoption, export those
products globally.
Examples of these have been the Ringback Tone and Music on Demand services, which I said were
initially launched in Korea and now successfully deployed around the world.
They successfully entered the U.S. market through the purchase of Ztango in 2004 and IPOd on the
NASDAQ in December of 2005.
They established a world-class team of over 470 employees, comprising of 290 in Korea, 150 in the
U.S., and approximately 30 in the rest of the world. Most of these talented employees work within
the carrier application services business. Next slide, please.
Carrier application services make up 69% of WiderThans total revenues. These revenues are
inclusive of Ringback Tones, which have achieved 16.9 million subscribers to date; Music on Demand,
with two Tier I carriers announced and many more to come; and their Inter-Carrier Messaging, which
allows two-way messaging across SMS systems of mobile network operators.
Now, let me take you through Ringback Tones and Music on Demand in a little more detail. The next
slide, please.
For those of you who havent experience Ringback Tones yet, let me provide just a brief
description. When a caller initiates a call, the carrier directs the call to WiderThans servers
which then plays music or speech that the receiver of the call has selected and the caller hears
until the receiver picks up the call and is connected. This allows a subscriber to personalize
their wireless service. A subscriber can set certain songs for particular callers or establish
rules to play certain songs at certain times of the day, all of which help the subscriber express
themselves through their wireless service.
Since Ringback Tones express the subscribers personality, the service has been self-marketing and
has had a history of rapid uptake, especially since the service is network based and is not
dependent on certain types of handsets.
WiderThan has proven the economics of Ringback Tones in Korea and uptake around the world has been
encouraging. In fact, ABI estimates that the global Ringback Tone market will rise from $65 million
in 2005 to $2.5 billion in 2009.
In terms of penetration rates, SK Telecom has achieved and maintained a penetration rate of
approximately 43% of its subscriber base. The rest of the world is still in its infancy with a 6%
average penetration. And based on a cross-section of analyst reports, we believe there is high
growth potential in this area. Next slide, please.
Beyond Ringback Tones, we think the next growth engine in wireless entertainment will be Music on
Demand. The global MOD market is poised for explosive growth and WiderThan is well positioned to
exploit is.
ABI projects a $4.8 billion market over the next three years from the current $250 million.
WiderThans first deployed carrier customer was SK Telecom in late 2004 and, by June 2006, SK
Telecoms Music on Demand service had over 770,000 paying monthly subscribers and over 5.7 million
users.
Verizon recently launched their Music on Demand service, VCast Music, over WiderThans
infrastructure in January 2006. Verizon Wireless recently announced that they now have a VCast
Music catalog that boasts more than 1.3 million songs from thousands of artists from top labels and
independent providers. Again, all over WiderThans robust infrastructure.
WiderThan and SK Telecom are but two of the key customers Verizon and SK Telecom are two of the
key customers of WiderThan. Next slide, please.
As I mentioned, WiderThan started the business with a close relationship with SK Telecom, and
theyve successfully diversified and expanded their customer base around the world and now have a
tremendous opportunity to continue to grow by increasing usage of their current products and
services among their existing carrier customer base, and through the introduction of new products.
In total, they serve more than 50 wireless carriers in over 25 countries. This is very impressive
for a company whos been operating for just over six years. Next slide, please.
WiderThans services, such as Ringback Tones Music on Demand and Messaging often reside in the
critical call control path, so they must be completely reliable. This requires deep integration
with their carrier partners networks and a high level of trust.
Building on that trust, they offer a closely aligned business model that scales. As carrier
customers successfully grow their subscriber bases and usage of their products, WiderThan shares in
this business success. Next slide, please.
Were now on slide 13, WiderThan Financial Summary.
WiderThan, with its pioneering products has participated in the rapid growth associated with
advanced wireless data services. The Company ended 2005 with $101.4 million in annual revenue, a
61% increase from 2004. For the first half of 2006, revenue were $61.9 million, an increase of 39%
over the same period in 2005.
Furthermore, the Companys revenues have grown at a 31% annualized cumulative annual growth rate
over the past four years. We believe the Companys business model is highly scalable. In fact,
WiderThan has demonstrated significant improved operating income as their business has grown and
scaled.
Adjusted net income, which excludes non-cash stock compensation expense, grew 69% in 2005 to $11.8
million. Adjusted net income has grown at an annualized cumulative annual growth rate of 84% since
2002. In addition, adjusted EBITDA grew 61% to $18.8 million in 2005. The Companys operating
margin in 2005 was approximately 15%. I think youll all agree WiderThans financial results are
very compelling in their own right.
Now, let me pass things back to Rob, who will further expand upon our rationale for the acquisition
and some of the synergies we expect to gain. Rob?
Rob Glaser - RealNetworks, Inc. Chairman and CEO
Thanks, John.
So, I think you probably have a sense of why this is a great company. What Im going to try and do
now is connect the great work that WiderThans been doing with the work that RealNetworks has been
doing and talking about how we see the dots being connected.
And I do want to point out that the timing of this integration, of course, is subject to the
completion of the tender offer. And as we had mentioned, that concludes we believe during the first
quarter of 2007. So, what Im going to describe now is the going forward strategy, as long as you
put it in that sort of temporal context.
We think the combined companies have a great opportunity for a couple different kinds of synergy.
The first is product synergy with mobile carriers worldwide. John talked in some sense of detail
about the RBT and MOD work that WiderThans done.
We, in our technology products business, have increasingly been moving to a model of carrier
services offerings. Probably the most visibly the work that weve done with Cingular powering their
Cingular video. So, we have a robust functioning in the field Video on Demand end-to-end system
that is in parallel, I would say, in function to the Music on Demand offering that WiderThan has
already created and deployed, both in the U.S. and in Korea. So, theres a very sort of a common
approach and very complementary product areas there.
Where generally, weve done a lot of work over the last several years in the carrier space. There
are well over 50 million handsets that have our Helix technology in them. We have I think close to
100 carriers that have deployed our technology.
So, we have a very fertile opportunity to go to mobile carriers around the world who have deployed
our Helix technology and say, hey, weve got this really rich portfolio where we can offer
end-to-end integrated services. We can offer technology. And then also, theres a common heritage
in games. We have our very successful PC games business that were moving into the mobile games
area. WiderThan also has a set of mobile games. So, I think immediately we become a leading
provider of a wide range of mobile entertainment services for carriers.
And I say mobile carriers here on this slide, on slide 14, but I think this extends not just to
mobile carriers, but also to wireline carriers. For instance, what were doing with TelNex within
Real and what weve done historically with Comcast. So, our view is that theres an opportunity to
broaden this mix of products, the geographic scope, and even the types of carriers that we engage
in. And thats sort of within the technology sort of approach, where we offer an end-to-end
solution thats technology-based, that gets marketed in an integrated way with carriers.
We also have a big presence in fact, it still is the majority of our company thats focusing
on delivering services directly to consumers. And probably the greatest area of synergy between the
two entities as we join forces is in the music area. Its clear that, at the end of the day,
consumers want great music experiences in whatever mode of their wire, on their PC, on their
portable MP3 player and on their mobile phone.
So, to be able to offer rich solutions that span those different devices, those different network
architectures, those different methods of media delivery, we think is very, very valuable. Clearly,
this is something that plays out over time because we work closely with the carrier partners to
deliver forms of our solutions that they like.
Theres a common sort of approach. We support the Microsoft Windows Media DRM as one of our DRMs.
Thats the DRM thats been used, for instance, in Verizon VCast Music. So, theres a lot of
complementarity in the technology, as well as a lot of innovative end-to-end music technology that
weve been developing here at Real for many years.
So, thats one of these areas where theres a lot of sort of integration planning to doing around
product plans, bringing partners in. So, it plays out more over time but we see great opportunity
for synergy there.
And then the final point, which I think is I talked to a little bit in my initial comments, but
I think its very important to stay focused on that. The cultures we believe are very compatible.
And theyre very they are geographically different. We have operations in many countries around
the world, but we have not historically had a large operation in Korea. And of course, the
majority, about two-thirds of the staff, of WiderThan are based in Korea.
But, when we sit down sat down when our CTO sat down with WiderThans CTO, when our product
teams sat down together, we found that there was a common heartbeat, a common pulse and a common
approach.
Indeed, turning to slide 15, and I certainly dont intend to read all of these things. But, if you
look at our Companys nearly 12-year history and WiderThans 6-year history, you can see a common
theme of delivering innovative solutions, often first to market, and delivering them in the case of
Real, either direct to consumers or with carrier partners. In the case of WiderThan, their focus
has been with carrier partners, but a similar kind of focus on end-to-end excellence.
So, its both about creating technology and delivering it in a form whereby creating an end-to-end
solution, that technology manifests itself in a great experience for consumers.
Going to slide 16, we see this complementarity on both the geographic level and on our lines of
business. One of the things that people have asked us who follow Real Networks is, well, youre
this technology business. What is the growth strategy for that business? And weve said one of our
primary strategies is carrier services. This turbo-charges carrier service to now being absolutely
a core business for the combined entity.
Youre looking at a combined company that, based on current run rate, is about $0.5 billion in
revenue, so thats clearly up to a level of scale in a critical mass that, frankly, it benefits our
customers, benefits our ability to continue to drive R&D efforts, and allows us to cross-fertilize
between our consumer facing efforts and carrier efforts, where we partner with carriers to deliver
solutions to consumers.
So, to really to summarize, and then in a minute or two well open this up for questions, the
acquisition weve set in motion today with a definitive agreement for $350 million. We think the
companies are a great fit. And the synergy opportunities on the product side, on the technology
side and on the marketing and customer facing side are truly outstanding.
So, I know I speak for the whole senior team here at Real that we are looking forward to beginning
integration planning immediately, and then integration as soon as we achieve that phase with our
new colleagues at WiderThan. To our colleagues around the world in WiderThan who are in the future,
we believe, going to join us within the integrated company, welcome.
And with that, operator, lets open things up for questions.
QUESTION AND ANSWER
Operator
Thank you. [OPERATOR INSTRUCTIONS.] Anthony Noto with Goldman Sachs.
Jennifer Connelly - Goldman Sachs Analyst
Hi. This is actually Jennifer Connelly in for Anthony. Just with respect to WiderThans
customers, is there any sort of customer concentration risk that you have? Can you talk about
percentage of your revenues thats generated by SK Telecom or Verizon? And is there any change of
control provision in the contract?
Rob Glaser - RealNetworks, Inc. Chairman and CEO
Well, I will let Hoseok, the WiderThan [CO] speak to the percentage thats most recently been
announced. But, I would point out that one of the values of our joining forces is you take a
company where there was a in the case of WiderThan, 100 million or a forecast this year to be
doing 127 or 132. And theyve done an outstanding job of diversifying away. But, what you ended up
here is, on an exit basis, where the concentration ends up being less than 20% of the combined
company. So clearly, one of the advantages of this transaction is the diversification across the
board.
I will also further say that you notice theres an SK Telecom quote in the press release that we
put out. We have spent a lot of time meeting with and spending time with the team at SK Telecom to
both understand the nature of the relationship between SK Telecom and WiderThan, and also to
develop our own nascent, but I think burgeoning relationship with the key executives at SK Telecom.
And we view that as something that was extremely important for all three sides to understand and
feel good about. And I think we feel very, very good about where that stands.
Hoseok, do you want to speak to the concentration question from a WiderThan standpoint?
Hoseok Kim - WiderThan Co., Ltd. CFO
Sure. WiderThan has various strategy relations with SK Telecom since our incorporation. So,
during the second quarter year 2006, we have about 62% of the revenue from SK Telecom. But as I
mentioned, we have a very structured relationship with SK Telecom since our incorporation. So, we
believe that with [inaudible] that our relationship with SK Telecom will not be changed. And even
further, we believe that because of synergy we can bring to the SK Telecom our relationship with SK
Telecom will be deepened going forward.
Rob Glaser - RealNetworks, Inc. Chairman and CEO
Next question, operator.
Operator
Paul Bieber with Piper Jaffray.
Aaron Kessler - Piper Jaffray Analyst
Hi. Its Aaron Kessler. A couple of questions. One, has WiderThan seen any regulatory issues
in the past? A couple of the wireless services companies, especially in the Asia area, have seen
regulatory issues. Also, has there been any gross margin contraction? Thats also been an issue
that weve seen recently with some of those companies as well. Thank you.
Rob Glaser - RealNetworks, Inc. Chairman and CEO
Ill let me pass things back again to Hoseok. But just to be clear, the main part of
WiderThans business is in Korea. And my perception is that most of the issues that weve seen in
the wireless sector have been in China, which is not an area that WiderThan has substantial
exposure to.
So with that, Hoseok, why dont you speak to what youve said previously about margin compression
and other dynamics within WiderThans business in Asia.
Hoseok Kim - WiderThan Co., Ltd. CFO
You mean the margin compression in Asia?
Rob Glaser - RealNetworks, Inc. Chairman and CEO
Yes. Yes.
Hoseok Kim - WiderThan Co., Ltd. CFO
Actually, from the historic perspective, our margin has been increasing continuously. Because
our focus in the carrier [inaudible] services, which brings the scalability and the record revenue
to us. And then we brought that structures with the Ringback Tone first in year 2002. And then in
year 2004 we introduced Music on Demand. Both services are carrier [inaudible] services which are
recording as scaleable. And then we believe that, because of introduction of those carrier
[inaudible] services, we believe that our gross margin will be keep expanded going forward.
Michael Eggers - RealNetworks, Inc. SVP and CFO
Next question, Operator.
Operator
Sterling Auty with JPMorgan.
Sterling Auty - JPMorgan Analyst
Yes. Thanks, guys. I was also wondering about the other relationships that WiderThan has,
specifically with VeriSign on the inter-carrier messaging. And if theres any change of control or
if that if youve reached out to VeriSign, as well as is there any breakup fee with the deal?
Rob Glaser - RealNetworks, Inc. Chairman and CEO
On the breakup fee, Michael, why dont you speak to that. And then if we have Vern Poyner on
the line in L.A., maybe Vern can speak to some of the U.S. operations. So, go ahead.
Michael Eggers - RealNetworks, Inc. SVP and CFO
Oh, in terms of the breakup fee, we arent disclosing any specifics around the transaction
today. Well be filing our tender offer documents through the standard SEC public filings in the
coming days. And so, that will have the information investors need for understanding the
transaction better.
Rob Glaser - RealNetworks, Inc. Chairman and CEO
We did say in our press release that already 44% of the shares have been tendered. So, we feel
very good about this transaction and have worked very rigorously, methodically, to put together all
the right structures that are appropriate for a Korean company thats listed on the NASDAQ and that
has the set of operational dynamics that it does.
With regard to the inter-carrier messaging business, I dont know, Hoseok or Vern, if you want to
speak to that?
Vern Poyner - WiderThan Co., Ltd. CEO WiderThan Americas
Yes. As long as I know, we dont have any kind of restriction because of this acquisition.
Michael Eggers - RealNetworks, Inc. SVP and CFO
Next question, operator.
Operator
Derrick Wood with Pacific Growth Equities.
Derrick Wood - Pacific Growth Equities Analyst
Hi. I had a question on the competitive landscape going forward. You know, WiderThan has
strong relationships with Verizon, T-Mobile in the Ringback Tone and I think Cingular and Sprint in
the SMS market. And you guys have Cingular and Sprint as well. How do you think this changes your
competitive positioning as you have a pretty good foothold into the wireless market? And then also,
can you just give us a timeline of whats needed on the integration of the products and when you
think theyll be fully integrated? Thanks.
Rob Glaser - RealNetworks, Inc. Chairman and CEO
Well, Ill take a shot at the first part of the question and then Ill the integration. And
obviously, itll be a timeline question that maybe Michael can speak to from a security standpoint,
because obviously we cant fully integrate until the tender offers completed.
In terms of the carrier position, it was really like serendipity that we found out that the
carriers that we have the closest relationship with are Cingular and Sprint, and we found out that
the carriers in the U.S. that WiderThan has close relationships are Verizon and T-Mobile. So, wow.
Weve got two of the top four and theyve have two of the top four. I mean, how wonderful is that?
We take each of these relationships very seriously, which is to say we dont take anything for
granted. We firewall all information that is customer-specific. We work hard to be an excellent
service provider.
Its a kind of thing where each of the carriers benefits from the economies of scale of having
great technology that gets created and that can be amortized over a large base of carriers.
So, we think that theres clearly a geographic synergy there because these products are created and
theres significant R&D put into them that gets amortized around the world. And that happens in the
geographic sectors as well. And we hold the belief that this provides opportunity for us to provide
additional services into both the carriers that Real historically had close relationships with, and
the carriers that WiderThan had historically relationships with.
But, I think its fair to say that were announcing this in concurrence with the CTIA show in Los
Angeles where were just starting to have customer outreach, literally. Its a public-to-public
thing so we couldnt have a conversation with customers in advance of this. And in the days and
weeks ahead, hopefully well do a rigorous thorough job of communicating with the customers.
Michael, do you want to speak to the integration question vis-Ã -vis timeline?
Michael Eggers - RealNetworks, Inc. SVP and CFO
Sure. Ill talk about the integration a little bit. So, until the tender offer closes, we will
be continuing to operate as two independent companies. Of course, that being said, in anticipation
of the tender offer closing, we will be thinking about as we set forth our strategy and our plans
how that comes into play.
But at this point, we anticipate that the tender offer will close sometime in the first quarter of
2007. At that point then, of courser, full integration planning will take effect.
Rob Glaser - RealNetworks, Inc. Chairman and CEO
Next question, operator.
Operator
Steven Frankel with Canaccord Adams.
Steven Frankel - Canaccord Adams Analyst
Im going to try to sneak two questions in there. One is, could you describe who the chief
competitor is in Ringback and second, for Michael, is the deal likely to be dilutive in the initial
quarter and then accretive in total for the year, or do you think itll be accretive beginning in
that second quarter, assuming you close in Q1?
Rob Glaser - RealNetworks, Inc. Chairman and CEO
Michael, why dont you take the second one and then I think probably a combination of Hoseok
and John and I can talk about he competitive issues.
Michael Eggers - RealNetworks, Inc. SVP and CFO
Sure. In terms of the accretion standpoint, we our anticipation is it will be accretive
excluding the acquisition charges from the point of the acquisition going forward. So, that
accretion statement is indicated to be from the time that the deal closes going forward.
Hoseok Kim - WiderThan Co., Ltd. CFO
In terms of the competitive landscape in the Ringback Tone, actually, there are several system
providers, Ringback Tone system providers. But what youre providing is not just systems, but we
are providing end-to-end solution from the system to system operations. So, in terms of the
providing end-to-end solutions, we are very unique in the Ringback Tone position in this market.
Rob Glaser - RealNetworks, Inc. Chairman and CEO
Yes. I would just add and John may have a word to add about this in terms of the work that
weve seen with carriers we have no single competitor that we know of that offers the range of
products and services to mobile carriers in the music and audio and video area that we will offer,
the combined companies will offer. So, we think thats a source of potential competitive advantage.
But my experience with this is always, youve got to win in the trenches with the individual
products and services and then, if you have an opportunity to offer combined products and services.
For instance, imagine that it would be a really cool thing to have the playlist that you set and
have your whatever song is your new song that you buy on your MP3 player, all of a sudden you
have an option of having that become your Ringback Tone.
So, theres lot of opportunities for synergy that you could see that comes from the mix of
portfolio that we have. But, until we integrate and then start rolling those out, thats more sort
of conceptual in nature than three months from now we add that feature and here it is.
Now Vern I understand Vern Poyner, the CO of WiderThan Americas has just joined us. Do you want
to speak to the question thats come up about the competitive dynamics in the U.S. market?
John Giamatteo - RealNetworks, Inc. EVP Worldwide Products and Solutions and International
Operations
Rob, just because of the logistics of the room here, were having some trouble with the phone
by Vern. So, he couldnt quite hear the question around, but let me just repeat it real quickly.
Around competitive dynamics, Vern, what we feel just some of the landscape and some of our
differentiations might be as a result of all the assets that WiderThan brings to the table.
Vern Poyner - WiderThan Co., Ltd. CEO WiderThan Americas
Okay. I think from a combined company perspective, we really broaden out what we can bring to
the carrier space. I mean with the WiderThan has a strong history with ASP and Ringback Tone and
master tracks and Music on Demand. And with the RealNetworks expertise around games and the handset
clients and the consumer side, we really believe that were broadening greatly our assets and our
products and services that we can take to our existing customer base and new customers.
John Giamatteo - RealNetworks, Inc. EVP Worldwide Products and Solutions and International
Operations
And the other area that we feel pretty bullish about in terms of our joining forces from a
geographic coverage, I think the WiderThan teams done a phenomenal job establishing strong
leadership in North America. Weve got a pretty strong presence in Europe. And taking really the
best of both companies and expanding that out across the world is just another area of synergy that
were looking forward to benefiting from.
Vern Poyner - WiderThan Co., Ltd. CEO WiderThan Americas
Right. And I would add to that the Asia presence I think from WiderThan is very strong. And
then were also at WiderThan very excited about the Video on Demand services that will actually
give us another broadening of our offerings to the market.
Rob Glaser - RealNetworks, Inc. Chairman and CEO
Next question, operator.
Operator
Heath Terry from Credit Suisse.
Heath Terry - Credit Suisse First Boston Analyst
Great. Just one little logistics question. Which of your reporting segments do you expect the
business to fall into? And then if you could also talk a little bit about what you think the market
is going to grow at for this over the next few years that would be really helpful.
Michael Eggers - RealNetworks, Inc. SVP and CFO
Sure. Ill go ahead and take that first question, and then I think Rob had some information on
that that Ill let him address in terms of where we see this market going based on some data.
In terms of the reporting segment, we are obviously in combination going to look at how we do our
reporting forward. I would say, though, that this is most similar to what we think of as our
technology products and solutions segment today. And because, as you think about the carrier
relationships that they have and the relationships that we have with Cingular from a carrier
standpoint, those are classified in our technology products and services segment. And as you think
about the top line revenue, theres it seems to be the most likely fit with the top line in our
technology products and solutions segment.
Rob Glaser - RealNetworks, Inc. Chairman and CEO
With regard to the growth and some of this information is in our press release. I think
probably most of this is. Were focusing on the Ringback Tone market and the Music on Demand
market. In the case of the Music on Demand market, the ABI research suggests that the kicker will
be 109%. And ABIs data on RBT shows over a four year basis a kicker from 2005 to 2009 of 149%.
Those are very tall numbers for category kickers.
And the reason that I think that these are lets say theyre wrong by a factor of 2, where
theres just no growth markets. In Korea, the [inaudible] market has 43% penetration of consumers.
And even if you say, wow, it must have been marketed really well and its a demographic that loves
using new technologies and early adopters, in the U.S., the penetrations like 5%.
So, okay, what do you think its going to go to in a year? Do you think its going to go to 20%?
Well, thats a 4x of what it is today even though its less than half of Korea. You think its
going to go to 30%? Thats a 6x. Even come to 15% thats still a 3x.
So, you look at data like that and you say, wow, this is an outstanding opportunity. And that
certainly is what we saw. I know its what our colleagues and incoming partners at WiderThan feel.
And its a major part of the thesis as to why were here today.
With that, I thin next question, operator.
Operator
Sasa Zorovic with Oppenheimer.
Sasa Zorovic - Oppenheimer & Co. Analyst
Thank you. So, my question would be primarily around what is your plan to do sort of
operationalize the integration of the tow companies. So, RealNetworks hasnt really done
acquisition of this size really in the past. And you did say that they were going to you would
sort of have it sort of run somewhat separately. But then, where how are you is all the
management going to sort of stay in Korea versus the U.S.? Are you going to ultimately have it
really all done under one management here? What are really going to be the steps that you take in
order to make sure that it all kind of works out smoothly and the opportunities are captured here
without hiccups occurring along the way?
Rob Glaser - RealNetworks, Inc. Chairman and CEO
Well first, let me talk about the process, how we got here today. We have had a lot of effort
over the past four or five months for these two teams to get to know each other. Ive had the
opportunity to go to Korea. John, whos on the phone, has been four time. [Syd Forellis], our head
of HR has been three times. Several of the WiderThan executives have visited with us in various
locations around the world as well. Weve had teams out at the major WiderThan U.S. operations in
Virginia and New York. It turns out WiderThan also has an operation in Seattle. That one has been
easy to visit at.
So, I think we have put together a very rigorous process to get to know each other and to create
integration planning that is appropriate for this stage in discussions. We have reached agreements
with all the key leaders of the operations in both the United States and Seoul that we sought to.
So, we have an excellent foundation for integration planning and a high level of confidence that we
wont skip a beat, day one. It is our intent to keep the teams intact in their current locations
and to keep the missions as they are.
I think that the other point I would say is while this is by significant level the most
significant acquisition weve done in terms of the number of people, in terms of income and
revenue, a ratio of their revenue to our revenue, we have tried to learn from acquisitions that
weve done. For instance, when we did our Zylom acquisition, which we did earlier this year, we
actually took the mission of our PC Games business in Europe and put that team in charge of it. So,
Rutger Peters, the former CEO of Zylom, is the head of our PC Games business across all of Europe.
So, weve taken a very integrated approach to how we pull teams together.
I also draw great comfort from how WiderThan joined forces with a company called Ztango two years
ago. The reason that WiderThan has such great success in the U.S. is in no small part because they
did an excellent job of integrating that together. Thats how Vern, whos on this call, joined
forces with WiderThan.
And so, these are two organizations that have had good experiences in geographically disparate
integrations, have demonstrated an ability to be international, to be thoughtful and rigorous about
that. This is not a the old sort of computer associate style neutron bomb type of acquisition,
if you remember that. This is the opposite. Weve got great teams. We intend to keep the teams in
place. We intend to have them keep doing what were doing and we intend to drive the synergy from
driving more top line.
Next question.
Operator
Kit Spring with Stifel Nicolaus.
Kit Spring - Stifel Nicolaus Analyst
Hi, guys. Congratulations. First, can you talk a little bit about the sustainability of
revenues from some of the larger clients? Is there any risk of them doing some of these services
themselves as opposed to outsourcing it to you guys? And then if Michael could talk about how you
look at return on investment on the acquisition. Thanks.
Rob Glaser - RealNetworks, Inc. Chairman and CEO
I think on the first one, why dont we start with Vern and Hoseok on that and then well add
some John and I might add some thoughts on that. Because those guys have done a great job of
building long-term win/win relationships with carriers where the revenue scales for both the
carrier and for WiderThan.
Vern, Hoseok, you want to take the first half of that?
Vern Poyner - WiderThan Co., Ltd. CEO WiderThan Americas
From our perspective, a lot of these relationships were built over several years through a
series of implementations that were fairly complex. And a lot of trust has been built up.
So, we feel that with that work that we do, we get sort of in a very strategic position with our
clients and we are sort of jointly planning the next releases of the applications and the roadmaps
go out for many months. So, we feel very tightly integrated. We have a lot of trust built up.
So in that regard, I would expect that with this combination well be able to bring more innovation
and a wider portfolio of services that will let us continue and strengthen that path that were on
with our existing clients.
Hoseok Kim - WiderThan Co., Ltd. CFO
Yes. I think on Terrys comments Terrys comment, what we are providing is not just a
commodity system solutions. What were providing is the operation know how and the knowledge we are
accumulating in Korea so that the carriers increasing their [inaudible] not the savings and costs.
So, as long as we are providing the expertise and knowledge and operation know how to carriers, we
dont see the [inaudible] margin, or we dont think we have a sustainability issues going forward.
Michael Eggers - RealNetworks, Inc. SVP and CFO
And then Ill go ahead and take the question on return on investment.
So, we think this acquisition is a great value for both WiderThan and RealNetworks shareholders. To
reiterate, the first half revenue for WiderThan of 06 was $61.9 million, which has been on a great
growth trajectory. Their EBITDA for the first six months was $14.2 million. Thats also been on a
very nice growth trajectory where theyve been expanding their margins.
So, at the end of the day, we feel that this will provide good long term value to our shareholders
and we think that, in terms of the use of our capital, it really matches what weve been saying all
along since we had these [inaudible] for Microsoft in terms of looking at ways to deploy our
balance sheet and maximize shareholder return in that the acquisition meets a number of the
thresholds that we really look for in terms of it expands our geographic footprint. It gets us very
deep into Asia. It allows us to cross-leverage some of our partners and relationships. And also, it
is an accretive acquisition, excluding acquisition charges.
So from those perspectives, we think this is a great investment for RealNetworks shareholders. WE
think its a great deal for WiderThan shareholders.
Rob Glaser - RealNetworks, Inc. Chairman and CEO
And as I recall, there was one some analyst, I forgot who, who put out a note last week
saying he was skeptical we were going to do a big acquisition. So I guess there you go.
Next question, operator.
Operator
Scott Kessler with Standard & Poors Equity.
Scott Kessler - Standard & Poors Equity Analyst
Hi, thanks a lot. Two quick questions. Can you talk about any cost synergies that youre
thinking about relative to this transaction? I understand that you guys are looking more at a
growth structure. But on the other hand, its pretty obvious that WiderThan is strength in Asia.
RealNetworks has strong positioning in Europe. Perhaps there are some cost synergies to be had from
that perspective.
My second question is what have you guys at RealNetworks done to insure that WiderThans management
team is going to remain with RealNetworks after the deal is completed? Thanks a lot.
Rob Glaser - RealNetworks, Inc. Chairman and CEO
Well, I will say Im going to take the third one first. Our head of HR, Syd Forellis, didnt
just go take spend three trips in Korea because he like Korean barbecue, although I think hes
actually gotten to where he likes it a lot. And the hospitality of our colleagues in Seoul has been
phenomenal.
We put an extraordinary amount of care and rigor into the process of building relationships with
the current WiderThan team that, without going into specific confidential employment discussions,
we feel very, very good about the continuity and the leadership going forward in both the United
States and in Asia.
In terms of your question about synergy in Europe, WiderThan has a very, very small operation in
Europe, whereas RealNetworks has 180 people in Europe, plus or minus. I think WiderThan has three.
So, its not the case that theres five, Im sorry. Its not the case that theres a huge
organization in Europe that just generated 1% of the revenue. They were really just getting off the
ground in Europe.
So a lot this is a case where we looked rigorously, and Michael will speak to the areas like
G&A. But in general, this is a case where its like missing its like a different piece of the
jigsaw puzzle. And so you dont look and you say, wow, those are redundant operations. In fact,
quite the opposite. You say, wow, its almost its very surprising how complementary and
synergies and non-overlapping the operation and areas of strength are.
Now Michael, you want to speak to the areas where were going to be looking for cost synergies that
just to specific pinpoint a couple?
Michael Eggers - RealNetworks, Inc. SVP and CFO
Sure. And also to follow on some of your comments, Rob. I want to reiterate that we do expect
to maintain the employee base today as it exists. So, as we think about cost synergies, its some
of those areas that Rob mentioned in terms of leveraging each others footprints across the
geographies.
And additionally, its becoming more and more expensive for companies these days to become and
remain public companies with all the regulatory requirements on them. And so, weve obviously been
through our Sarbanes-Oxley requirements as an example, and so we think we can get some leverage
there by the combination of the two companies that much of our regulatory costs will be minimized.
We wont, of course, have a 100% reduction of costs, but we do think well have some savings there
in the G&A functions, and specifically in some of the regulatory areas.
Rob Glaser - RealNetworks, Inc. Chairman and CEO
So, I think weve got time for one more question. I know weve got an event that were going
to be doing out at CTIA in a few minutes. So operator, will take the final question, please?
Operator
And our final question today is coming from John Bright with Avondale Partners.
John Bright - Avondale Partners Analyst
Thank you. S.J., Hoseok, Vern, I guess as well, one question would be why now? How long have
the talks been going on and what really made the transaction come together today?
S.J. Park - WiderThan Co., Ltd. CEO
Actually, these talks has been six months. The reason why WiderThan decides to be acquired by
RealNetworks is combining WiderThan and then RealNetworks will bring the very strong long-term
growth and [inaudible] together. Thats why we decided to get together. And also, the WiderThan is
very focused on the mobile side. And then also the RealNetworks is focused on the consumer brand
the website. And then combined those two together we believe that we can bring the great ability to
our shareholders in long-term perspective.
Hoseok Kim - WiderThan Co., Ltd. CFO
This is Hoseok. I say we believe that both companies are market leaders will [inaudible]
tremendous benefit to not only the client, also the shareholders. So we believe that is right thing
for moving, more particularly for getting [inaudible].
Rob Glaser - RealNetworks, Inc. Chairman and CEO
Well, so I think that covers it today. I want to thank you all for getting on this call on the
short notice that we could establish. WE could not be more excited about this. And for those of you
that we dont get a chance to talk with again or not personally, well obviously have a lot more to
say about this at our regular quarterly earnings call. Of course, because WiderThan will continue
to be a public company, theyll do their customary earnings calls between now and the time we
complete he tender offer. So, therell be more opportunities for us to talk.
I want to thank everybody and just a final word. I want to thank the leadership of both teams
who worked hard together over the last five, six months to pull this day together. And this is a
very proud day in history for our company and I believe for both companies. And I want to thank
everybody on both sides for their incredibly hard work, high commitment and great efforts to get us
here today and look forward to an even more glorious future. Thanks a lot.
S.J. Park - WiderThan Co., Ltd. CEO
Thanks, everybody.
Operator
This concludes this RealNetworks conference call. You may access the replay of this conference
call on the RealNetworks website at http://investors.realnetworks.com. Thank you for your time and
we appreciate your interests in RealNetworks.
THIS
TRANSCRIPT IS FOR INFORMATIONAL PURPOSES ONLY AND IS NOT AN OFFER TO
BUY OR THE SOLICITATION OF AN OFFER TO SELL ANY SECURITIES. THE
SOLICITATION AND THE OFFER TO BUY WIDERTHAN COMMON SHARES AND
AMERICAN DEPOSITARY SHARES WILL ONLY BE MADE PURSUANT TO AN OFFER TO
PURCHASE AND RELATED MATERIALS THAT REALNETWORKS INTENDS TO FILE WITH
THE SECURITIES AND EXCHANGE COMMISSION. WIDERTHAN STOCKHOLDERS AND
OTHER INVESTORS SHOULD READ THE TENDER OFFER STATEMENT, THE OFFER TO
PURCHASE AND RELATED MATERIALS CAREFULLY BECAUSE THEY CONTAIN
IMPORTANT INFORMATION, INCLUDING THE TERMS AND CONDITIONS OF THE
TENDER OFFER. ONCE FILED, WIDERTHAN STOCKHOLDERS AND OTHER INVESTORS
WILL BE ABLE TO OBTAIN COPIES OF THE TENDER OFFER STATEMENT ON
SCHEDULE TO, THE OFFER TO PURCHASE AND RELATED DOCUMENTS
WITHOUT CHARGE FROM THE SECURITIES AND EXCHANGE COMMISSION THROUGH
THE COMMISSIONS WEB SITE AT WWW.SEC.GOV. STOCKHOLDERS
AND OTHER INVESTORS ARE URGED TO READ CAREFULLY THOSE MATERIALS PRIOR
TO MAKING ANY DECISIONS WITH RESPECT TO THE OFFER.
Forward-Looking
Statements
This
transcript contains forward-looking statements that involve risks,
uncertainties and assumptions. If such risks or uncertainties
materialize or such assumptions prove incorrect, the results of
RealNetworks, WiderThan and their respective consolidated
subsidiaries could differ materially from those expressed or implied
by such forward-looking statements and assumptions. All statements
other than statements of historical fact are statements that could be
deemed forward-looking statements, including the expected benefits
and costs of the transaction; management plans relating to the transaction; the expected timing
of the completion of the transaction; the ability to complete the transaction
considering the various closing conditions; any projections of
earnings, revenues, synergies, accretion, margins or other financial
items relating to WiderThan or RealNetworks; any statements of the
plans, strategies and objectives of management for future operations,
including the execution of integration plans; any statements of
expectation or belief; and any statements of assumptions underlying
any of the foregoing. Risks, uncertainties and assumptions include
the possibility that expected benefits may not materialize as
expected; risks related to the timing or ultimate completion of the
transaction; that, prior to the completion of the transaction,
WiderThans business or RealNetworks business may not
perform as expected due to uncertainty; that the parties are unable
to successfully implement integration strategies; and other risks
that are described from time to time in RealNetworks and
WiderThans Securities and Exchange Commission reports and other
filings, including but not limited to the risks described in
RealNetworks Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q for the fiscal
quarter ended June 30, 2006 and other reports filed after
RealNetworks Annual Report on Form 10-K for the fiscal
year ended December 31, 2005 and WiderThans Annual Report
on Form 20-F for the fiscal year ended December 31, 2005.
RealNetworks and WiderThan assume no obligation and do not intend to
update these forward-looking statements.