Cerence - Q2 2025

Executive Summary

• Q2 FY25 revenue of $78.0M and 77.1% gross margin both exceeded the high end of guidance; adjusted EBITDA was $29.5M, and free cash flow was $13.1M, marking the fourth consecutive positive FCF quarter.
• Versus S&P Global consensus, revenue beat by ~$2.7M and EPS beat materially; EBITDA was above consensus as well, reflecting mix favoring higher-margin technology revenue and disciplined OpEx execution (values marked with asterisks are from S&P Global).
• Full-year FY25 guidance: revenue unchanged; profitability and cash flow raised—adjusted EBITDA to $28–$34M, net cash from operations to $39–$45M, and free cash flow to $25–$35M; Q3 FY25 guide calls for $52–$56M revenue, 66–68% gross margin, and adjusted EBITDA $1–$4M.
• Management highlighted growing momentum for xUI/agentic AI, OEM pricing pressure that they are mitigating through value engineering, and strategic IP protection (new lawsuit vs Microsoft/Nuance); they also plan to repay the remaining $60.1M converts in June and maintain >$70M cash thereafter.

What Went Well and What Went Wrong

What Went Well

• “We surpassed the high end of our revenue and adjusted EBITDA guidance and posted our fourth consecutive quarter of positive free cash flow” (CEO).
• Mix tailwinds: gross margin 77% exceeded guidance as technology (license/connected) was a larger share of revenue than forecast.
• xUI milestones and new customer wins; seven major programs started production (e.g., Mercedes MBUX Virtual Assistant), and generative AI solutions went live at Hyundai, Kia, and PSA.

What Went Wrong

• Professional services revenue was down more than expected as solutions become standardized and integration moves in-house at some OEMs; Q2 PS revenue declined ~$4.8M YoY.
• FX headwinds: euro-dollar negatively impacted revenue, though offset in OpEx, resulting in neutral profitability impact.
• Emerging pricing pressure from OEMs amid macro/tariffs; management is countering with consolidation/offload strategies to deliver win-win solutions rather than price cuts alone.

Transcript

Kate Hickman (VP of Corporate Communications and Investor Relations)

Hello everyone, and welcome to Cerence's Second Quarter 2025 Conference Call. I'm Kate Hickman, VP of Corporate Communications and Investor Relations. I've been with the company for nearly eight years, leading communications, and I'm excited to now be leading investor relations as well. I look forward to getting to know all of you. Before we begin, I would like to remind you that this call may involve certain forward-looking statements. Any statements that are not statements of historical fact, including statements related to our expectations, anticipations, intentions, estimates, assumptions, beliefs, outlook, strategies, goals, objectives, targets, and plans, are forward-looking statements. Cerence makes no representations to update those statements after today.

These statements are subject to risks and uncertainties, which may cause actual results to differ materially from such statements and expectations, as described in our SEC filings, including the Form 8K with the press release preceding today's call, our most recent Form 10Q, and our Form 10K filed on November 25th, 2024. In addition, the company may refer to certain non-GAAP measures, key performance indicators, and pro forma financial information during this call. Please refer to today's press release for further details of the definitions, limitations, and uses of those measures, and reconciliations of non-GAAP measures to the closest GAAP equivalent. The press release is available in the IR section of our website. Joining me on today's call are Brian Krzanich, CEO, and Tony Rodriguez, CFO. Please note that slides with further context are available in the investor section of our website.

Before handing the call over to Brian, I would like to mention that we will be presenting at the TD Cowen Technology, Media, and Telecom Conference on May 29 and the Evercore ISI Global Automotive OEM Dealer and Supplier Conference on June 10. Webcast details will be provided soon. Now on to the call. Brian?

Brian Krzanich (CEO)

Thank you, Kate. Good afternoon, everyone, and welcome to the Q2 2025 Cerence Earnings Call. I'm really excited to speak with you today. While Tony will walk you through the details, we're very pleased with the strong results the team delivered this quarter, exceeding the high end of our guidance with a revenue of $78 million and adjusted EBITDA of $29.5 million. Importantly, we generated strong free cash flow of $13.1 million, marking our fourth consecutive quarter of positive free cash flow. As a result, we are raising our full-year guidance for adjusted EBITDA and free cash flow, and Tony will provide further details on this. I'm proud of our team and what it has accomplished. Despite ongoing macro challenges and uncertainty facing the automotive industry, we're focused on the future and believe that we remain well-positioned to support our customers.

Cerence continues to be differentiated by our unique combination of technology innovation, our diverse and expansive customer base, and our deep automotive expertise. Our experienced management team and deep bench of talent are keenly focused on delivering to our customers and executing against our roadmap. As we anticipated and stated in our last earnings call, we did not see a meaningful impact from tariffs on this quarter's results. For Q3, we believe the impact will remain limited. However, we are seeing some pressure from our customers on pricing and some changes in their program timelines as they work to understand the true impact that tariffs will have on their businesses. We're working cooperatively with our customers to find ways to optimize our partnership to best support them during this time, while also maintaining favorable conditions for Cerence.

Based on what we can see today and on currently available information for fiscal year 2025, we continue to assume minimal impact from tariffs. However, it's important to note that the situation remains fluid and may evolve over the remainder of the year. We continue to recognize the importance of differentiation and diversification, and as I've mentioned, we've had some great wins outside of automotive. We're building on that foundation to ramp up on our automotive efforts. For example, we're working to expand our partnerships with our network of distributors. You may have seen our announcement with Code Factory earlier this week. Together, we're introducing VoiceTopping, a new solution that will bring Cerence conversational AI to self-service kiosks in a variety of settings.

We believe that this solution will be particularly relevant for things like placing orders and getting information in restaurants and hospitality, retail and self-checkout, healthcare, transportation, banking, and entertainment settings, enabling users to interact with kiosks using only their voice. We're continuing to identify new verticals where we think we have a solid value proposition and can win. We believe we will see the impact of this work on our revenue and profitability in fiscal year 2026 and beyond. Another area in which we are strategically investing is IP protection. We intend to aggressively protect the time and effort Cerence has put into developing our innovative technology. As you may know, we have ongoing lawsuits against Samsung for patent infringement. This week, we filed an action against Microsoft and Nuance for copyright infringement and breach of contract.

As many of you know, these types of actions can take a long time to resolve and have risks, including loss of these actions. As a company deeply rooted in innovation, we feel it's critical at this time that we take the steps to vigorously defend our IP. Of course, we also continue to make progress on three key deliverables planned for 2025 that are laid out in last quarter's call. First, we continue our work on Cerence xUI, our hybrid agentic AI assistant platform. We reached several important milestones for xUI within the quarter, including the product's market launch, which coincided with an appearance at NVIDIA GTC in partnership with our customers JLR and Renault. We continue to evolve and enhance xUI with further edge and multimodal capabilities.

Our teams worked hard this quarter to showcase xUI in both English and Mandarin at the recent Auto Shanghai 2025. This included new multimodal features within our CaLLm Edge embedded small language model developed in partnership with NVIDIA and MediaTek. This means we feed the SLM with car sensor data and camera-based video streams to create an experience that integrates context from both inside and outside the car, something no one else has done before. For example, xUI can explain or translate road signs, identify roadside buildings, and even offer details about something interesting on a billboard, which has the potential to open up new revenue streams for OEMs. In the coming months, we plan to continue to expand xUI's features and capabilities, as well as increase language availability to serve automakers globally. We continue to see strong customer interest for xUI.

We've signed several deals with top automakers, including JLR, and have several more that we believe will close within the coming quarter. Additionally, we have a robust pipeline of ongoing customer interest with a steady stream of proof of concept programs. It's important to note that we can push out the cloud aspects of xUI over the air to existing programs that are already shipping. As OEMs navigate the complexity and ambiguity of the current market, we're well-positioned to help them continue to deliver new features and capabilities within their existing user experiences without having to invest in a full build-out or rebuild of their infotainment platforms. We continue to build the pipeline for the hybrid cloud embedded aspects of xUI for automakers' future programs. The second key deliverable for 2025 is to continue growing our business with new and existing customers.

Seven major customer programs started production this quarter, including the Mercedes-Benz Virtual Assistant within the fourth generation of MBUX, first introduced in a new electric CLA. Cerence's AI solutions serve as the core input and output mechanisms across 25 languages, enabling seamless interaction across the platform's agentic architecture, including Mercedes' new Avatar. Additionally, emotion detection and embedded neural text-to-speech from Cerence AI enabled MBUX to deliver more natural and empathetic interactions. The previously announced two-wheeler program with Kawasaki also started production, as well as several China for the Rest of the World programs with Great Wall Motor and Lincoln, among others. In addition, our Gen AI solutions went live with three customers: Hyundai, Kia, and PSA. The third key deliverable for 2025 is to continue our transformation and cost management.

As you can see from our strong cash performance this quarter, we're seeing the real benefits from this work, and it's being delivered to our bottom line for our shareholders. In conclusion, we are encouraged by our second quarter results, especially with regards to free cash flow and solid path we have established ahead of us. With that, I'll turn the call over to Tony.

Tony Rodriguez (CFO)

Thank you, Brian. Today, I'll be reviewing our Q2 results for fiscal 2025 and providing some guidance for our third quarter and full fiscal year. Let's get into the Q2 operating statement. At the top, we achieved Q2 revenue of $78 million, which exceeded the high end of our guidance range of $74-$77 million. As projected, the revenue this quarter included $21.5 million of fixed license revenue contracts. With Q2 behind us, we expect no material fixed license revenue to be signed during the remainder of the fiscal year. As compared to the prior year, Q2 revenue increased $10.2 million, primarily related to the year-over-year increase in fixed license revenue of $11.1 million. This was offset by a decrease in professional services revenue. Additionally, as compared to our expectation, revenue was negatively impacted this quarter by the euro to dollar exchange rate.

This fluctuation was neutral to profitability, as it had a corresponding positive impact to our operating expenses for the quarter, and the euro has rebounded to our forecasted rate for April. Our gross margin for the quarter of 77% also exceeded the high end of our guidance range of 74%-76%, as our technology revenue constituted a larger percentage of the revenue mix than forecasted. Moving down the operating statement, our non-GAAP operating expenses were $34.1 million for Q2, compared to $50 million for the same quarter last year. This decrease of $15.9 million, or 32%, represents savings from the restructuring efforts conducted at the end of last year. As compared to our forecast, we also continued to delay some planned R&D hiring until Q3 and had lower translated operating costs in our European subsidiaries with the euro to dollar exchange rate for the quarter.

Additionally, the company received notice of acceptance of another international tax credit that allowed us to record a $2.2 million operating cost benefit catch-up. The tax credit benefit recognized this quarter was similar to the credit reported last quarter, but for a different jurisdiction. These credits reflect our continuing effort to maximize the R&D benefits in our offshore locations. While we do not expect similar catch-up amounts going forward, ongoing R&D costs will reflect in-period credits we have applied for. Our adjusted EBITDA of $29.5 million exceeded the high end of our guidance range of $18-$22 million and was $29.8 million better than the approximate $300,000 EBITDA loss for Q2 of last fiscal year. The improvement in non-GAAP operating expenses over prior year and expectations was driven by continued focus on managing operating costs and improving profitability.

Our net income for Q2 was $21.7 million compared to a net loss of $278 million for the same quarter last year. In Q2 of last year, the company recorded a goodwill impairment charge of $252 million. This was a non-cash charge that only affected the GAAP results. Excluding the impairment charge, our net income still improved from last year by approximately $48 million this quarter. We ended the quarter with $122.8 million of cash and marketable securities, up $12.3 million compared to where we ended last quarter, derived from our positive free cash flow during the quarter of $13.1 million. As we look at our revenue breakdown and operating metrics, variable license revenue of $29.9 million was up $4.8 million, or 19% from the same quarter last year, and slightly ahead of expectations.

As mentioned, fixed license revenue during the quarter was $21.5 million compared to $10.4 million for Q2 last fiscal year. Q2 connected services revenue was $12.6 million, down $1 million, or 7% from $13.6 million for the same quarter last year. However, in Q2 of last year, the company recorded a $2.6 million revenue true-up. We believe this improvement in connected services revenue reflects a positive sign of increased demand for connected vehicles. As planned, our professional services revenue was down year-over-year by approximately $4.8 million, but down a bit more than expected. As our solutions become more standardized, they become more easily integrated and require less of our professional services to integrate. Additionally, some OEMs are bringing more of this integration in-house.

As we review our key performance indicators this quarter, total adjusted billings, which are defined as our total billings adjusted to exclude professional services, prepaid billings, and prepaid consumption, was $224 million and flat for the trailing 12-month period this year compared to the previous year. Total billings, including professional services for Q2 of $77.7 million, were also comparable to Q2 of last fiscal year. As a reminder, when we look at total licenses shipped, pro forma royalties is an operating measure we use representing the total value of variable licenses shipped in a quarter, including the shipments from fixed licenses where revenue was previously recognized upon contract signing. We refer to the shipments where revenue was recognized the prior period as fixed license consumption. Our pro forma royalties were $39.7 million, which were comparable to Q2 of last fiscal year.

Consumption of our previous fixed license contracts totaled $9.7 million this quarter, lower than the same quarter last year by about 33% and in line with expectations. As discussed in previous calls, we anticipated a lower level of consumption given the lower level of fixed contracts than historical periods. Our penetration of global auto production for the trailing 12 months ending this quarter was 51%. Approximately 11.6 million cars with Cerence Technology were shipped in Q2, flat year-over-year and down 1.3% quarter-over-quarter. Q2 worldwide IHS production increased 1.3% year-over-year and was down 10.9% quarter-over-quarter. Excluding China, worldwide car production was down 3% versus the same quarter last year and down 1% quarter-over-quarter. This is important to note as it shows that a big part of the worldwide production decline quarter-over-quarter relates to the Chinese market and not to the regions where we are more predominant.

To date, we have not really sold to the Chinese OEMs for the China domestic market. The number of cars produced that use our connected services increased 10% on a trailing 12-month basis compared to the same metric a year ago. We believe this reflects increased demand for connected vehicles. Last quarter, we discussed the possibility of introducing a price per unit, or PPU, operating metric, providing insight into pricing. For our business, PPU represents the average technology price per vehicle shipped, including both embedded license fee and connected services subscription. Although PPU is not immediately recognized as revenue at the time of shipment, it reflects the average per vehicle value that will ultimately be recognized. PPU is influenced by contract pricing, the take rate of technology features, and the adoption rate of connected services.

For Q2, the trailing 12-month average PPU was $4.87, up from $4.51 for the same period last year. This increase was primarily driven by higher attachment rate of connected services. 29% of vehicles were connected this quarter compared to 26% a year ago. We believe this growth in connected services reflects consumer demand for interactive technologies that allow users to control vehicle function and communicate externally through a unified interface. While we expect continued adoption of connected solutions, past performance does not guarantee future growth rate results. Our five-year backlog metric, which is currently approximately $960 million, was consistent with where it was two quarters ago. Now turning to our guidance. For Q3, we expect revenue to be in the range of $52-$56 million, with no material fixed license revenue expected to be signed during the quarter.

Additionally, our Q3 revenue guidance absorbs approximately $1 million of headwinds in our professional services we saw in Q2. With no fixed license revenue forecasted in Q3, we expect gross margins to return to between 66-68%, net loss to be in the range of $10 million-$13 million, and adjusted EBITDA to be in the range of $1-$4 million. We are reiterating our revenue guidance for the full fiscal year to be in the range of $236 million-$247 million. This absorbs headwinds of approximately $4-$6 million related to professional services projects for the second half of the year, offset by higher-than-expected technology revenue. While we expect revenue to be consistent to previous guidance, we expect profitability and free cash flow to be better than originally projected.

Subject to the macro risk we have discussed, we currently expect full-year adjusted EBITDA to be in the range of $28 million-$34 million and expect free cash flow to be in the range of $25 million-$35 million. When looking at our liquidity, we plan to use our cash on hand to repay the remaining $60.1 million of our 2025 convertible notes due in June. Following this, we expect to maintain a cash balance above $70 million for the rest of the fiscal year. While this supports our day-to-day operations, a higher balance, closer to, say, $100 million, would give us more flexibility to invest in growth and strategic priorities. We will continue to use cash from operations to get to our optimal position and evaluate other capital structure options as needed. Overall, we are very pleased with the solid results in Q2 and our continued financial performance.

I will now turn back to Brian to close our remarks.

Brian Krzanich (CEO)

Thanks, Tony. In closing, we're happy with our Q2 results and are feeling confident in our outlook for the full year, while also recognizing that there are macro risks and uncertainties. We remain focused on execution and customer delivery, business process improvement, and cost reduction, and advancing Cerence xUI, while also accelerating the diversification of our business. Based on the current available information, we continue to believe in our ability to deliver on our Q3 and fiscal year 2025 guidance. We look forward to continuing to share our progress with you. I will now open it up for questions.

Operator (participant)

Thank you. Ladies and gentlemen, if you have a question or a comment at this time, please press star one one on your telephone. If your question has been answered and you wish to remove yourself from the queue, please press star one one again. We'll pause for a moment while we compile our Q&A roster. Again, ladies and gentlemen, if you have a question or a comment at this time, please press star one one on your telephone. One moment for our first question. Our first question comes from Jeffrey Van Rhee with Craig-Hallum Capital Group. Your line is open.

Daniel Hibshman (Equity Research Analyst)

Hey, this is Daniel Hibschman on for Jeff Van Rhee. Thanks for taking my questions, guys. Just on the metrics, maybe if we can walk through a little bit of the puts and takes. Billings, deceleration towards 0%, but connected cars, sort of real nice uptick, acceleration from 5% to 10%. Maybe just puts and takes on the metrics, what are driving those, and sort of which of those you see as sort of pointing to the future trajectory.

Tony Rodriguez (CFO)

Hey, thanks for the question. Yeah, when you look at it, you look at our overall volumes, they're in line with, effectively in line with our expectations, maybe a tick up compared to what we thought for the quarter overall in volumes. The connected rate, what it shows, again, is that more and more cars are being connected within our overall volume that is done. That's good to see. Remember that as more connected cars ship, it doesn't have an immediate impact on revenue. We get the billings in quarter as they ship, but those billings are recognized over a period of time. It's good to see the increased connected rates. It's good to see those billings, and we know those revenues will come as we amortize that over the subscription period.

Daniel Hibshman (Equity Research Analyst)

It looks like new connected revenue, if you back out some of the one times that you were speaking to, Tony, it looks like new connected is up about $1 million sequentially, which is one of the larger jumps that's taken. Generally, that's from SOPs going live that take time to ramp. Is that fair to say then that whatever's ramping there, it would be fair to expect to continue to ramp into Q3, Q4 and drive some similar sequentials? Or is there anything one time there? Just kind of walk me through the progression of new connected and the underlying business aspect.

Tony Rodriguez (CFO)

Yeah, sure. No problem. Yeah, you're right. We're up about 8%, which is good to see. Again, remembering that that revenue that's recognized this quarter is from previous billings that are now amortizing into revenue. As we think about our revenue going forward, we do believe, of course, that given the past billings that we would expect increased connected revenue as we go forward.

Daniel Hibshman (Equity Research Analyst)

Okay, that's helpful.

Brian Krzanich (CEO)

Yeah. Just to give you some flavor, it takes a quarter or two, right? Because we get paid on the connected when the car sells and the dealer and the consumer basically connect the car. That is when that contract starts. How long is the shipment out and lot time, things like that. Then before we actually see the revenue, it can be a little bit of time too. I always look at it as it is a quarter or so, maybe slightly more depending on the vehicle and the geography before we see that revenue.

Daniel Hibshman (Equity Research Analyst)

Yeah. And then just in terms of another one for you, Brian, in terms of AI and where that's landing, I assume that that's going to be showing its head in connected more so than in variable. In terms of that connected, kind of through the sequential uptick and as you're looking through the rest of the year, what's driving that the most right now? Is that units? Is that the AI functionality, other functionality getting in in terms of impacting the PPU? Just sort of what are the key drivers behind connected? And if anything, you can quantify either qualitatively or quantitatively in terms of the AI impact today.

Brian Krzanich (CEO)

Sure. What you have to remember is that large language models, and let's just call it AI, is in almost everything we do. Even the embedded, as we call it, or the non-connected vehicle has a large—and this is what our Cerence Assistant large language model, the CaLLm embedded version is—it's sitting on the vehicle. Even for just vehicle controls, you want to turn your floor heat on, you want to change the colors in your car, you want to turn on adaptive cruise control, you want to adjust the temperature, whatever those directions are, you no longer need to use a key phrase. You no longer need to say a specific set of words. You can just say, "Hey, my feet are cold.

Hey, could you crack the window? It's able to then translate that to a large language model and do the car function. That has already penetrated the vehicle and doesn't require connectivity. The next place is where it does callouts if you want to know, "Hey, where's the nearest restaurant? What was the score of the football game last night? Who won the hockey game against the Oilers and the Vegas Knights last night?" Whatever that is, that's a connected car. All of those things are AI, right? They are driving consumer demand. They are driving PPU increases. The more of those things that people want to do outside of the vehicle, things like scores or temperature, weather, or drive connected, and why we're seeing the connected increase.

AI is driving usage of the voice in the vehicle across the board, whether it's connected or not. Does that help?

Daniel Hibshman (Equity Research Analyst)

Yeah. Yeah, that does help in terms of, obviously, when I think about the opportunity generally with CaLLm and embedded, I do not think you would first intuitively think of that as the opportunity. That makes sense in terms of how that is a component as well in the edge. A good thing to call out. Just last question for me, in terms of how—because a lot of people are going to be asking and wondering in terms of macro, where, if anywhere, would we be seeing that? If it was showing its head, would that be in the IHS units as in just sort of total units shipped in the industry trickling down to you? Would that be in pricing with your customers? Where, if anywhere, would we be seeing impacts?

Brian Krzanich (CEO)

You'll see a little bit of it with both of those as in if those kick in, right? I mentioned in the call that we're starting to see some requests from OEMs, a few of them, to talk and have discussions about price reductions as their cost structures and all are getting pressured, right? We're going in rather than just saying, "Okay, we're going to give them an X% price decrease." We're trying to go in and say, "Hey, we think we can save you even more money. We think we can take some of your software offload. We can consolidate some of your software needs and give you a better price." By the way, yes, we'll get some increased revenue, but save you money over the long run. We're trying to take it as a win-win.

That'll be that standpoint, how we try and deal with pricing. Volume-wise, I'll basically say, victims of whatever curves there are around volume. If volumes decrease dramatically, we would be just directly impacted by that. Remember, we ship worldwide, so a large number of our cars are shipped outside of the U.S. Even if there are tariffs and impacts in the U.S., it may not be directly correlated to what we'll see. If it's down X%, we may not be down as much because we sell a lot of cars outside the U.S., right? That's where you would see it.

Daniel Hibshman (Equity Research Analyst)

That is it for me. Congrats on the quarter. Thanks, Brian. Thanks, Tony.

Brian Krzanich (CEO)

Thanks.

Operator (participant)

Thanks. One moment for our next question. Our next question comes from Nicholas Doyle with Needham. Your line is open.

Nicholas Doyle (Research Analyst)

Hey, guys. Thanks for taking my questions. The first one, keeping the Fiscal 2025 guide unchanged, you talked about a little bit coming out of the professional services and more coming from the higher tech revenue. Could you just be a little more specific on what that is and kind of why it's a little bit higher? I know you gave kind of a lot of metrics around the connected services, but it sounds like it might not be coming from that just because of the lags. Yeah, any commentary there? Thank you.

Tony Rodriguez (CFO)

Yeah, no problem. Yeah, as we've talked about this quarter, last quarter, we're seeing a little bit of headwind in the PS. As you've mentioned, we did not adjust guidance for the full year. We still think we'll hit that range. If we're not hitting there, where is it coming from? It's the tech. We are up probably a little bit more than our original plan on the connected side. The other piece is really from the license volume that we're seeing. We saw a little bit of uptick compared to expectation in license volume in Q2. Maybe some of that would have to do with some of the production levels for getting prepped for tariffs. We did see that. It's really coming from the license business.

Brian Krzanich (CEO)

Do not forget, one of the key factors that we are doing very differently than a year ago and was especially evident this quarter is we are really limiting the amount of prepays or, as it is called in the discussion, fixed contracts. By limiting those, we are also giving less of a discount in those spaces because we are being able to be more competitive in that space. We are not giving as many discounts, right? We did $20 million-ish, I think it was like $21.3 million this quarter, and that will be it for this year. Prior years, the numbers were quite a bit higher, and those came with even bigger discounts. By just reducing that, it increases our effective price. It is really because we are not doing as much of this pull-in of contracts with big discounts.

Nicholas Doyle (Research Analyst)

Thank you for that. That makes sense. I think we could see that a little bit in the gross margins coming through. You had a press release last month with MediaTek for your edge solution. I guess, if there is, what was the missing piece that MediaTek is the partnership's bringing to you with that edge solution? Thank you.

Brian Krzanich (CEO)

It is really a three-way relationship. It is NVIDIA, MediaTek, and Cerence. What we are working together—MediaTek and NVIDIA are working together on cores that are directly related to automotive that have the right pricing and go-to-market within the automotive space. They are building those SOCs. We are helping them, and they are helping us by integrating our software and making sure we optimize together for performance, right? There are a lot of things we can do around latency, around overall performance, power, amount of memory required, all of those kinds of things that if we work with the SOC providers, we can optimize that. That then makes it lower cost for the OEM and the tier-one integrator. It also makes it simpler, right? Part of why we do not need as much professional services.

That relationship is really a three-way relationship: NVIDIA and MediaTek working on the SOC, and then us working with the combined group there to really deliver the software stack.

Nicholas Doyle (Research Analyst)

Thanks. If I could just ask one more on the lawsuit, I guess, what are you really trying to achieve going into Microsoft too, who are also a partner to you guys? I am just wondering if it is trying to set a bit of a precedent here as other startups are moving into this voice assistant space. I understand that it is specific to text-to-speech. Thank you.

Brian Krzanich (CEO)

Yeah. I mean, what are we trying to achieve? I mean, we're protecting our intellectual property, right? You, as a shareholder, are investing with us on the development of this technology and text-to-speech and wake-up word. A lot of those IPs were foundational to Cerence. We continue to advance those and really drive those. We are protecting those. Our goal is nothing more than that. We do not have some other goal around other companies. We can only manage a certain number of these because we do not have infinite funds. We are going with the ones that we feel like are the clearest to us that allow us to clearly state our position. It is all about protecting our IP and protecting your investment.

Nicholas Doyle (Research Analyst)

Understood. Thank you.

Operator (participant)

One moment for our next question.

Speaker 8

Goodbye.

Operator (participant)

Our next question comes from Mark Delaney with Goldman Sachs. Your line is open.

Mark Delaney (Managing Director and Senior Equity Analyst)

Yes, good afternoon. Thank you for taking my questions. Price per unit increased on a TTM to TTM basis. You talked about some of the potential positive drivers such as AI in the vehicle. You also spoke on some pricing headwinds that have emerged in your prepared remarks. A moment you can help us better understand how these various puts and takes will lead to PPU and where you think PPU may go over the next 12 to 24 months overall.

Kate Hickman (VP of Corporate Communications and Investor Relations)

Hey, Mark. Kate here. We just lost the connection to Tony and Brian briefly. They're dialing in in one second. We'll just have you repeat the question when they get back on.

Mark Delaney (Managing Director and Senior Equity Analyst)

Okay. Thanks.

Operator (participant)

Ladies and gentlemen, please stand by. Your call will resume momentarily.

Kate Hickman (VP of Corporate Communications and Investor Relations)

Thanks all for bearing with us. We're getting them back in just one second.

Operator (participant)

Again, ladies and gentlemen, please stand by. Your call will resume momentarily.

Brian Krzanich (CEO)

Can you guys hear us now?

Operator (participant)

Yes, we can hear you now.

Tony Rodriguez (CFO)

Can you hear me?

Mark Delaney (Managing Director and Senior Equity Analyst)

Can't hear them.

Operator (participant)

Yes, we can hear you. One moment.

Mark Delaney (Managing Director and Senior Equity Analyst)

Give them a moment. So they can hear me. I can't hear you.

Operator (participant)

Again, ladies and gentlemen, please stand by.

Brian Krzanich (CEO)

Kate, can you hear us now?

Kate Hickman (VP of Corporate Communications and Investor Relations)

Yes, we have you.

Mark Delaney (Managing Director and Senior Equity Analyst)

For some reason, I can't hear them.

Operator (participant)

One moment, ladies and gentlemen. Please stand by. Your call will resume momentarily.

Brian Krzanich (CEO)

Can you hear us now, Kate?

Kate Hickman (VP of Corporate Communications and Investor Relations)

Yes. We can hear you.

Brian Krzanich (CEO)

Can you hear us now, Tony? It looks like you're back online.

Tony Rodriguez (CFO)

We can. We're back.

Brian Krzanich (CEO)

Mark, could you go ahead and.

Tony Rodriguez (CFO)

Sorry about that, guys. We had technical difficulties on this side.

Operator (participant)

No problem. Mark, could you continue with your question?

Mark Delaney (Managing Director and Senior Equity Analyst)

Yes. Thank you. It's Mark Delaney with Goldman. A question on pricing. PPU increased on a TTM to TTM basis, and you have potential positive drivers tied to AI in the vehicle. You also mentioned some pricing headwinds have emerged in your prepared remarks. I'm hoping you can help us understand the size of some of these puts and takes. Overall, where do you think PPU will go over the next 12 to 24 months?

Tony Rodriguez (CFO)

Hey, let me give you a little background on that, on PPU. Yes, there are puts and takes within there. We're not going to give guidance on a go-forward basis. As we really work this metric, we will get, I think, better at it. Our last call, we said, "Hey, we know that it's important to you guys and to us." We have developed this metric. The puts and calls would be this. Even if there is pricing pressure in the future, what Brian is saying is, "Hey, if you have more, let's say, a take rate on the technology stack or something, we can give that as a discount." Overall, that would still may drive a higher PPU.

It could be plus or minus based on those two aspects of a bit of pricing pressure, but maybe an uptick in the take rate of the amount of technology. Then the other driver, too, is the overall volumes and then the amount of connected cars within that. Because again, on average, over a period of time, if we have more connected cars, that price per that individual car will go up. We believe that there are pluses and minuses in this. At this point, I'm not willing to give any guidance going forward. Again, it's a positive trend over the last trailing 12 months.

Brian Krzanich (CEO)

Remember, we're reporting here an average number, right? This number is going to incorporate variance over time. We're trying to learn ourselves how to use this to look at our operations and look at our overall business.

We're trying to share this as quickly as we can with you guys. You're going to have to give us a little bit of time to really start doing things like projections and forecasts and understanding it much beyond this. We wanted to share it with you because we've been talking about it and promising it.

Mark Delaney (Managing Director and Senior Equity Analyst)

Understood. Thank you for the disclosure that you did have on PPU. It is helpful. I also wanted to ask around the situation with Microsoft. Can you help us better understand what led to the lawsuit? You spoke to an earlier question, Brian, around trying to protect your IP. I want to understand, are you seeing Microsoft start to compete more with you, and have they moved into the vehicle space?

Brian Krzanich (CEO)

Yeah. So it's an active lawsuit. I'm just not allowed to talk about much detail beyond this other than it's really about protecting our IP. And like we said in the earnings call, we have one and have had one with Samsung for some period of time. That's going through the court process. These things take some time to go through this process. So that's going through. There's some events that occur this year and into next year for that case. The Microsoft one has just started. But it's really about use of our IP and Cerence getting paid for it. And we're just protecting that. And that's what the suit's about. But I can't go into much other detail beyond that just because it's an active lawsuit.

Mark Delaney (Managing Director and Senior Equity Analyst)

Okay. Yeah. Understood. Separate from the core case, you did have an announcement you're working with them to bring ChatGPT to vehicles. Are you still able to work on a business basis and put the lawsuit aside?

Brian Krzanich (CEO)

Companies have disputes about contracts and legal issues all the time. Yet, they're able to still work together. We absolutely are continuing to work with Microsoft. The lawsuit is one separate issue. You're always having issues along with progress when you're working with other companies. We've had meetings even over the last day or so with Microsoft on some of the technical items. The technical teams are still heads down on bringing innovation and capabilities between the two companies. The lawsuit is a separate issue that is really not affecting that side of the work together.

Mark Delaney (Managing Director and Senior Equity Analyst)

Understood. Thank you.

Operator (participant)

One moment for our next question. Our next question comes from Itay Michaeli with TD Cowen. Your line is open.

Itay Michaeli (Equity Analyst)

Great. Thank you. Good afternoon, everyone, and congrats in the quarter. Just maybe a question on customer interest in some of your latest offerings. I ask because as the automakers struggle with tariffs and all the disruptions to their new vehicle production business in the last few years, they're looking to shift, as you know, more towards earning revenue from their installed base through various services. I'm wondering if maybe the tariffs could actually increase interest in your go-forward offerings and whether you're already having or seeing some of that in your latest conversations. That's my first question.

Brian Krzanich (CEO)

I don't know if you can tie it to tariffs, right? I guess I'm too much of a technologist and believe that it's the technology itself. I mean, we talked about multimodal, and we demonstrated this live in actual production at the Shanghai Auto Show. I mean, it's really cool when you can pass by a street sign or an advertisement and ask your car, "Hey, what did that sign just say? And was there a phone number to call? Hey, was that the turnoff for exit 23, or did I miss it?" The system uses cameras, and it can tell you exactly what's going on, right? We are seeing uptake.

We have some really cool proofs of concept and development work going on with our OEMs that is slated to come out, I'll say, late this year, early next year, that starts to use this both in-cabin and outside of cabin capability, this multimodal. Things like, "Hey, I'm noticing you're blinking a lot. You're tired. Would you like me to find a coffee place to stop, or would you like to rest?" All those kinds of capabilities are really kicking in. Consumers like it. The OEMs like it. We're able to do a lot of this over the air because on the connected version, it's easy for us to connect it into the cloud-based supply. With new hardware, we're able to do it embedded on the vehicle. Those will be the cars that are really delivering in 2026. I don't know if tariffs are really driving this.

I do think, though, companies, if they're going to have to increase prices, they're going to have to find an effective way to provide more capability for that price, too. People aren't just going to accept pricing and price increases. I do think there's an opportunity for that. I don't see it right now. We're not reflecting any of that. I think it's something I'm hoping we'll see as we move forward with this. Right now, everyone's prices change on a weekly basis, or the tariffs change on a weekly basis, and what's in and what's out. People are just trying to absorb what's there and figure out how to work together. The good thing is the industry is working well together. Everybody's communicating. Everybody's talking. Everybody's trying to help each other out through this process.

Itay Michaeli (Equity Analyst)

That's great to hear. Thank you. Just as a follow-up, I was hoping maybe you could expand a bit more on some of the non-automotive opportunities you alluded to before, maybe aside from some of the opportunities for the companies and kind of how long could it take to see some kind of meaningful revenue emerging from these verticals. Thank you.

Brian Krzanich (CEO)

Sure. We are looking for verticals where we can take the software expertise and capabilities and innovation that we already have and apply that over to applications that we think consumer demand will be there. One of the ones you saw or the ones we talked about here was with Code Factory and the VoiceTopping. This is taking what we can do in a car already around the large language models, both embedded and connected, and applying that to kiosks and using a partner like Code Factory to go to market. I do not want to build a salesforce that has the ability to go to 5,000 malls and airports in the world. I want to use a partner to go do that.

We're trying to do this very cost-effectively, which means we may grow a little slower than we possibly could if we did it guns ablazing. I think it's a smart way to do it. Imagine you're in a mall, and rather than trying to find where the Lululemon is or whatever restaurant you want to find is, you just walk up and say, "Hey, can you point me to the Lululemon or to the Tommy Bahama restaurant or whatever?" You're in the airport, and you see a kiosk with a map, and you go, "Where's C12?" It just shows it on the map and shows your walking path. Those are the kinds of applications, real-world applications, that we think end users will appreciate and will deliver capability.

What's nice is if the layout of the mall changes, the stores change, we'd be able to do that over the air rather than having to come in and update the software directly. We can do those kinds of things as well and continue to increase the capability. That's really where we're starting. We're looking at some other verticals, but they're very nascent right now, just making sure, understanding, does our technology apply? Do we think there's real demand for it? Things like that.

Itay Michaeli (Equity Analyst)

Terrific. That's all very helpful. Thank you.

Operator (participant)

I am not showing any further questions at this time. As such, this does conclude today's presentation. We thank you for your participation. You may now disconnect and have a wonderful day.