DDD Broadens Scope of 3D Licence Deal with Samsung

Shares in AIM listed DDD Group Plc jumped by 7.5% to 28.75p this morning on news that the US based 3D software and content specialist had expanded the scope of its license agreement with Samsung Electronics. The new deal means the Korean electronics giant can use DDD's automatic 2D to 3D conversion technology in its new 3D consumer displays and devices.

As a result of the revised agreement, Samsung is now licensed to include the embedded 3D processing chips containing DDD's 2D to 3D conversion technology in Blu-ray players, LED and LCD monitors and large format displays. DDD said it expects that Samsung will begin shipping the first of these new product categories in early 2011 and did not currently anticipate any additional income for the 2010 financial year as a result of this change. The five-year license agreement was announced in February 2008 and involved DDD and Samsung collaborating to implement DDD's TriDef real-time 2D to 3D conversion and 3D image processing architecture in the embedded 3D processing chip developed by Samsung for their next generation 3D HDTVs and other categories of 3D consumer product.

In late January, Samsung announced that it started mass producing both light-emitting-diode (LED) and liquid-crystal-display (LCD) compatible panels for 40", 46" and 55" 3D TVs. Samsung's 3D LED, LCD and Plasma TVs are now available in many countries worldwide and it was recently reported in the South Korean 'Chosun' newspaper that Samsung has secured an estimated 90% market share of all 3D TVs shipped to date.

Chris Yewdall, DDD’s chief executive, said: “We are pleased to report continued progress in our relationship with the world's leading TV manufacturer. The quantity of chips manufactured by Samsung in the first quarter of this year was ahead of our projections and presently leaves them on target to achieve the higher end of our expectation for 2010. Expanding the license to include other high volume consumer products such as Blu-ray players and PC monitors should allow us to further increase the footprint of TriDef enabled 3D devices in 2011.”

In May, DDD raised £3.5m in a share placing priced at 25p per share in order to fund “identified opportunities” over the next 12 months. In the year to December 2009 the company posted a 138% rise in sales £1.41m and a 41% fall in losses to £0.85m.

Source: Stockopedia