Ann: 4DS Technical Update, page-152

I'm not reading that as suggesting a buyout is unlikely and licensing is now the go, but rather that as most firms aim for licensing rather than buyout their deals are structured around royalties. Should a sale eventuate during the period of the agreement then this stands in place of a license and Imec get their share as a capped single payment. The reason Imec would get a cut of sales while the agreement is in place is because their brand is assumed to form part of the marketing that secures the license or sale - ie. their ongoing involvement in the tech provides confidence to the purchaser. Once the agreement is over their is no implied reliance offered by Imec. Imec get their primary revenue under this agreement through the fees charged - not the royalty.

The royalty agreement has always been present as I recall, and it stands to reason that there was a clause that handled sale rather than licensing as this is in effect a 100% licensing transaction, although I can not recall seeing the details before - but I would have assumed it was there regardless. It would seem that the capping might be new, which suggests that 4Ds are anticipating exceeding that implied capped value on sale.

Previously there was no likelihood of a sale transaction occurring in the timeframe of the agreement, so the arrangements in sale were not significant but that has now changed, in my opinion. The reason the royalty's existence and capping under sale is being brought to our attention now is because the capping represents a change in the agreement and 4DS likely thinks they are approaching a sale condition which, while a target for 2021, now with the added certainty of the 3 non-platform lots and the 2, soon to be 3, platform lots they are getting more confident of a salable product during 2022 and are making sure that they have informed the market of any possibly material items.