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I'm beginning to feel like a stalker. I'm reprising my role again this year as Cyrano de Bergerac and composing love letters to Dolby Labs
O Dolby, Dolby, wherefore art thou, Dolby?
OK, I'm mixing my playwrights here, but there's a lot to love when it comes to the leading sound-technology company. Quarter after quarter, it becomes more apparent that from wherever sound emanates, there's probably a "double D" logo close by.
DVD players, computers, TVs, movie theaters, and, soon, mobile communication devices -- all are crammed with Dolby technology. The games we play, the movies we watch, the sounds we hear are all made better through Dolby magic. Sure, there's competing technology out there -- you're almost as likely to find the DTS
Whether they're DVD standalone units or packaged in your PC, Dolby licenses are incorporated by manufacturers into them. Analysts have been expecting sales to falter, but instead, they continue to boost Dolby's profits higher. The computers they come packaged in are not as moribund as headlines might suggest.
Quanta Computer, for example, a contract manufacturer for Dell
In the broadcast market, demand for digital televisions drove revenues that accounted for over 15% of licensing revenue last fiscal year. Expect Dolby's recent acquisition of Coding Technologies to advance broadcast, mobile, and digital music sales going forward, too.
Of course, a major driver for growth has been another area where analysts underestimated potential. The Vista operating system from Microsoft
With new technologies and new formats accepting Dolby's leadership (digital cinema may be the next milestone for it), the sound technician, even at these lofty valuations, can still represent a good entry point.
"There is always some madness in love," Nietzsche once said, "But there is also always some reason in madness." I think investors have every reason to be madly in love with Dolby.
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