Quarterly report pursuant to Section 13 or 15(d)

Investments In Available-For-Sale Securities And Other Cost Investments

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Investments In Available-For-Sale Securities And Other Cost Investments
9 Months Ended
Sep. 30, 2016
Investments In Available-For-Sale Securities And Other Cost Investments  
Investments in available-for-sale securities and other cost investments

(7)   Investments in Available-for-Sale Securities and Other Cost Investments

 

All marketable equity and debt securities held by the Company are classified as available-for-sale ("AFS") and are carried at fair value based on quoted market prices. GAAP permits entities to choose to measure many financial instruments, such as AFS securities, and certain other items at fair value and to recognize the changes in fair value of such instruments in the entity's statement of operations (the "fair value option"). Liberty has historically entered into economic hedges for certain of its non-strategic AFS securities (although such instruments were not accounted for as fair value hedges by the Company). Changes in the fair value of these economic hedges were reflected in Liberty's statements of operations as unrealized gains (losses). In order to better match the changes in fair value of the subject AFS securities and the changes in fair value of the corresponding economic hedges in the Company's financial statements, Liberty elected the fair value option for those of its AFS securities which it considered to be non-strategic ("Fair Value Option Securities"). Accordingly, changes in the fair value of Fair Value Option Securities, as determined by quoted market prices, are reported in realized and unrealized gains (losses) on financial instruments in the accompanying condensed consolidated statements of operations.

 

Investments in AFS securities, the majority of which are considered Fair Value Option Securities, and other cost investments are summarized as follows:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

    

September 30,

    

December 31,

 

 

 

2016

 

2015

 

 

 

amounts in millions

 

QVC Group

 

 

 

 

 

 

Other investments

 

$

4

 

4

 

Total attributed QVC Group

 

 

4

 

4

 

Ventures Group

 

 

 

 

 

 

Charter Communications, Inc. (1)

 

 

1,447

 

NA

 

Interval Leisure Group (2)

 

 

286

 

NA

 

Time Warner Inc. (3)

 

 

2

 

284

 

Time Warner Cable Inc. (1)

 

 

NA

 

994

 

Other investments

 

 

80

 

71

 

Total attributed Ventures Group

 

 

1,815

 

1,349

 

Consolidated Liberty

 

$

1,819

 

1,353

 


(1)

As discussed in note 2, in connection with the merger of Charter and TWC, Liberty exchanged, in a tax-free transaction, its shares of TWC common stock for shares of New Charter Class A common stock, on a one-for-one basis, and Liberty has granted to Liberty Broadband a proxy and a right of first refusal with respect to the shares of New Charter Class A common stock held by Liberty in the exchange.

(2)

On May 12, 2016, Interval Leisure Group (“Interval”) completed an acquisition which was accomplished, in part, through the issuance of additional Interval shares.  As a result of the share issuance, Liberty’s ownership interest in Interval was reduced from 28.7% to 12.8%.  Prior to the transaction, Interval was accounted for as an equity method investment.  As a result of the transaction, Liberty does not have ability to exercise significant influence.  Accordingly, Interval is classified as available-for-sale and is carried at fair value.

(3)

During the nine months ended September 30, 2016, Liberty sold approximately 4 million shares of Time Warner common stock for proceeds of $341 million.