Quarterly report pursuant to Section 13 or 15(d)

Investments In Available-For-Sale Securities And Other Cost Investments Investments In Available-For-Sale Securities And Other Cost Investments (Notes)

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Investments In Available-For-Sale Securities And Other Cost Investments Investments In Available-For-Sale Securities And Other Cost Investments (Notes)
3 Months Ended
Mar. 31, 2013
Schedule of Available-for-sale Securities [Line Items]  
Investment [Text Block]
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 generally 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"). The Company previously 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 the Company's statement 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, the Company elected the fair value option for those of its AFS securities which it considers 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, including Fair Value Option Securities separately aggregated, and other cost investments are summarized as follows:
 
March 31,
2013
 
December 31,
2012
 
amounts in millions
Fair Value Option Securities
 
 
 
  Time Warner Inc.
$
255

 
211

  Time Warner Cable Inc.
227

 
230

  Viacom, Inc. 
223

 
192

  CenturyLink, Inc.
63

 
70

  Barnes & Noble, Inc.
275

 
262

  Other equity securities
78

 
58

  Other debt securities
74

 
56

      Total Fair Value Option Securities
1,195

 
1,079

AFS and cost investments
 
 
 
  SIRIUS XM debt securities (a)

 
249

  Live Nation Entertainment, Inc. ("Live Nation") debt securities
24

 
25

    Other AFS and cost investments
47

 
39

      Total AFS and cost investments
71

 
313

 
$
1,266

 
1,392


(a)
During the three months ended March 31, 2013, as discussed in note 1, Liberty acquired an additional 50 million common shares and acquired a controlling interest in SIRIUS XM and as a result consolidates SIRIUS XM as of such date. Therefore, the related SIRIUS XM debt securities are considered effectively settled upon consolidation.

Unrealized Holding Gains and Losses
Unrealized holding gains and losses related to investments in AFS securities are summarized below.
 
March 31, 2013
 
December 31, 2012
 
Equity
securities
 
Debt
securities
 
Equity
securities
 
Debt
securities
 
amounts in millions
Gross unrealized holding gains
$
6

 
1

 
2

 
37

Gross unrealized holding losses
$

 

 

 



Liberty reclassified approximately $40 million of previously unrealized gains in the condensed consolidated statement of operations in gains (losses) on transactions, net for the three months ended March 31, 2013 due to the application of purchase accounting and the effective settlement of SIRIUS XM debt securities previously accounted for as available-for-sale securities through other comprehensive earnings (loss). Additionally, Liberty had no securities in a loss position greater than a year.