Marketable Investment Securities, Restricted Cash and Cash Equivalents, and Other Investment Securities

12 Months Ended

Dec. 31, 2020

Marketable Investment Securities, Restricted Cash and Cash Equivalents, and Other Investment Securities

Marketable Investment Securities, Restricted Cash and Cash Equivalents, and Other Investment Securities

7.     Marketable Investment Securities, Restricted Cash and Cash Equivalents, and Other Investment Securities

Our marketable investment securities, restricted cash and cash equivalents, and other investment securities consisted of the following:

	As of December 31,
	2020		2019
	(In thousands)
Marketable investment securities:
Current marketable investment securities:
Strategic - available-for-sale	$	195	$	196
Other		362,758		416,508
Total current marketable investment securities		362,953		416,704
Restricted marketable investment securities (1)		24,467		390
Total marketable investment securities		387,420		417,094
Restricted cash and cash equivalents (1)		83,902		60,677
Other investment securities:
Other investment securities		149,706		160,074
Total other investment securities		149,706		160,074
Total marketable investment securities, restricted cash and cash equivalents, and other investment securities	$	621,028	$	637,845

(1) Restricted marketable investment securities and restricted cash and cash equivalents are included in “Restricted cash, cash equivalents and marketable investment securities” on our Consolidated Balance Sheets.

Marketable Investment Securities

Our marketable investment securities portfolio may consist of debt and equity instruments. All equity securities are carried at fair value, with changes in fair value recognized in “Other, net” within “Other Income (Expense)” on our Consolidated Statements of Operations and Comprehensive Income (Loss). All debt securities are classified as available-for-sale and are recorded at fair value. We report the temporary unrealized gains and losses related to changes in market conditions of marketable debt securities as a separate component of “Accumulated other comprehensive income (loss)” within “Total stockholders’ equity (deficit),” net of related deferred income tax on our Consolidated Balance Sheets. The corresponding changes in the fair value of marketable debt securities, which are determined to be company specific credit losses are recorded in “Other, net” within “Other Income (Expense)” on our Consolidated Statements of Operations and Comprehensive Income (Loss). See Note 2 for further information.

Current Marketable Investment Securities - Strategic

Our current strategic marketable investment securities portfolio includes and may include strategic and financial debt and/or equity investments in private and public companies that are highly speculative and have experienced and continue to experience volatility. As of December 31, 2020, this portfolio consisted of securities of a small number of issuers, and as a result the value of that portfolio depends, among other things, on the performance of those issuers. The fair value of certain of the debt and equity securities in this portfolio can be adversely impacted by, among other things, the issuers’ respective performance and ability to obtain any necessary additional financing on acceptable terms, or at all.

Current Marketable Investment Securities - Other

Our current other marketable investment securities portfolio includes investments in various debt instruments including, among others, commercial paper, corporate securities and United States treasury and/or agency securities.

Commercial paper consists mainly of unsecured short-term, promissory notes issued primarily by corporations with maturities ranging up to 365 days. Corporate securities consist of debt instruments issued by corporations with various maturities normally less than 18 months. U. S. Treasury and agency securities consist of debt instruments issued by the federal government and other government agencies.

Restricted Cash, Cash Equivalents and Marketable Investment Securities

As of December 31, 2020 and 2019, our restricted marketable investment securities, together with our restricted cash and cash equivalents, included amounts required as collateral for our letters of credit and trusts.

Other Investment Securities

We have strategic investments in certain debt and/or equity securities that are included in noncurrent “Other investment securities” on our Consolidated Balance Sheets. Our debt securities are classified as available-for-sale and our equity securities are accounted for using the equity method of accounting or recorded at fair value. Certain of our equity method investments are detailed below.

NagraStar L.L.C. We own a 50% interest in NagraStar L.L.C. (“NagraStar”), a joint venture that is our primary provider of encryption and related security systems intended to assure that only authorized customers have access to our programming.

Invidi Technologies Corporation. In November 2016, we, DIRECTV, LLC, a wholly-owned indirect subsidiary of AT&T Inc., and Cavendish Square Holding B.V., an affiliate of WPP plc, entered into a series of agreements to acquire Invidi Technologies Corporation (“Invidi”), an entity that provides proprietary software for the addressable advertising market. The transaction closed in January 2017.

TerreStar Solutions, Inc.  In March 2019, we closed a transaction with TerreStar Solutions, Inc. (“TSI”) to acquire additional equity securities of TSI, an entity that holds certain 2 GHz wireless spectrum licenses in Canada, in exchange for certain Canadian assets, including, among other things, a portion of the satellite capacity on our T1 satellite, which we had acquired from TerreStar Networks, Inc. in 2012. 

Our ability to realize value from our strategic investments in securities that are not publicly traded depends on the success of the issuers’ businesses and their ability to obtain sufficient capital, on acceptable terms or at all, and to execute their business plans. Because private markets are not as liquid as public markets, there is also increased risk that we will not be able to sell these investments, or that when we desire to sell them we will not be able to obtain fair value for them.

Unrealized Gains (Losses) on Marketable Investment Securities

As of December 31, 2020 and 2019, we had accumulated net unrealized gains, net of related tax effect, of less than $1 million and less than $1 million, respectively. All of these amounts are included in “Accumulated other comprehensive income (loss)” within “Total stockholders’ equity (deficit).” The components of our available-for-sale investments are summarized in the table below.

	As of December 31,
	2020								2019
	Marketable								Marketable
	Investment		Unrealized						Investment		Unrealized
	Securities		Gains		Losses		Net		Securities		Gains		Losses		Net
	(In thousands)
Debt securities (including restricted):
U.S. Treasury and agency securities	$	65,992	$	3	$	—	$	3	$	10,016	$	32	$	—	$	32
Commercial paper		298,435		—		—		—		369,397		2		—		2
Corporate securities		22,552		1		—		1		28,796		4		(1)		3
Other		441		—		—		—		8,885		58		—		58
Total	$	387,420	$	4	$	—	$	4	$	417,094	$	96	$	(1)	$	95

As of December 31, 2020, restricted and non-restricted marketable investment securities included debt securities of $387 million with contractual maturities within one year. Actual maturities may differ from contractual maturities as a result of our ability to sell these securities prior to maturity.

Fair Value Measurements

Our investments measured at fair value on a recurring basis were as follows:

	As of December 31,
	2020								2019
	Total		Level 1		Level 2		Level 3		Total		Level 1		Level 2		Level 3
	(In thousands)
Cash equivalents (including restricted)	$	3,330,296	$	363,123	$	2,967,173	$	—	$	2,436,545	$	246,876	$	2,189,669	$	—
Debt securities (including restricted):
U.S. Treasury and agency securities	$	65,992	$	65,992	$	—	$	—	$	10,016	$	10,016	$	—	$	—
Commercial paper		298,435		—		298,435		—		369,397		—		369,397		—
Corporate securities		22,552		—		22,552		—		28,796		—		28,796		—
Other		441		—		246		195		8,885		—		8,689		196
Total	$	387,420	$	65,992	$	321,233	$	195	$	417,094	$	10,016	$	406,882	$	196

Derivative Instruments

We have the option to purchase certain of T-Mobile’s 800 MHz spectrum licenses from T-Mobile at a fixed price in the future as part of the Boost Mobile Acquisition.  See Note 6 for further information.  This instrument meets the definition of a derivative and was valued based upon, among other things, our estimate of the underlying asset price, the expected term, volatility and the risk free rate of return at its acquisition date fair value of $713 million. The derivative is remeasured quarterly. As of December 31, 2020, the derivative’s fair value was $691 million on our Consolidated Balance Sheets. All changes in the derivative’s fair value are recorded in “Other, net” in our Consolidated Statements of Operations and Comprehensive Income (Loss) until the option is either exercised or expires. See table below. We account for our option to purchase certain T-Mobile’s 800 MHz spectrum licenses under the Spectrum Purchase Agreement as a Level 3 derivative.

Gains and Losses on Sales and Changes in Carrying Amounts of Investments

“Other, net” within “Other Income (Expense)” included on our Consolidated Statements of Operations and Comprehensive Income (Loss) is as follows:

	For the Years Ended December 31,
Other, net:	2020		2019		2018
	(In thousands)
Marketable investment securities - realized and unrealized gains (losses)	$	178	$	4,604	$	8,165
Derivative instruments - net realized and/or unrealized gains (losses)		(22,000)		—		—
Costs related to early redemption of debt		—		(483)		(3,261)
Gain (loss) on sale of subsidiary		—		—		7,004
Equity in earnings (losses) of affiliates		410		(3,714)		(2,110)
Other		1,248		11,117		2,003
Total	$	(20,164)	$	11,524	$	11,801