Litigation, Commitments and Contingencies

The Company is subject to various lawsuits, claims and other legal matters that arise in the ordinary course of conducting business (including litigation relating to our legacy businesses and discontinued operations). All such matters involve uncertainty and accordingly, outcomes that cannot be predicted with assurance. As of December 31, 2016, we are unable to estimate with certainty the ultimate aggregate amount of monetary liability or financial impact that we may incur with respect to these matters. It is reasonably possible that the ultimate resolution of these matters, individually or in the aggregate, could materially affect our financial condition, results of the operations and cash flows.

Intellectual Property Litigation

The company is subject to allegations of patent infringement by our competitors as well as non-practicing entities ("NPEs") - sometimes referred to as "patent trolls" - who may seek monetary settlements from us, our competitors, suppliers and resellers. The nature of such litigation is complex and unpredictable and, consequently, as of December 31, 2016, the Company is not able to reasonably estimate the amount of any monetary liability or financial impact that may be incurred with respect to these matters. It is reasonably possible that the ultimate resolution of these matters could materially affect our financial condition, results of operations and cash flows.

On December 31, 2014, IOENGINE, LLC (“IOENGINE”), an NPE filed suit in the District Court for the District of Delaware alleging infringement of United States Patent No. 8,539,047 by certain products we formerly sold under the IronKey brand. On February 17, 2017, following a trial, the jury returned a verdict against us in the patent infringement case brought by IOENGINE against the Company in the United States District Court for the District of Delaware. The jury awarded the IOENGINE $11.0 million in damages. We strongly disagree with the jury verdict and certain rulings made before trial. We intend to vigorously challenge the verdict and certain of the Court’s pre-trial rulings in post-trial motions, and, if necessary, pursue our rights on appeal.

On May 6, 2016 Nexsan Technologies Incorporated, a partially owned subsidiary of the Company (“NTI”), filed a complaint in United States District Court for the District of Massachusetts seeking a declaratory judgment against EMC Corporation ("EMC"). NTI alleges that NTI has a priority of right to use certain of its UNITY trademarks and that NTI's prosecution of its trademark applications with the respect to, and to use of, such trademarks does not infringe upon EMC's trademarks. In addition, NTI seeks and injunctive relief to prevent EMC from threatening NTI with legal action related to use of UNITY trademarks, or making any public statements or statements to potential customers calling into question NTI's right to use UNITY trademarks. EMC has answered and counterclaimed alleging that NTI's use of the UNITY trademark, infringes EMC's common law rights in the UNITY and EMC UNITY trademarks.

Trade Payables

On January 26, 2016, CMC Magnetic Corp. ("CMC"), a supplier of our Legacy Businesses, filed a suit in the District Court of Ramsey County Minnesota, seeking damages of $6.3 million from Imation and $0.6 million from Imation's wholly-owned subsidiary Imation Latin America Corp. ("ILAC") for alleged breach of contract. Imation and ILAC deny any liabilities and assert counterclaims for breach of warranty, breach of contract, failure to pay rebates and unjust enrichment. Imation is disputing payables to CMC for amounts exceeding $6.3 million. In June 2016, CMC filed a motion seeking to amend its complaint to increase alleged damages to $7.2 million and add additional defendants including Imation directors and officers, which the Company has obligations to defend and indemnify. Thereafter, CMC served its amended complaint and Imation and ILAC answered asserting numerous affirmative defenses and counterclaims. CMC has since retained new counsel in the action and CMC's time to reply to the counterclaims asserted by Imation and ILAC has been extended by agreement of the parties pending a motion by CMC's new counsel to further amend CMC's complaint, which motion was filed and granted by the Court. On January 3, 2017, CMC filed a second amended complaint ‎in action pending in the District Court of Ramsey County Minnesota. In addition to alleging that the Company is liable for all open CMC invoices worldwide (which CMC alleges totals approximately $23 million), the second amended complaint asserted fiduciary and related claims against former directors and other defendants, which we have an obligation to defend. The Company intends to defend its position vigorously and has asserted affirmative defenses and counterclaims.

The Company is currently disputing trade payables with certain vendors (including CMC) associated with our Legacy Businesses on the basis of vendor non-performance. As of December 31, 2016 and December 31, 2015, based on invoices from these vendors, the Company has recorded, but not made payment, with the respect to $21 million and $26 million, respectively, of disputed trade payables, all of which are recorded as "Current liabilities of discontinued operations" on the Company's Consolidated Balance Sheets. To the extent the Company is able to resolve any of these disputes for an amount lower than the corresponding recorded liabilities, the applicable difference would be recognized as a gain within discontinued operations. In connection with disputed trade payables, certain vendors have attached, seized or otherwise effected restrictions on the Company's access to approximately $9.4 million and $5.3 million of the Company's cash, all of which is recorded as restricted cash within "Current assets of discontinued operations" on the Company's Consolidated Balance Sheet as of December 31, 2016 and December 31, 2015, respectively.

In many European Union (EU) member countries, the sale of recordable optical media is subject to a private copyright levy. The levies are intended to compensate copyright holders with "fair compensation" for the harm caused by private copies made by natural persons of protected works under the European Copyright Directive, which became effective in 2002 (Directive). Levies are generally charged directly to the importer of the product upon the sale of the products. Payers of levies remit levy payments to collecting societies which, in turn, are expected to distribute funds to copyright holders. Levy systems of EU member countries must comply with the Directive, but individual member countries are responsible for administering their own systems. Since implementation, the levy systems have been the subject of numerous litigation and law making activities. On October 21, 2010, the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) ruled that fair compensation is an autonomous European law concept that was introduced by the Directive and must be uniformly applied in all EU member states. The CJEU stated that fair compensation must be calculated based on the harm caused to the authors of protected works by private copying. The CJEU ruling made clear that copyright holders are only entitled to fair compensation payments (funded by levy payments made by importers of applicable products, including the Company) when sales of optical media are made to natural persons presumed to be making private copies. Within this disclosure, we use the term "commercial channel sales" when referring to products intended for uses other than private copying and "consumer channel sales" when referring to products intended for uses including private copying.

Since the Directive was implemented in 2002, we estimate that we have paid in excess of $100 million in levies to various ongoing collecting societies related to commercial channel sales. Based on the CJEU's October 2010 ruling and subsequent litigation and law making activities, we believe that these payments were not consistent with the Directive and should not have been paid to the various collecting societies. Accordingly, subsequent to the October 21, 2010 CJEU ruling, we began withholding levy payments to the various collecting societies and, in 2011, we reversed our existing accruals for unpaid levies related to commercial channel sales. However, we continued to accrue, but not pay, a liability for levies arising from consumer channel sales, in all applicable jurisdictions except Italy and France due to certain court rulings in those jurisdictions. As of December 31, 2016 and 2015, we had accrued liabilities of $4.9 million and $5.1 million, respectively, associated with levies related to consumer channel sales for which we are withholding payment. These accruals are recorded as "Other current liabilities" on the Company's Consolidated Balance Sheets (and not within discontinued operations). The Company's management oversees copyright levy matters and continues to explore options to resolve these matters.

Since the October 2010 CJEU ruling, we evaluate quarterly on a country-by-country basis whether (i) levies should be accrued on current period commercial and/or consumer channel sales; and, (ii) whether accrued, but unpaid, copyright levies on prior period consumer channel sales should be reversed. Our evaluation is made on a jurisdiction-by-jurisdiction basis and considers ongoing and cumulative developments related to levy litigation and law making activities within each jurisdiction as well as throughout the EU. See following for discussion of reversals of copyright levies in 2013.

Italy. In December 2015, we settled our claim for reimbursement of the levies that GlassBridge the Company had paid for sales into its commercial channel with the Italian collecting society, S.I.A.E. The settlement was for $1.0 million and is recorded as a reduction in cost of sales. There are no ongoing levy disputes with respect to Italy.

France. We have overpaid levies related to sales into the Company’s commercial channel in an amount of $55.1 million. We adopted a practice of offsetting ongoing levy liability with the French collecting society for GlassBridge's sales in the consumer channel against the $55.1 million we have overpaid for copyright levies in France (due to us paying levies on commercial channels sales prior to the October 21, 2010 CJEU ruling). During the fourth quarter of 2013, GlassBridge reversed $9.5 million of French copyright levies (existing at the time of a 2013 French court decision) that arose from consumer channel sales that had been accrued but not paid to cost of sales. As of December 31, 2016 the Company had offset approximately $14.4 million.

We believe that we have utilized a methodology, and have sufficient documentation and evidence, to fully support our estimates that we have overpaid $55.1 million to the French collection society of levies on commercial channel sales and that we have incurred (but not paid) $14.4 million of levies on consumer channel sales in France. However, such amounts are currently subject to challenge in court and there is no certainty that our estimates would be upheld and supported. In December 2012, GlassBridge filed a complaint against the French collection society, Copie France, for reimbursement of the $55.1 million in commercial channel levies that GlassBridge had paid prior to October 2010. A hearing occurred on December 8, 2015, in the High Court of Justice (Tribunal de Grande Instance de Paris) on GlassBridge Europe's claim and Copie France's counterclaim. On April 8, 2016, the Paris District Court rejected all of GlassBridge Europe's claims finding that the European Union law arguments raised by GlassBridge were inapplicable and relied solely on French law to grant Copie France’s counterclaims. GlassBridge Europe has filed a notice of appeal which suspends enforcement of the ruling. GlassBridge believes Copie France's counterclaims are without merit and intends to defend its position vigorously. Despite the April 2016 ruling of the Paris District Court, the Company does not believe it to be probable that it will have to make any copyright levy payments in the future to Copie France and, accordingly, has not recorded an accrual for this matter.

Canada. The Canadian Private Copying Collective ("CPCC") is alleging that GlassBridge Enterprises Corp. has not previously reported certain prior sales of Legacy Business products that should have been subject to copyright levies and seeks damages of approximately CAD 1 million and penalties and interest of approximately CAD 5 million. GlassBridge believes CPCC's claims are without merit and intends to defend its position vigorously. The Company does not believe it to be probable that it will have to make any copyright levy payments in the future to CPCC and, according, has not recorded an accrual for this matter.

Other Jurisdictions. During the first quarter of 2015, GlassBridge reversed $2.8 million accrual for German copyright levies on optical products as the result of a favorable German court decision retroactively setting levy rates at a level much lower than the rates sought by the German collecting society. The reversal was recorded as a reduction of cost of sales. At December 31, 2016, the recovery of some or all of the copyright levies previously paid on commercial sales in EU jurisdictions other than Italy, France and Germany represents a gain contingency that has not yet met the required criteria for recognition in our financial statements. There is no assurance that we will realize any of this gain contingency. We have an estimated $4.9 million of accrued but unpaid levies associated with consumer sales in EU jurisdictions other than Italy and France that we continue to carry on our books.

The Company is subject to several pending or threatened legal actions by the individual European national levy collecting societies in relation to private copyright levies under the Directive. Those actions generally seek payment of the commercial and consumer optical levies withheld by GlassBridge. GlassBridge has corresponding claims in those actions seeking reimbursement of levies improperly collected by those collecting societies. We are subject to threatened actions by certain customers of GlassBridge seeking reimbursement of funds they allege relate to commercial levies that they claim they should not have paid. Although these actions are subject to the uncertainties inherent in the litigation process, based on the information presently available to us, management does not expect that the ultimate resolution of these actions will have a material adverse effect on our financial condition, results of operations or cash flows. We anticipate that additional court decisions may be rendered in 2017 that may directly or indirectly impact our levy exposure in specific European countries which could trigger a review of our levy exposure in those countries.

Indemnification Obligations

In the normal course of business, we periodically enter into agreements that incorporate general indemnification language. Performance under these indemnities would generally be triggered by a breach of terms of the contract or by a supportable third-party claim. There have historically been no material losses related to such indemnifications. As of December 31, 2016 and 2015, estimated liability amounts associated with such indemnifications were not material.

Environmental Matters

Our Legacy Business operations and indemnification obligations resulting from our spinoff from 3M subject us liabilities arising from a wide range of federal, state and local environmental laws. For example, from time to time we have received correspondence from 3M notifying us that we may have a duty to defend and indemnify 3M with respect to certain environmental claims such as remediation costs. Environmental remediation costs are accrued when a probable liability has been determined and the amount of such liability has been reasonably estimated. These accruals are reviewed periodically as remediation and investigatory activities proceed and are adjusted accordingly. We did not have any environmental accruals as of December 31, 2016. Compliance with environmental regulations has not had a material adverse effect on our financial results.

Operating Leases

We incur rent expense under operating leases, which primarily relate to equipment and office space. Most long-term leases include one or more options to renew at the then fair rental value for a period of approximately one to three years. The following table sets forth the components of net rent expense for the years ended December 31:



	2016			2015
	(In millions)
Minimum lease payments	$	3.6		$	8.1
Contingent rentals	(2.0		)	0.1
Rental income	—			(8.2		)
Total rental expense, net	$	1.6		$	—

Minimum lease payments and contingent rental expenses associated with agreements with warehouse providers are included as a component of cost of goods sold in our Consolidated Statements of Operations. The minimum lease payments under such arrangements were $0.0 million and $0.6 million in 2016 and 2015, respectively. The contingent rental expenses under such arrangements were $0.0 million and $0.7 million in 2016 and 2015, respectively.

The following table sets forth the minimum rental payments under operating leases with non-cancellable terms in excess of one year as of December 31, 2016. The Company will keep a small team and its headquarters in Minnesota in 2016, and those lease costs are included below. The amount for 2016 includes an estimate of the lease termination fees that we will have to pay in order to cancel certain leases upon the full wind-down of our legacy business.



	2017		2018		2019		2020		2021		Thereafter		Total
	(In millions)
Minimum lease payments	$	1.1	$	1.0	$	0.7	$	0.5	$	0.3	$	0.1	$	3.7