Income Taxes

9 Months Ended

Sep. 30, 2012

Income Taxes [Abstract]

Income Taxes

11. Income Taxes

The Company recognizes federal, state and foreign current tax liabilities or assets based on its estimate of taxes payable to or refundable by tax authorities in the current fiscal year. The Company also recognizes federal, state and foreign deferred tax liabilities or assets based on the Company’s estimate of future tax effects attributable to temporary differences and carry forwards. The Company records a valuation allowance to reduce any deferred tax assets by the amount of any tax benefits that, based on available evidence and judgment, are not expected to be realized.

The Company assesses whether a valuation allowance should be recorded against its deferred tax assets based on the consideration of all available evidence, using a “more-likely-than-not” realization standard. The four sources of taxable income that must be considered in determining whether deferred tax assets will be realized are: (1) future reversals of existing taxable temporary differences (i.e., offset of gross deferred tax assets against gross deferred tax liabilities); (2) taxable income in prior carryback years, if carryback is permitted under the applicable tax law; (3) tax planning strategies and (4) future taxable income exclusive of reversing temporary differences and carryforwards.

In assessing whether a valuation allowance is required, significant weight is to be given to evidence that can be objectively verified. A significant factor in the Company’s assessment is that the Company is in a three-year historical cumulative loss position. This fact, combined with uncertain near-term market and economic conditions, reduced the Company’s ability to rely on projections of future taxable income in assessing the realizability of its deferred tax assets.

After a review of the four sources of taxable income as of September 30, 2012 (as described above), the Company recognized increases in the valuation allowance primarily related to its U.S.-based deferred tax amounts, resulting from carryforward net operating losses, and Canadian-based deferred tax amounts, resulting from research and development tax credits, generated during the three and nine months ended September 30, 2012. These deferred tax benefits, combined with a corresponding charge to income tax expense related to the increased valuation allowance of $9.9 million and $24.3 million for the three and nine months ended September 30, 2012, respectively, resulted in an insignificant effective income tax rate for those respective periods. The Company’s valuation allowance was $61.0 million on net deferred tax assets of $61.9 million at September 30, 2012. The net unreserved portion of the Company’s remaining deferred tax assets at September 30, 2012 primarily related to research and development tax credits associated with the Company’s Canadian subsidiary.

For the three and nine months ended September 30, 2012, the Company recorded an income tax expense, including discrete items, of $107,000 and $276,000, respectively. These amounts vary from the income tax benefit that would be computed at the U.S. statutory rate resulting from its operating losses during those same periods primarily due to the aforementioned offsetting increase in the Company’s deferred tax assets valuation allowance.

The Company follows the accounting guidance related to financial statement recognition, measurement and disclosure of uncertain tax positions. The Company recognizes the impact of an uncertain income tax position on an income tax return at the largest amount that is “more-likely-than-not” to be sustained upon audit by the relevant taxing authority. An uncertain income tax position will not be recognized if it has less than a 50% likelihood of being sustained. As of September 30, 2012 and December 31, 2011, the total liability for unrecognized tax benefits was $420,000 and $413,000, respectively, and is included in other long-term liabilities. For the three and nine months ended September 30, 2012, the Company included $2,000 and $7,000 respectively, of interest expense related to uncertain tax positions in its condensed consolidated statements of operations and comprehensive income (loss).

During the third quarter of 2012, the Company recorded preliminary estimated impairment changes of $7.3 million against intangible assets and $13.2 million against goodwill on a pre-tax basis against the M2M operating unit. The Company will finalize its estimate of the impairment charge during the fourth quarter of 2012, including the related impact to income taxes.

In the fourth quarter of 2012, the Company expects to release $50,000 of its liability for unrecognized tax benefits due to the expiration of the statute of limitations applicable to the 2007 taxable year.

The Company and its subsidiaries file U.S., state, and foreign income tax returns in jurisdictions with various statutes of limitations. The California Franchise Tax Board is currently conducting an examination of the Company’s California income tax returns for 2006 and 2007. The Company is also subject to various Federal income tax examinations for the 2003 through 2010 calendar years due to the availability of net operating loss carryforwards. The Company believes appropriate provisions for all outstanding issues have been made for all jurisdictions and all open years. However, because audit outcomes and the timing of audit settlements are subject to significant uncertainty, the Company’s current estimate of the total amounts of unrecognized tax benefits could increase or decrease for all open years.