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Severance and Leased Real Estate
6 Months Ended
Jun. 30, 2012
Severance and Leased Real Estate  
Severance and Leased Real Estate

 

(5) Severance and Leased Real Estate

        Periodically, we have implemented reductions in our workforce and have accrued liabilities for related severance costs. These workforce reductions resulted primarily from our integration plans related to CenturyLink's acquisition of us, increased competitive pressures and reduced workload demands due to the loss of access lines.

        We report severance liabilities within "accrued expenses and other liabilities—salaries and benefits" in our consolidated balance sheets and report severance expenses in cost of services and products and selling, general and administrative expenses in our consolidated statements of operations.

        In periods prior to CenturyLink's acquisition of us, we had ceased using certain real estate that we were leasing under long-term operating leases. As of the April 1, 2011 acquisition date, we recognized liabilities to reflect our estimates of the fair values of the existing lease obligations for real estate for which we had ceased using, net of estimated sublease rentals. Our fair value estimates were determined using discounted cash flow methods. We recognize expense to reflect accretion of the discounted liabilities and periodically, we adjust the expense when our actual experience differs from our initial estimates. We report the current portion of liabilities for ceased-use real estate leases in "accrued expenses and other liabilities—other" and report the noncurrent portion in "deferred credits and other liabilities—other" in our consolidated balance sheets. We report the related expenses in "selling, general and administrative expenses" in our consolidated statements of operations.

        As of the successor dates of June 30, 2012 and December 31, 2011, the current portion of our leased real estate accrual was $32 million and $27 million, respectively, and the noncurrent portion was $115 million and $126 million, respectively. The remaining lease terms range from 0.1 years to 13.5 years, with a weighted average of 9.1 years.

        Changes in our accrued liabilities for severance expenses and leased real estate were as follows:

 
  Severance   Real Estate  
 
  (Dollars in millions)
 

Balance at December 31, 2011 (Successor)

  $ 29     153  

Accrued to expense

    45     1  

Payments, net

    (22 )   (4 )

Reversals and adjustments

    (3 )    
           

Balance at March 31, 2012 (Successor)

    49     150  
           

Accrued to expense

    13     2  

Payments, net

    (42 )   (5 )

Reversals and adjustments

         
           

Balance at June 30, 2012 (Successor)

  $ 20     147