Pension and Severance Plans

Foreign Pension Plans

Our Philippine, Taiwanese and Japanese subsidiaries sponsor defined benefit pension plans that cover substantially all of their respective employees who are not covered by statutory plans. Charges to expense are based upon actuarial analyses. The components of net periodic pension cost for these defined benefit plans are as follows:



	For the Three Months Ended March 31,
	2012			2011
	(In thousands)
Components of net periodic pension cost and total pension expense:
Service cost	$	1,701		$	1,628
Interest cost	821			909
Expected return on plan assets	(783		)	(875		)
Amortization of transition obligation	2			2
Amortization of prior service cost	70			78
Recognized actuarial loss	51			22
Net periodic pension cost	1,862			1,764
Curtailment loss	1,089			—
Settlement gain	(100		)	—
Total pension expense	$	2,851		$	1,764

During the three months ended March 31, 2012, we recognized net curtailment and settlement losses of $1.0 million resulting from the remeasurement of our defined benefit plan in Japan due to reductions in workforce (See Note 18).

For the three months ended March 31, 2012, we contributed $0.1 million to the pension plans. We expect to contribute approximately $3.2 million to the pension plans during the remainder of 2012. For the three months ended March 31, 2011, our contributions to the pension plans were not significant.

Korean Severance Plan

Our Korean subsidiary participates in an accrued severance plan that covers employees and directors with at least one year of service. To the extent eligible employees are terminated, our Korean subsidiary would be required to make lump-sum severance payments on behalf of these eligible employees based on their length of service, seniority and rate of pay at the time of termination. Accrued severance benefits are estimated assuming all eligible employees were to terminate their employment at the balance sheet date. Our contributions to the National Pension Plan of the Republic of Korea are deducted from accrued severance benefit liabilities.

The provision recorded for severance benefits for the three months ended March 31, 2012 and 2011, was $0.4 million and $5.7 million, respectively. The balance of our Korean severance obligation consists of the following:



	March 31, 2012		December 31, 2011
	(In thousands)
Current (Accrued expenses)	$	7,224	$	7,476
Non-current (Pension and severance obligations)	100,135		99,000
Total Korean severance obligation	$	107,359	$	106,476