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OTHER LONG-TERM ASSETS
6 Months Ended
Mar. 31, 2013
OTHER LONG-TERM ASSETS [Abstract]  
OTHER LONG-TERM ASSETS
6. OTHER LONG-TERM ASSETS

Other long-term assets consisted of the following:


 
 
March 31,
 
 
September 30,
 
 
 
2013
 
 
2012
 
 
 
 
 
 
Auction rate securities
 
$
7,966
 
 
$
7,991
 
Other long-term assets
 
 
3,493
 
 
 
2,872
 
Other long-term investments
 
 
1,274
 
 
 
1,082
 
Total
 
$
12,733
 
 
$
11,945
 


As discussed in Note 2 of this Form 10-Q, the two ARS that we owned as of March 31, 2013 are classified as long-term investments.  The securities are credit enhanced and insured with bond insurance and all interest payments continue to be received on a timely basis.  Although we believe these securities will ultimately be collected in full, we believe that it is not likely that we will be able to monetize the securities in our next business cycle (which for us is generally one year).  We maintain a $234 pretax reduction ($151 net of tax) in fair value on one of the ARS that we first recognized in fiscal 2008.  We continue to believe this decline in fair value is temporary based on: (1) the nature of the underlying debt; (2) the presence of bond insurance; (3) the fact that all interest payments have been received; (4) our successful monetization of $25 of this security during the quarter ended March 31, 2013; and (5) our intention not to sell the security nor be required to sell the security until the value recovers, which may be at maturity.

As discussed in Note 2 of this Form 10-Q, we recorded a long-term asset and a corresponding long-term liability of $1,274 representing the fair value of our SERP investments as of March 31, 2013.