Note 4 - Investments

12 Months Ended

Dec. 31, 2016

Notes to Financial Statements

Equity Method Investments and Joint Ventures Disclosure [Text Block]

4. INVESTMENTS

At

December

31,

2016

and

2015,

our ownership interest in NKD Enterprises, LLC was

25.5

%.

We account for our investment by the equity method of accounting. The carrying value of NKD Enterprises, LLC is included in long-term investments. In

December

2015,

we recorded an impairment charge of

$792,000

to reduce the carrying value of our investment in NKD Enterprises, LLC to management’s estimate of net realizable value.

	Carrying Value
At December 31, (in thousands)	201 6		201 5
NKD Enterprises, LLC	$	64	$	107

The following table presents the unaudited summarized financial information for NKD Enterprises, LLC for the respective time periods:

As of and for the year ended December 31 , (in thousands)	201 6			201 5
Revenues	$	2,050		$	1,878
Operating loss		(168	)		(58	)
Net loss		(168	)		(58	)

As of and for the year ended December 31, (in thousands)	201 6		201 5
Current assets	$	107	$	133
Non-current assets		3,002		3,004
Current liabilities		400		260
Stockholders’ equity		2,709		2,877

On

December

23,

2015,

one

of our investee companies in which we held a small equity stake, Lancope Inc., was sold to Cisco, Inc. We recognized a gain of

$2,034,000

against our carrying value of

$214,000

in the

fourth

quarter of

2015.

Cash from the sale of

$2,248,000

(which is included in “Other Current Assets” at

December

31,

2015)

was received in early

January

2016.

A portion of the sale proceeds is being held in escrow for

eighteen

months for claims that the buyer

may

assert against Lancope, Inc. Our portion of the escrow

may

be as much as

$390,000;

however, as there is presently no way to estimate how much, if any, of the escrow will be released to us, we have not included any provision for the receipt of any escrow funds in our current financial statements.

In the quarter ended

March

31,

2016,

we recorded an impairment charge of

$700,000

to reduce the carrying value of our minority equity ownership in Lumense, Inc., an early stage sensor technology company, to

$50,000.

Subsequently, in the quarter ended

June

30,

2016,

we recorded an additional impairment charge of

$50,000

to fully write-down our minority equity ownership in Lumense to

zero.

Given that Lumense has no reasonable prospects to fund its operations and product development, we believe a full write-down is prudent and required.

On

December

30,

2016

we signed an agreement to invest

$1,000,000

in a privately held technology company and program manager, with

$500,000

of the investment held in escrow to pay future fees to CoreCard pursuant to a Processing Agreement entered into by the parties. The investment was funded on

January

4,

2017;

the liability for the investment funding is shown in “Other Current Liabilities” at

December

31,

2016.