Long-Term Investment

9 Months Ended

Jan. 01, 2012

Long-Term Investment [Abstract]

Long-Term Investment

NOTE 5. LONG-TERM INVESTMENT

Our long-term investment consists of our investment in Skypoint Telecom Fund II (US), L.P. ("Skypoint Fund"). Skypoint Fund is a venture capital fund that invests primarily in private companies in the telecommunications and/or networking industries. We account for this non-marketable equity investment under the cost method. We periodically review and determine whether the investment is other-than-temporarily impaired, in which case the investment is written down to its impaired value.

As of January 1, 2012 and March 27, 2011, our long-term investment balance, which is included in the other non-current assets line item on the condensed consolidated balance sheet, was as follows (in thousands):

	January 1, 2012		March 27, 2011
Long-term investment
Skypoint Fund	$	1,273	$	1,563

We have made approximately $4.8 million in capital contributions to Skypoint Fund since we became a limited partner in July 2001. We contributed $114,000 to the fund during the nine months ended January 1, 2012. Any remaining capital commitment to the Skypoint Fund lapsed on July 27, 2011. In the three months ended October 2, 2011, the limited partners of the Skypoint Fund agreed to extend the term of the Skypoint Fund for one additional year.

In the three months ended January 1, 2012, Skypoint Fund informed us of the sale of one of the portfolio companies in the fund. Exar's distribution from the sale is approximately $404,000, of which $76,000 will be held in escrow until May 18, 2013. In accordance with the standard related to accounting for cost method investments, we recorded the distribution on the cost basis and reduced the carrying value of our investment in the Skypoint Fund.

The carrying amount of $1.3 million is net of capital contributions, cumulative impairment charges and capital distributions.

Impairment

We analyzed the fair value of the underlying investments of Skypoint Fund and concluded that there was no other-than-temporary impairment, and therefore we did not record an impairment charge for Skypoint Fund in either the nine months ended January 1, 2012 or December 26, 2010, respectively.