Note 6 - Long-Term Investment

9 Months Ended

Dec. 29, 2013

Investments Schedule [Abstract]

Investment [Text Block]

NOTE 6.    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 invested 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 the dates indicated below, our long-term investment balance, which is included in the “Other non-current assets” line item on the condensed consolidated balance sheets, consisted of the following (in thousands):

	December29, 2013			March 31, 2013
Beginning balance	$	1,288		$	1,273
Contributions		—			15
Distributions		(25	)		—
Ending balance	$	1,263		$	1,288

The carrying amount of $1.3 million as of December 29, 2013 reflects the net of the capital contributions, capital distributions and cumulative impairment charges. We have made $4.8 million in capital contributions to Skypoint Fund since we became a limited partner in July 2001. During the first quarter of fiscal year 2013, we contributed $15,000 to the fund.

In the three months ended December 29, 2013, Skypoint Fund informed us of the sale of one of the portfolio companies in the fund. Exar’s distribution from the sale was approximately $25,000. 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 Partnership is currently in the dissolution phase. As of December 29, 2013, we do not have any further capital commitments.

Impairment

We evaluate our long-term investment for impairment whenever events and changes in circumstances suggest that the carrying amount may not be recoverable. We conduct our annual impairment analysis in the fourth quarter of each fiscal year by comparing the carrying amount to the fair value of the underlying investments. If the carrying amount exceeds its fair value, the long term-investment is considered impaired and a second step is performed to measure the amount of impairment loss. We analyzed the fair value of the underlying investments of Skypoint Fund and as a result, no impairment was recorded during the third fiscal quarter of 2014.