INVESTMENTS

9 Months Ended

Sep. 30, 2011

INVESTMENTS

INVESTMENTS

Note 2 INVESTMENTS

              Investments at September 30, 2011 and December 31, 2010 are primarily comprised of corporate equity securities, U.S. and foreign corporate debt securities and auction-rate securities.

              All marketable securities are deemed by management to be available-for-sale and are reported at fair value, with the exception of certain auction-rate securities as described below. Net unrealized gains or losses that are not deemed to be other than temporary are reported within stockholders' equity on the Company's condensed consolidated balance sheets as a component of accumulated other comprehensive income. Gross realized gains or losses are recorded based on the specific identification method. For the three and nine months ended September 30, 2011, the Company's gross realized gains or losses on short-term investments were insignificant. In the three months ended September 30, 2010, the Company's gross realized gains or losses on short-term investments were insignificant. In the nine months ended September 30, 2010, the Company recorded gross realized gains of $2,141 from the sale of short-term investments, which are included in interest and other (expense) income, net in the condensed consolidated statements of operations. The Company's investments are further detailed in the table below:

	September 30, 2011					December 31, 2010
	Adjusted Cost			Fair Value		Adjusted Cost			Fair Value
	(in thousands)
Corporate equity securities	$	-		$	-	$	87		$	158
Auction-rate securities		2,220			2,251		2,220			2,251
Corporate debt securities and other obligations		4,597			4,579		19,686			19,416
	$	6,817		$	6,830	$	21,993		$	21,825
Unrealized gains		31					126
Unrealized losses		(18	)				(294	)
Net unrealized gains (losses)		13					(168	)
Fair value	$	6,830				$	21,825
Amount included in short-term investments				$	4,579				$	19,574
Amount included in other assets					2,251					2,251
				$	6,830				$	21,825

              For the three and nine months ended September 30, 2011, auctions for auction-rate securities held by the Company have continued to fail and as a result these securities continued to be illiquid. The Company concluded that $2,220 (adjusted cost) of these securities are unlikely to be liquidated within the next twelve months and classified these securities as long-term investments, which are included in other assets on the condensed consolidated balance sheets.

              Contractual maturities (at adjusted cost) of available-for-sale debt securities as of September 30, 2011, were as follows:

	(in thousands)
Due within one year	$	4,597
Due in 1-5 years		-
Due in 5-10 years		-
Due after 10 years		2,220
Total	$	6,817

              Atmel has classified all investments with maturity dates of 90 days or more as short-term as it has the ability and intent to redeem them within the year, with the exception of the Company's remaining auction-rate securities, which have been classified as long-term investments and included in other assets on the condensed consolidated balance sheets.