Assets and Liabilities Measured at Fair Value

9 Months Ended

Sep. 30, 2020

Assets and Liabilities Measured at Fair Value

(2) Assets and Liabilities Measured at Fair Value

For assets and liabilities required to be reported at fair value, GAAP provides a hierarchy that prioritizes inputs to valuation techniques used to measure fair value into three broad levels. Level 1 inputs are quoted market prices in active markets for identical assets or liabilities that the reporting entity has the ability to access at the measurement date. Level 2 inputs, other than quoted market prices included within Level 1, are observable for the asset or liability, either directly or indirectly. Level 3 inputs are unobservable inputs for the asset or liability. The Company does not have any recurring assets or liabilities measured at fair value that would be considered Level 3.

The Company’s assets and liabilities measured at fair value are as follows:


	September 30, 2020				December 31, 2019
			Quoted			Quoted
			prices			prices
			in active	Significant		in active	Significant
			markets	other		markets	other
			for identical	observable		for identical	observable
			assets	inputs		assets	inputs
Description	Total		(Level 1)	(Level 2)	Total	(Level 1)	(Level 2)
	amounts in thousands
Cash equivalents	$	17,800	17,800	—	54,552	54,552	—
Equity securities	$	3,345,464	3,345,464	—	2,600,008	2,600,008	—
Investment in Liberty Broadband	$	6,097,955	6,097,955	—	5,367,242	5,367,242	—
Derivative instrument liability	$	63,456	—	63,456	71,305	—	71,305

On April 29, 2019, the Company terminated its previous variable forward and entered into a new 3-year variable forward with respect to 642,850 LendingTree shares. The variable forward was executed at the LendingTree closing price on April 29, 2019 of $376.35 per share and has a floor price of zero and has a cap price of $254.00 per share. The fair value of the variable forward was derived from a Black-Scholes-Merton model using observable market data as the significant inputs.

Realized and Unrealized Gains (Losses) on Financial Instruments, net

Realized and unrealized gains (losses) on financial instruments, net are comprised of changes in the fair value of the following:


	Three months ended			Nine months ended
	September 30,			September 30,
	2020		2019	2020		2019

	amounts in thousands
Equity securities	$	612,465	90,770		746,406	683,808
Investment in Liberty Broadband		807,114	19,207		730,713	1,393,135
Derivative instruments		(2,019)	60,640		7,849	(57,721)
	$	1,417,560	170,617		1,484,968	2,019,222

- Definition

The entire disclosure for the fair value of financial instruments (as defined), including financial assets and financial liabilities (collectively, as defined), and the measurements of those instruments as well as disclosures related to the fair value of non-financial assets and liabilities. Such disclosures about the financial instruments, assets, and liabilities would include: (1) the fair value of the required items together with their carrying amounts (as appropriate); (2) for items for which it is not practicable to estimate fair value, disclosure would include: (a) information pertinent to estimating fair value (including, carrying amount, effective interest rate, and maturity, and (b) the reasons why it is not practicable to estimate fair value; (3) significant concentrations of credit risk including: (a) information about the activity, region, or economic characteristics identifying a concentration, (b) the maximum amount of loss the entity is exposed to based on the gross fair value of the related item, (c) policy for requiring collateral or other security and information as to accessing such collateral or security, and (d) the nature and brief description of such collateral or security; (4) quantitative information about market risks and how such risks are managed; (5) for items measured on both a recurring and nonrecurring basis information regarding the inputs used to develop the fair value measurement; and (6) for items presented in the financial statement for which fair value measurement is elected: (a) information necessary to understand the reasons for the election, (b) discussion of the effect of fair value changes on earnings, (c) a description of [similar groups] items for which the election is made and the relation thereof to the balance sheet, the aggregate carrying value of items included in the balance sheet that are not eligible for the election; (7) all other required (as defined) and desired information.

+ References + Details

GCI, LLC 10-Q