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Note 6: Investments
December 31 (in millions) 2011 2010
Fair Value Method $ 3,028 $ 2,815
Equity Method:
A&E Television Networks 2,021 —
SpectrumCo 1,417 1,413
The Weather Channel 463 —
MSNBC.com 174 —
Clearwire LLC 69 357
Other 736 423
4,880 2,193
Cost Method:
AirTouch 1,523 1,508
Other 477 235
2,000 1,743
Total investments 9,908 6,751
Less: Current investments(a) 54 81
Noncurrent investments $ 9,854 $ 6,670
(a) Current investments are included in other current assets in our consolidated balance sheet.
Fair Value Method
As of December 31, 2011, we held as collateral $3.0 billion of fair value method equity securities related to
our obligations under prepaid forward sale agreements, which represents 98.5% of the total fair value method
debt and equity securities held as of the balance sheet date. These investments were primarily in Liberty
Media-related and Cablevision-related investments. The obligations related to these investments are recorded
to other noncurrent liabilities and terminate between 2013 and 2015. At termination, the counterparties are
entitled to receive some or all of the equity securities, or an equivalent amount of cash at our option, based
on the market value of the equity securities at that time. As of December 31, 2011 and 2010, our prepaid
forward sale obligations had an estimated fair value of $2.5 billion and $2.4 billion, respectively.
Equity Method
Equity method investments held as of December 31, 2011 consist primarily of our investments in A&E Tele-
vision Networks LLC (“A&E Television Networks”) (16%), SpectrumCo, LLC (“SpectrumCo”) (64%), The
Weather Channel Holding Corp. (“The Weather Channel”) (25%), MSNBC Interactive News, LLC
(“MSNBC.com”) (50%) and Clearwire Communications LLC (“Clearwire LLC”) (6%). NBCUniversal’s recorded
investments as of December 31, 2011, exceeded their proportionate interests in book value of the investees’
net assets by $1.9 billion. The difference in values is primarily related to our investments in A&E Television
Networks and MSNBC.com. This difference is amortized in equity in net income (losses) of investees, net
over a period of less than 20 years. See below for additional information on certain of our larger equity
method investments.
97 Comcast 2011 Annual Report on Form 10-K