Note 6. Investments in Privately-held Companies

We have made strategic investments in private companies located in China in order to gain access at a competitive cost to raw materials that are critical to our substrate business. These companies form part of our overall supply chain.

Our investments are summarized below (in thousands):

	InvestmentBalanceasof
Company	March31, 2015		December31, 2014		Accounting Method	Ownership Percentage
Beijing JiYa Semiconductor Material Co., Ltd.	$	3,331	$	3,331	Consolidated		46	%
Nanjing Jin Mei Gallium Co., Ltd.		592		592	Consolidated		83	%
Beijing BoYu Semiconductor Vessel Craftwork Technology Co., Ltd.		1,346		1,346	Consolidated		70	%
	$	5,269	$	5,269

Donghai County Dongfang High Purity Electronic Materials Co., Ltd.	$	1,682	$	1,723	Equity		46	%
Xilingol Tongli Germanium Co. Ltd.		5,440		5,351	Equity		25	%
Emeishan Jia Mei High Purity Metals Co., Ltd.		1,025		1,021	Equity		25	%
	$	8,147	$	8,095

Our ownership of Beijing JiYa Semiconductor Material Co., Ltd. (JiYa) is 46%. We continue to consolidate JiYa as we have significant influence in management and have majority control of the board. Our Chief Executive Officer is chairman of the JiYa board and two other of our employees are also members of the board.

Our ownership of Nanjing Jin Mei Gallium Co., Ltd. (Jin Mei) is 83%. We continue to consolidate Jin Mei as we have significant influence in management and have majority control of the board. Our Chief Executive Officer is chairman of the Jin Mei board and two other of our employees are also members of the board.

Our ownership of Beijing BoYu Semiconductor Vessel Craftwork Technology Co., Ltd (BoYu) is 70%. We continue to consolidate BoYu as we have a significant influence in management and have majority control of the board. Our Chief Executive Officer is chairman of the BoYu board and two other of our employees are also members of the board.

Although we have representation on the boards of directors of each of these companies, the daily operations of each of these companies are managed by local management and not by us. Decisions concerning their respective short-term strategy and operations, any capacity expansion and annual capital expenditures, and decisions concerning sales of finished product, are made by local management with some inputs from us.

During the three months ended March 31, 2015 and 2014, the three consolidated joint ventures generated $0.6 million and $0.8 million of income, respectively, of which $125,000 and $205,000, respectively, were allocated to minority interests, resulting in $427,000 and $548,000 of income, respectively, to our net income (loss).

For the three minority investment entities that are not consolidated, the investment balances are included in “other assets” in our consolidated balance sheets and totaled $8.1 million and $8.1 million as of March 31, 2015 and December 31, 2014, respectively. We own 46% of the ownership interests in one of these companies and 25% in each of the other two companies. These three companies are not considered variable interest entities because:

all three companies have sustainable businesses of their own;

our voting power is proportionate to our ownership interests;

we only recognize our respective share of the losses and/or residual returns generated by the companies if they occur; and

we do not have controlling financial interest in, do not maintain operational or management control of, do not control the board of directors of, and are not required to provide additional investment or financial support to any of these companies.

We also maintain minority investments indirectly in privately-held companies through our consolidated joint ventures. These minority investments are accounted for under the equity method in the books of our consolidated joint ventures. As of March 31, 2015 and December 31, 2014, our consolidated joint ventures included these minority investments in “other assets” in the consolidated balance sheets with a carrying value of $4.3 million and $4.0 million, respectively.

The minority investment entities that are not consolidated are accounted for under the equity method and had the following summarized income information (in thousands) for the three months ended March 31, 2015 and 2014.

	ThreeMonthsEnded March31,
	2015		2014

Revenue	$	9,325	$	13,480
Gross profit		2,295		3,963
Operating income		1,051		2,664
Net income		957		2,119

Our portion of the entity earnings from the minority investment entities that are not consolidated and are accounted for under the equity method were $200,000 and $487,000 for the three months ended March 31, 2015 and March 31, 2014, respectively.

We also maintain minority investments directly in one privately-held company accounted for under the cost method and we do not have the ability to exercise significant influence over their operations. As of March 31, 2015 and December 31, 2014, our investments in this unconsolidated privately-held company had a carrying value of $200,000 and are included in “other assets” in the condensed consolidated balance sheets.