Investments

9 Months Ended

Sep. 30, 2019

Investments, Debt and Equity Securities [Abstract]

Investments

INVESTMENTS

During the nine months ended September 30, 2019, we made strategic equity securities investments to increase our digital capabilities. Effective January 1, 2018, we adopted ASU Financial Instruments—Overall: Recognition and Measurement of Financial Assets and Financial Liabilities, which requires us to measure all equity investments that do not result in consolidation and are not accounted for under the equity method at fair value and recognize any changes in earnings. We use quoted market prices to determine the fair values of equity securities with readily determinable fair values. For equity securities without readily determinable fair values, we have elected the measurement alternative under which we measure these investments at cost minus impairment, if any, plus or minus changes resulting from observable price changes in orderly transactions for the identical or a similar investment of the same issuer. Management assesses each of these investments on an individual basis.

The accounting guidance related to the classification and measurement of certain equity investments requires us to account for these investments at fair value or to elect to account for these investments under the "practicability exception," which permits measurement of these investments at cost, minus impairments, plus or minus observable changes in price for each reporting period. As of September 30, 2019, we had elected the practicability exception for equity investments without readily determinable fair values of $3.5 million and have not recognized any impairments or any upward adjustments on either an annual or cumulative basis due to observable price changes.

As of September 30, 2019, the carrying values of our equity securities were included in the following line item in our consolidated balance sheets (in thousands):

	Measurement Alternative - No Readily Determinable Fair Value
Other assets	$	3,500