- Definition

Investments in debt and equity securities which are categorized neither as held-to-maturity nor trading and which are intended to be sold or mature more than one year from the balance sheet date or operating cycle, if longer. Such securities are reported at fair value; unrealized gains (losses) related to Available-for-sale Securities are excluded from earnings and reported in a separate component of shareholders' equity (other comprehensive income), unless the Available-for-sale security is designated as a hedge or is determined to have had an other than temporary decline in fair value below its amortized cost basis. All or a portion of the unrealized holding gain (loss) of an Available-for-sale security that is designated as being hedged in a fair value hedge is recognized in earnings during the period of the hedge, as are other than temporary declines in fair value below the cost basis for investments in equity securities and debt securities that an entity intends to sell or it is more likely than not that it will be required to sell before the recovery of its amortized cost basis. Other than temporary declines in fair value below the cost basis for debt securities categorized as Available-for-sale that an entity does not intend to sell and for which it is not more likely than not that the entity will be required to sell before the recovery of its amortized cost basis are bifurcated into credit losses and losses related to all other factors. Other than temporary declines in fair value below cost basis related to credit losses are recognized in earnings, and losses related to all other factors are recognized in other comprehensive income.

+ References+ Details

Marketable Securities - Additional Information (Detail) (USD $)	3 Months Ended		12 Months Ended
	May 31, 2013	Aug. 31, 2012	May 31, 2014	May 31, 2013
Schedule of Available-for-sale Securities [Line Items]
Available-for-sale securities, current	$ 49,100,000		$ 71,900,000	$ 49,100,000
Available-for-sale securities, long-term	64,000,000		71,000,000	64,000,000
Gross gains realized on sales of investments			7,500,000	12,300,000
Gross losses realized on sales of investments			100,000	600,000
Losses recognized for securities deemed to have other-than-temporary impairments			200,000	14,300,000
Impairment of investments	18,500,000	40,300,000		51,092,000
Conversion option, Kemrock 5.5% bonds
Schedule of Available-for-sale Securities [Line Items]
Impairment of investments				$ 13,700,000
Maximum
Schedule of Available-for-sale Securities [Line Items]
Investments with unrealized loss, percentage of fair values less than original cost			15.00%