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Investments (Tables)
3 Months Ended
Mar. 31, 2014
Investments [Abstract]  
Schedule of Investments by Accounting Method
The details of our investments are set forth below: 
Accounting Method
 
March 31,
2014
 
December 31,
2013
 
in millions
Fair value:
 
 
 
Ziggo (a):
 
 
 
Not subject to re-use rights (38.4 million and 34.1 million shares, respectively)
$
1,707.6

 
$
1,560.1

Subject to re-use rights (18.6 million and 22.9 million shares, respectively)
824.2

 
1,049.4

Total — Ziggo
2,531.8

 
2,609.5

Sumitomo (b)
581.5

 
572.9

Other (c)
309.0

 
299.4

Total — fair value
3,422.3

 
3,481.8

Equity
15.6

 
8.9

Cost
0.5

 
0.5

Total
$
3,438.4

 
$
3,491.2

_______________

(a)
At March 31, 2014, we owned 57,000,738 shares of Ziggo. Our Ziggo shares represented 28.5% of the outstanding shares of Ziggo at March 31, 2014. At March 31, 2014, 19,965,600 of the Ziggo shares that we owned were (i) subject to a share collar (the Ziggo Collar) and (ii) pledged as collateral under a secured borrowing arrangement (the Ziggo Collar Loan) and are held in a custody account. Under the terms of the Ziggo Collar, the counterparty has the right to re-use most of the Ziggo shares held in the custody account (up to an estimated 18.6 million shares at March 31, 2014), but we have the right to recall the shares that are re-used by the counterparty subject to certain costs. In addition, the counterparty retains dividends on the Ziggo shares that the counterparty would need to borrow from the custody account to hedge its exposure under the Ziggo Collar (an estimated 14.6 million shares at March 31, 2014). The decline in the number of shares subject to re-use rights is primarily attributable to a partial settlement in January 2014 of the Ziggo Collar and Ziggo Collar Loan.

(b)
At March 31, 2014, we owned 45,652,043 shares of Sumitomo Corporation (Sumitomo) common stock. Our Sumitomo shares represented less than 5% of Sumitomo’s outstanding common stock at March 31, 2014. These shares secure a loan (the Sumitomo Collar Loan) to Liberty Programming Japan LLC, our wholly-owned subsidiary.

(c)
Includes various fair value investments, the most significant of which is our 17.0% interest in Canal+ Cyfrowy S.A., a privately-held direct-to-home (DTH) operator in Poland.