Severance and Leased Real Estate

12 Months Ended

Dec. 31, 2013

Restructuring and Related Activities [Abstract]

Periodically, we have reductions in our workforce and have accrued liabilities for related severance costs. These workforce reductions resulted primarily from the progression or completion of our integration plans, increased competitive pressures and reduced workload demands due to the loss of access lines.

We report severance liabilities within accrued expenses and other liabilities-salaries and benefits in our consolidated balance sheets and report severance expenses in cost of services and products and selling, general and administrative expenses in our consolidated statements of operations. We have not allocated any severance expense to our consumer, business and wholesale markets segments.

In periods prior to our acquisition of Qwest, Qwest had ceased using certain real estate that it was leasing under long-term operating leases. As of the April 1, 2011 acquisition date, we recognized liabilities to reflect our estimates of the fair values of the existing lease obligations for real estate for which we had ceased using, net of estimated sublease rentals. Our fair value estimates were determined using discounted cash flow methods. We recognize expense to reflect accretion of the discounted liabilities and periodically, we adjust the expense when our actual experience differs from our initial estimates. We report the current portion of liabilities for ceased-use real estate leases in accrued expenses and other liabilities-other and report the noncurrent portion in deferred credits and other liabilities in our consolidated balance sheets. We report the related expenses in selling, general and administrative expenses in our consolidated statements of operations. At December 31, 2013, the current and noncurrent portions of our leased real estate accrual were $17 million and $96 million, respectively. The remaining lease terms range from 0.1 to 12 years, with a weighted average of 9 years.

Changes in our accrued liabilities for severance expenses and leased real estate were as follows:



	Severance			Real Estate
	(Dollars in millions)
Balance at December 31, 2011	$	37		153
Accrued to expense	96			2
Payments, net	(113		)	(24	)
Reversals and adjustments	(3		)	—
Balance at December 31, 2012	17			131
Accrued to expense	31			—
Payments, net	(31		)	(16	)
Reversals and adjustments	—			(2	)
Balance at December 31, 2013	$	17		113

- Definition

The entire disclosure for restructuring and related activities. Description of restructuring activities such as exit and disposal activities, include facts and circumstances leading to the plan, the expected plan completion date, the major types of costs associated with the plan activities, total expected costs, the accrual balance at the end of the period, and the periods over which the remaining accrual will be settled.

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