Note 2 - Investments

9 Months Ended

Sep. 30, 2017

Cost-method Investments, Description [Text Block]

Investment

– In the quarter ended

March 31, 2016,

we recorded an impairment charge of

$700,000

to reduce the carrying value of our minority equity ownership in an investee company, an early stage sensor technology company, to

$50,000.

Subsequently, in the quarter ended

June 30, 2016,

we recorded an additional impairment charge of

$50,000

to fully write-down our minority equity ownership in the investee company to

zero

. Given the investee has limited prospects to fund its operations and product development, we believe a full write-down was prudent and required.

In the quarter ended

June 30, 2017,

we recorded an impairment charge of

$90,000

to reduce the carrying value of our minority equity ownership in

an investee company, a privately-held technology company in the FinTech industry. During the quarter ended

June 30, 2017,

the investee closed on a Series A preferred stock financing with higher preference to our Series Seed preferred stock which resulted in substantial dilution to our investment. As such, we felt a

ninety

percent write-down was warranted. CoreCard remains in an ongoing business relationship with the company pursuant to a Processing Agreement and has recognized more than our investment in processing services revenue.

In the quarter ended

September 30, 2017,

the remaining cash held in escrow from the sale of

one

of our investee companies

to Cisco, Inc. in the

fourth

quarter of

2015,

was released. Since we had

reasonable way to estimate the amount of escrow, if any, to be released to us at the initial time of the sale,

provision was previously recorded in the financial statements. We received cash of

$372,000,

which was recognized as a gain in the

third

quarter of

2017.

In the quarter ended

September 30, 2017,

we sold shares in a tender offer for stock of

one

of our investee companies, a privately-held technology company in the FinTech industry. We sold approximately

ninety-one

percent of our shares. We recognized a gain of

$1,466,000

over our carrying value of

$98,000.

We retained a small equity stake in the investee and CoreCard remains in an ongoing business relationship with the company pursuant to a Processing Agreement previously entered into by the parties.