Investments and other assets

Our investments and other assets consisted of the following as of March 31, 2018, and December 31, 2017 (in thousands):



	Mar. 31, 2018		Dec. 31, 2017

Cash value life insurance	$	50,823	$	51,188
Deferred compensation investments	9,448		9,546
Equity method investments	27,279		27,098
Deferred debt issuance cost	5,109		6,048
Other long term assets	45,905		43,286
Total	$	138,564	$	137,166

Cash value life insurance: We are the beneficiary of life insurance policies on the lives of certain employees/retirees, which are recorded at their cash surrender value as determined by the insurance carrier. These policies are utilized as a partial funding source for deferred compensation and other non-qualified employee retirement plans. Gains and losses on these investments are included in Other non-operating expenses within our Consolidated Statement of Income and were not material for all periods presented.

Deferred compensation investments: Employee compensation related investments consist of a life insurance annuity policy which funds a deferred compensation plan liability. Amounts presented above are expected to be converted to cash beyond one year.

Equity method investments: We hold several strategic equity method investments. Our largest equity method investment is our ownership in CareerBuilder, of which we own approximately 17% (or approximately 12% on a fully-diluted basis). Our ownership stake provides us with two seats on CareerBuilder’s board of directors and thus we concluded that we have significant influence over the entity. In the first quarter of 2018, we recorded $1.3 million of equity loss from our CareerBuilder investment.

On April 24, 2018, CareerBuilder announced that it had entered into a definitive agreement to sell its subsidiary Economic Modeling LLC (also known as EMSI) to Strada Education Network, a national education nonprofit, and subsequently entered into an exclusive re-seller arrangement to enable CareerBuilder to continue to offer EMSI data to its corporate customers. The closing of the sale is expected to occur in the second quarter of 2018, and we anticipate that we will receive a dividend of approximately $8 million in connection with the sale.

Other strategic investments: These investments are carried at cost and adjusted for any impairments or other observable price changes in the investment. The carrying value of these investments was $22.1 million as of March 31, 2018 and $19.4 million as of December 31, 2017, and is included within other long term assets in the table above.