Derivative Financial Instruments

9 Months Ended

Sep. 30, 2011

Derivative Instruments and Hedging Activities Disclosure [Abstract]

Derivative Financial Instruments

Derivative Financial Instruments

The Company uses derivative financial instruments, primarily interest rate swaps, to manage its exposure to fluctuations in interest rate movements. The Company’s primary objective in managing interest rate risk is to decrease the volatility of its earnings and cash flows affected by changes in the underlying rates. To achieve this objective, the Company enters into financial derivatives, primarily interest rate swap agreements, the values of which change in the opposite direction of the anticipated future cash flows.  The Company has floating rate long-term debt (see Note 8 — Long-Term Debt). These obligations expose the Company to variability in interest payments due to changes in interest rates. If interest rates increase, interest expense increases. Conversely, if interest rates decrease, interest expense also decreases. The Company has designated its interest rate swap agreements as cash flow hedges. Swaps designated as cash flow hedges involve the receipt of variable-rate amounts from a counterparty in exchange for the Company making fixed-rate payments over the lives of the agreements without exchange of the underlying notional amount. The change in the fair value of the interest rate swap agreements is reflected in Accumulated Other Comprehensive Income (Loss) (“AOCI”) and is subsequently reclassified into earnings in the period that the hedged transaction affects earnings, due to the fact that the interest rate swap agreements qualify as effective cash flow hedges. The Company does not use derivative financial instruments for speculative purposes.

In March 2007, Level 3 Financing Inc., the Company’s wholly owned subsidiary, entered into two interest rate swap agreements to hedge the interest payments on $1 billion notional amount of floating rate debt. The two interest rate swap agreements are with different counterparties and are for $500 million each. The transactions were effective beginning in April 2007 and mature in January 2014. The Company uses interest rate swaps to convert specific variable rate debt issuances into fixed rate debt.  Under the terms of the interest rate swap transactions, the Company receives interest payments based on rolling three month LIBOR terms and pays interest at the fixed rate of 4.93% under one arrangement and 4.92% under the other.  The Company evaluates the effectiveness of the hedges on a quarterly basis. The Company measures effectiveness by offsetting the change in the variable portion of the interest rate swaps with the changes in interest expense paid due to fluctuations in the LIBOR-based interest rate. During the periods presented, these derivatives were used to hedge the variable cash flows associated with existing obligations. The Company recognizes any ineffective portion of the change in fair value of the hedged item in the consolidated statements of operations. All components of the interest rate swaps were included in the assessment of hedge effectiveness. Hedge ineffectiveness for the Company’s cash flow hedges was not material in any period presented.

The Company also has certain equity conversion rights associated with debt instruments, which are not designated as hedging instruments, but are considered derivative instruments.  The Company’s primary objective associated with including such conversion rights in certain of its debt instruments is to reduce the contractual interest rate and related current cash borrowing cost of the debt instruments. The Company did not have a remaining liability associated with its equity conversion rights as of June 30, 2010.  As a result of the September 2010 issuance of $175 million of 6.5% Convertible Senior Notes due in 2016, the Company did not have a sufficient number of authorized and unissued common shares available to settle all of the equity conversion rights and make-whole premiums associated with its convertible debt. Certain of these derivative instruments were classified as liabilities at December 31, 2010 due to a potential requirement to settle the conversion rights in cash as a result of the Company not having a sufficient number of authorized and unissued shares of common stock to cover all potentially convertible shares, for which the conversion rights were carried at fair value. The fair value of the embedded derivative liability at December 31, 2010 was not significant. As a result of the exchange and redemption of the Company’s outstanding 9% Convertible Senior Discount Notes due 2013 and 5.25% Convertible Senior Notes due 2011, the fair value of these derivative instruments, which was insignificant, was reclassified into stockholders’ equity during the first quarter of 2011, as the Company had sufficient authorized and unissued shares of common stock available to settle all of the potential conversion rights.  Due to the timing between the Company's annual grant of stock based compensation on July 1, 2011 and the partial conversion of the Company's 15% Convertible Senior Discount Notes due 2013 on July 15, 2011, the Company had an insignificant amount of activity associated with its embedded derivatives during the three months ended September 30, 2011. The Company has recognized the gains or losses from changes in fair values of these derivative instruments in other income (expense) in the consolidated statements of operations.  As the Company was no longer required to recognize a liability for the equity conversion rights associated with its debt instruments during the first quarter 2011, Level 3 did not have any gains or losses reflected in its operating results for the three and nine months endedSeptember 30, 2011. Changes in these derivatives resulted in the Company recognizing no gain and a $10 million gain during the three and nine months endedSeptember 30, 2010.

The Company is exposed to credit related losses in the event of non-performance by counterparties. The counterparties to any of the financial derivatives the Company enters into are major institutions with investment grade credit ratings. The Company evaluates counterparty credit risk before entering into any hedge transaction and continues to closely monitor the financial market and the risk that its counterparties will default on their obligations. This credit risk is generally limited to the unrealized gains in such contracts, should any of these counterparties fail to perform as contracted.

Amounts accumulated in AOCI related to derivatives are indirectly recognized in earnings as periodic settlements occur throughout the term of the swaps, when the related interest payments are made on the Company’s variable-rate debt. As of September 30, 2011, the Company had the following outstanding derivatives that were designated as cash flow hedges of interest rate risk:

Interest Rate Derivative	Number of Instruments	Notional (in Millions)
Interest rate swaps	Two	$	1,000

The table below presents the fair value of the Company’s derivative financial instruments as well as their classification on the consolidated balance sheets as follows (in millions):

	Liability Derivatives
	September 30, 2011			December 31, 2010
Derivatives designated as hedging instruments	Balance Sheet Location	Fair Value		Balance Sheet Location	Fair Value
Cash flow hedging contracts	Other noncurrent liabilities	$	98	Other noncurrent liabilities	$	108
	Liability Derivatives
	September 30, 2011			December 31, 2010
Derivatives not designated as hedging instruments	Balance Sheet Location	Fair Value		Balance Sheet Location	Fair Value
Embedded equity conversion rights	Other noncurrent liabilities	$	—	Other noncurrent liabilities	$	—

 The amount of gains (losses) recognized in Other Comprehensive Loss consists of the following (in millions):

Derivatives designated as hedging instruments	2011		2010
Cash flow hedging contracts
Three months ended September 30,	$	2	$	(9	)
Nine months ended September 30,	$	10	$	(30	)

The amount of gains (losses) reclassified from AOCI to Income/Loss (effective portions) consists of the following (in millions):

Derivatives designated as hedging instruments	Income Statement Location	2011			2010
Cash flow hedging contracts:
Three months ended September 30,	Interest Expense	$	(12	)	$	(11	)
Nine months ended September 30,	Interest Expense	$	(35	)	$	(34	)

Changes in the fair value of interest rate swaps designated as hedging instruments of the variability of cash flows associated with floating-rate, long-term debt obligations are reported in AOCI. These amounts subsequently are reclassified into interest expense as a yield adjustment of the hedged debt obligation in the same period in which the related interest on the floating-rate debt obligations affects earnings.  Amounts currently included in AOCI will be reclassified to earnings prior to the settlement of these cash flow hedging contracts in 2014.  The Company estimates that $47 million of net losses on the interest rate swaps (based on the estimated LIBOR curve as of September 30, 2011) will be reclassified into earnings within the next twelve months. The Company’s interest rate swap agreements designated as cash flow hedging contracts qualify as effective hedge relationships, and as a result, hedge ineffectiveness was not material in any of the periods presented.

The effect of the Company’s derivatives not designated as hedging instruments on net loss is as follows (in millions):

Derivatives not designated as hedging instruments	Location of Gain Recognized in Income/Loss on Derivative
		2011		2010
Embedded equity conversion rights:
Three months ended September 30,	Other Income (Expense)—Other, net	$	—	$	—
Nine months ended September 30,	Other Income (Expense)—Other, net	$	—	$	10