Item 7A. QUANTITATIVE AND QUALITATIVE DISCLOSURES ABOUT MARKET RISK

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**Market Risks Associated with Financial Instruments and Foreign Currency **

Our investments and debt are exposed to market risks, discussed below.

**Cash, Cash Equivalents and Current Marketable Investment Securities **

As of December 31, 2014, our cash, cash equivalents and current marketable investment securities had a fair value of $1.69 billion. Of this amount, a total of $1.65 billion was invested in: (a) cash; (b) commercial paper and corporate notes with an overall average maturity of less than one year and rated in one of the four highest rating categories by at least two nationally recognized statistical rating organizations; (c) VRDNs convertible into cash at par value plus accrued interest generally in five business days or less; (d) debt instruments of the U.S. government and its agencies; and/or (e) instruments with similar risk, duration and credit quality characteristics to the commercial paper and corporate obligations described above. The primary purpose of these investing activities has been to preserve principal until the cash is required to, among other things, fund operations, make strategic investments and expand the business. Consequently, the size of this portfolio fluctuates significantly as cash is received and used in our business. The value of this portfolio may be negatively impacted by credit losses; however, this risk is mitigated through diversification that limits our exposure to any one issuer.

**Interest Rate Risk **

A change in interest rates would not affect the fair value of our cash, or materially affect the fair value of our cash equivalents due to their maturities of less than 90 days. A change in interest rates would affect the fair value of our current marketable debt securities portfolio; however, we normally hold these investments to maturity. Based on our current non-strategic investment portfolio of $1.65 billion as of December 31, 2014, a hypothetical 10% change in average interest rates during 2014 would not have a material impact on the fair value of our cash, cash equivalents and debt securities portfolio due to the limited duration of our investments.

Our cash, cash equivalents and current marketable debt securities had an average annual rate of return for the year ended December 31, 2014 of 0.6%. A change in interest rates would affect our future annual interest income from this portfolio, since funds would be re-invested at different rates as the instruments mature. A hypothetical 10% decrease in average interest rates during 2014 would have resulted in a decrease of approximately $0.9 million in annual interest income.

**Strategic Marketable Investment Securities **

As of December 31, 2014, we held current strategic investments in the publicly traded common stock of several companies with a fair value of $41.7 million. These investments, which are held for strategic and financial purposes, are concentrated in a small number of companies, are highly speculative and have experienced and continue to experience volatility. The fair value of these investments can be significantly impacted by the risk of adverse changes in securities markets generally, as well as risks related to the performance of the companies whose securities we have invested in, risks associated with specific industries, and other factors. These investments are subject to significant fluctuations in fair value due to the volatility of the securities markets and of the underlying businesses. In general, our strategic marketable investment securities portfolio is not significantly impacted by interest rate fluctuations as it currently consists solely of equity securities, the value of which is more closely related to factors specific to the underlying business. A hypothetical 10% adverse change in the market price of our public strategic equity investments would result in a decrease of approximately $4.2 million in the fair value of these investments.

Item 7A. QUANTITATIVE AND QUALITATIVE DISCLOSURES ABOUT MARKET RISK—Continued

**Restricted Cash and Marketable Investment Securities and Other Investments **

Restricted Cash and Marketable Investment Securities

As of December 31, 2014, we had $18.9 million of restricted cash and marketable investment securities invested in: (a) cash; (b) VRDNs convertible into cash at par value plus accrued interest generally in five business days or less; (c) debt instruments of the U.S. government and its agencies; (d) commercial paper and corporate notes with an overall average maturity of less than one year and rated in one of the four highest rating categories by at least two nationally recognized statistical rating organizations; and (e) instruments with similar risk, duration and credit quality characteristics to the commercial paper described above. Based on our investment portfolio as of December 31, 2014, a hypothetical 10% increase in average interest rates would not have a material impact on the fair value of our restricted cash and marketable investment securities.

Other Investments

As of December 31, 2014, we had $160.0 million of noncurrent equity instruments that we hold for strategic business purposes and account for under the cost or equity methods of accounting. The fair value of these instruments is not readily determinable. We periodically review these investments and estimate fair value when there are indications of impairment. A hypothetical 10% adverse change in the value of these debt and equity instruments would result in a decrease of approximately $16.0 million in the value of these investments.

Our ability to realize value from our strategic investments in companies that are not publicly traded depends on the success of those companies' businesses and their ability to obtain sufficient capital to execute their business plans. Because private markets are not as liquid as public markets, there is also increased risk that we will not be able to sell these investments, or that when we desire to sell them we will not be able to obtain fair value for them.

**Foreign Currency Exchange Risk **

We generally conduct our business in U.S. dollars. Our international business is conducted in a variety of foreign currencies and it is therefore exposed to fluctuations in foreign currency exchange rates. Our objective in managing our exposure to foreign currency changes is to reduce earnings and cash flow volatility associated with foreign exchange rate fluctuations. Accordingly, we may enter into foreign exchange contracts to mitigate risks associated with foreign currency denominated assets, liabilities, commitments and anticipated foreign currency transactions. As of December 31, 2014, we had $16.8 million of foreign currency denominated receivables and payables outstanding, and foreign currency forward contracts with a notional value of $5.0 million in place to partially mitigate foreign currency exchange risk. The estimated fair values of the foreign exchange contracts were not material as of December 31, 2014. The impact of a hypothetical 10% adverse change in exchange rates on the carrying amount of the net assets and liabilities of our foreign subsidiaries would be an estimated loss of $20.1 million as of December 31, 2014.

Derivative Financial Instruments

We generally do not use derivative financial instruments for speculative purposes and we generally do not apply hedge accounting treatment to our derivative financial instruments. We evaluate our derivative financial instruments from time to time but there can be no assurance that we will not enter into additional foreign currency forward contracts, or take other measures, in the future to mitigate our foreign exchange risk.