Item 7A. QUANTITATIVE AND QUALITATIVE DISCLOSURES ABOUT MARKET RISK

Market Risks Associated with Financial Instruments and Foreign Currency

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

Cash, Cash Equivalents and Marketable Investment Securities

As of December 31, 2022, our cash, cash equivalents and marketable investment securities had a fair value of $1.7 billion. Of this amount, a total of $1.6 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) debt instruments of the U.S. government and its agencies; and/or (d) 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 cash, cash equivalents and current marketable debt securities investment portfolio of $1.6 billion as of December 31, 2022, a hypothetical 10% change in average interest rates during 2022 would not have had 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, 2022 of 2.21%. 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 2022 would have resulted in a decrease of $2.8 million in annual interest income.

Strategic Marketable Investment Securities

As of December 31, 2022, we held investments in the publicly traded securities of several companies with a fair value of $118.8 million. These investments, which are held for strategic and financial purposes, are concentrated in a small number of companies, are highly speculative and have historically experienced, and continue to experience volatility. The fair value of these investments are subject to significant fluctuations in fair value and 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. In general, our strategic marketable investment securities portfolio is not significantly impacted by interest rate fluctuations as it currently consists primarily 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 during 2022 would have resulted in a decrease of $11.9 million in the fair value of these investments.

Other Investments

As of December 31, 2022, we had $273.2 million of other equity investments and other debt investments of privately held companies that we hold for strategic business purposes. The fair value of these investments is not readily determinable. We periodically review these investments and may adjust the carrying amount to their estimated fair value when there are indications of impairment, observable prices changes for the investments or observable transactions of the same investments. A hypothetical adverse change equal to 10% of the carrying amount of these investments during 2022 would have resulted in a decrease of $27.3 million in the value of these investments.

Our ability to realize value from our strategic investments in companies that are privately held 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 sell them, we will not be able to recover our investment.

Foreign Currency Exchange Risk

Our international business is conducted in a variety of foreign currencies with our largest exposures being to the Brazilian real, the Indian rupee, European euro and the British pound. Transactions in foreign currencies are converted into U.S. dollars using exchange rates in effect on the dates of the transactions. This exposes us 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 currency exchange rate fluctuations, primarily resulting from loans to foreign subsidiaries in U.S. dollars. Accordingly, we may enter into foreign currency forward contracts, or take other measures, to mitigate risks associated with foreign currency denominated assets, liabilities, commitments and anticipated foreign currency transactions. As of December 31, 2022, we had foreign currency forward contracts with a notional amount of $8.3 million in place to partially mitigate foreign currency exchange risk. The estimated fair values of the foreign currency contracts were not material as of December 31, 2022. 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 during 2022 would have resulted in an estimated loss to the cumulative translation adjustment of $42.5 million as of December 31, 2022.

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 currency exchange risk.