Property, Plant, and Equipment and Assets Held for Sale

12 Months Ended

Dec. 31, 2016

Property, Plant, and Equipment and Assets Held for Sale

Property, Plant, and Equipment and Assets Held for Sale

Note 8 — Property, Plant, and Equipment and Assets Held for Sale

Property and equipment, net, consist of the following:

	December 31,				Average
	2016		2015		Useful Life
	(in thousands)
Land	$	5,669	$	9,592	N/A
Building and improvements	50,814		54,622		10-40 years
Machinery and equipment(1)	99,370		110,075		3-10 years
Leasehold improvements	3,652		5,554		3-7 years

Gross property, plant and equipment	159,505		179,843
Less: accumulated depreciation and amortization	98,859		100,253

Net property, plant and equipment	$	60,646	$	79,590

(1) Machinery and equipment also includes software, furniture and fixtures

Depreciation expense was $13.4 million, $12.2 million, and $11.4 million for the years ended December 31, 2016, 2015, and 2014, respectively. During 2016, the Company decided to significantly reduce future investments in its ALD technology development and, as a result, recorded a charge for impairment of its ALD assets, including a $3.3 million impairment of property, plant, and equipment.

As part of the Company’s efforts to reduce costs, enhance efficiency and streamline operations, the Company removed certain lab equipment that is no longer required and recorded a non-cash impairment charge of $6.2 million for the year ended December 31, 2016. Additionally, as part of that initiative, the Company listed its two facilities in South Korea for sale. When each facility was reclassified as held for sale, the Company determined that the carrying values of the buildings exceeded their fair market values, less cost to sell, and recorded net impairment charges of $4.5 million for the year ended December 31, 2016. Both facilities were sold before the end of 2016 at prices that approximated the revised carrying values.

The Company also has a property in St. Paul, Minnesota that was classified as held for sale in 2014. At that time, the Company determined that the carrying value of this property exceeded the fair value, less cost to sell, and recorded an impairment charge of approximately $1.9 million for the year ended December 31, 2014. The Company continued to classify the property as held for sale throughout 2015. In early 2016, the Company recorded an additional impairment charge of approximately $1.2 million to reflect changes in market conditions that impacted the fair value of the assets. The Company continues to actively market the property for sale. However, the Company can no longer make the assessment that the assets will be sold within the next twelve months. As such, the land and building no longer meet the criteria to be classified as assets held for sale on the balance sheet and were reclassified to “Property, plant and equipment, net” in the Consolidated Balance Sheets at its carrying value of $3.6 million, which approximates its fair market value.

During the year ended December 31, 2014, the Company classified certain property, plant, and equipment related to the Company’s research and demonstration labs in Asia as held for sale, and recorded an impairment charge of approximately $1.6 million. During the year ended December 31, 2015, the Company sold these assets for $1.0 million, which approximated carrying value.

Finally, during the year ended December 31, 2014, the Company recognized additional asset impairment charges of $0.7 million relating to assets that were abandoned during the year.