Other Assets and Amounts Due to / Due From Affiliates

12 Months Ended

Dec. 31, 2016

Other Assets and Related Party Transactions Disclosure [Abstract]

Other Assets and Amounts Due To / Due From Affiliates

Other Assets and Note Receivable

Marketable Equity Securities

As of December 31, 2016 and December 26, 2015, the Company had an investment in GCS Holdings which had a fair market value of $0.3 million and an adjusted cost basis of $0.0 million.

On February 25, 2015, the Company acquired approximately 251,000 shares of Vuzix common stock through a cashless exercise of warrants. The Company received the warrants in August 2013 as part of a restructuring of debt owed by Vuzix to the Company. Upon receipt of the warrants, the Company should have recorded the value of the warrant of approximately $352,000 in its consolidated financial statements. Subsequently, the Company should have marked to market the warrants at the end of each reporting period. Had the Company recorded the warrants in its consolidated financial statements and marked to market the warrants as of December 28, 2013 and December 27, 2014, the Company would have recorded gains in its statement of operations of approximately $646,000 and $171,000, respectively. In the first quarter of 2015, the Company recorded the warrants in its consolidated financial statements and as a result recorded a gain of approximately $1.3 million with $817,000 attributed to prior periods. The value of the warrants as of August 2013, December 27, 2014 and December 26, 2015 was determined using the Black-Scholes pricing model. The Company does not believe the unrecorded gains were material to the consolidated financial statements as the loss from operations for the fiscal years ended December 28, 2013 and December 27, 2014 were $35.9 million and $28.4 million, respectively.

Non-Marketable Securities—Equity Method Investments

Equity losses in unconsolidated affiliates recorded in the consolidated statement of operations are as follows:



	2015			2014
KoBrite	$	—		$	(102,305	)
Ask Ziggy	$	(47,443	)	$	(284,137	)
Total	$	(47,443	)	$	(386,442	)

In the second quarter of 2014 the Company wrote-off its $1.3 million investment in KoBrite. Prior to the write-off, the Company accounted for its 12% ownership interest in Kobrite using the equity method. One of the Company’s directors is a member of the Board of Directors of Bright LED, principal investor of KoBrite.

In December 2013, the Company wrote down its investment of $2.5 million in Ask Ziggy. The Company continued to fund Ask Ziggy during the first quarter of year ending December 26, 2015. During the twelve months ended December 28, 2013, the Company recorded impairment charges of $2.5 million related to the write-off of a cost based investment. There were no equity method investments in 2016.

The Company had a $15.0 million note receivable as a result of the sale of its III-V product line and investment in KTC, which was paid on January 15, 2016.

On December 28, 2016 we entered into an agreement to establish a joint venture (JV Agreement-A) in China. Under the terms of the JV Agreement the Company will contribute certain intellectual property and the equivalent of USD $1 million in Renminbi for a minority equity ownership. The purpose of the joint venture is to develop and market wearable products.

On December 28, 2016 we entered into a joint venture agreement (JV Agreement-B) to establish a strategic relationship with a Chinese company under which the Company and the Chinese Company will provide services for each other and jointly develop and manufacture products and the Chinese company is to acquire 7,589,000 shares of unregistered stock of the Company for approximately USD $24.7 million.

The JV Agreements A and B and the sale of the Company’s stock are both subject to standard closing conditions and government approvals. The transactions related to these agreements were not finalized as of the March 22, 2017.

The Company has a loan to a non-officer employee for approximately $140,000 at December 31, 2016 and December 26, 2015, which is currently due.

Equity Method Investments [Table Text Block]

thod Investments

Equity losses in unconsolidated affiliates recorded in the consolidated statement of operations ar