Fair Value Measurements
|
3 Months Ended | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Mar. 31, 2012
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Fair Value Disclosures [Abstract] | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Fair Value Disclosures [Text Block] |
Note 8 — Fair Value of Financial Instruments
The Company defines fair value as the amount at which an asset (or liability) could be bought (or incurred) or sold (or settled) in a current transaction between willing parties, that is, other than in a forced or liquidation sale. The fair value estimates presented in the table below are based on information available to the Company as of March 31, 2012.
The accounting standard regarding fair value measurements discusses valuation techniques, such as the market approach (comparable market prices), the income approach (present value of future income or cash flow), and the cost approach (cost to replace the service capacity of an asset or replacement cost). The standard utilizes a fair value hierarchy that prioritizes the inputs to valuation techniques used to measure fair value into three broad levels. The following is a brief description of those three levels:
Warrant Liability
The fair value of the derivate warrant liability was determined by the Company using the quoted market prices for the publicly traded warrants. On reporting dates where there are no active trades the Company uses the last reported closing trade price of the warrants to determine the fair value (Level 2).
The following table presents the Company’s fair value hierarchy for these liabilities measured at fair value on a recurring basis as of March 31, 2012:
There were no transfers between Level 1, 2 or 3 during 2012 and 2011. There are no assets written down to fair value on a non-recurring basis.
Investments Held in Trust
As of March 31, 2012, $50,257,476 of the Company’s investment held in trust was invested exclusively in obligations of the U.S. government issued or guaranteed by the U.S. Treasury with the remaining amount held in cash. The Company accounts for these investments as held-to-maturity securities, which are recorded on the balance sheet at amortized cost and classified as either short term or long term based on the contractual maturity. The fair values of the Company’s investments U.S. Treasury bills are determined through observable quoted active markets and the fair value approximates carrying value due to the short term nature. As of March 31, 2012 there was an unrealized loss of $1,099 on investments held in trust. The securities mature in May 2012. |