Short-Term Investments

What Does Short-Term Investments Mean?
An account in the current assets section of a company's balance sheet. This account contains any investments that a company has made that will expire within one year. For the most part, these accounts contain stocks and bonds that can be liquidated fairly quickly.       

Investopedia explains Short-Term Investments
Most companies in a strong cash position have a short-term investments account on the balance sheet. This means that a company can afford to invest excess cash in stocks and bonds to earn higher interest than what would be earned from a normal savings account.

Microsoft, which is always in a strong cash position, had short-term investments totaling approximately $32 billion at the end of 2005.