Brent Merlis

Ariel Investments LLC (Ariel) is a SEC-registered investment advisor and fund management firm headquartered in Chicago, Illinois. The firm was founded by John W. Rogers, Jr. in 1983 and is a subsidiary of ACMI, Inc. Ariel provides investment management services to a variety of individual and institutional clients in the US. The firm also serves institutional separate account clients in Canada and offers certain separate account products to professional investors in Australia and Asia.

Bear, Stearns & Co., Inc. is a global investment banking, securities trading and brokerage firm located in New York City with additional offices in Dallas, Boston and San Francisco. The firm is a subsidiary Bear Sterns Cos., Inc. (NYSE: BSC). Their equity research team consists of senior analysts located throughout the world. In addition to domestic coverage, they have research teams focusing on Latin America, Asia and Europe. The analysts use a bottom-up approach to stock selection. The Bear Stearns fixed-income research department provides coverage of every sector of the fixed-income universe. The financial analytics and structured transactions group (F.A.S.T) provides investment research, fixed-income portfolio management and analytical systems, trading technology and general financial expertise. The group also provides a broad range of services to financial institutions including asset-liability management, balance sheet restructuring, receivables-based financing analysis, security and portfolio analysis, peer analysis, and historical and real-time market-based information.