Stephanie Joe

Canaccord Adams, Inc. is an independent financial services firm and broker/dealer headquartered in Boston with additional offices in New York City, San Francisco, Evanston, Illinois and Houston, Texas. The firm provides research to help clients make informed investment decisions. Their analysts seek to identify opportunities and expose risk with a focus on emerging and small- to mid-cap growth companies. Canaccord Adams focuses on seven sectors, clarifying current events and anticipating market trends in high-quality daily, weekly and monthly research products. The seven sectors they focus on are: metals and mining, energy, technology, life sciences, real estate and gaming, consumer and industrial growth. Canaccord Adams is a subsidiary of Vancouver-based Canaccord Financial, Inc. They are a member of the NASD and the SIPC.

SMH Capital, Inc. (SMH) is the primary broker subsidiary of Sander Morris Harris Group, Inc. (Nasdaq: SMHG). The firm is headquartered in Houston, Texas with additional offices in Los Angeles and San Francisco. SMH provides a full range of asset and wealth management and investment banking services. The firm also offers institutional equity sales, trading, and research, as well as prime brokerage services for hedge funds and fixed-income securities sales and trading. SMH's research effort is attuned to the Southwest, yet takes a broad, global perspective. The analysts cover companies in six broad sectors, including business services, energy, entertainment and media, financial services, specialty retail-softlines, and technology. They look at industries in a bottom-up way, and get to know company managements in depth, to understand their growth philosophy and their views of how their company fits within their group. SMH's growth strategy is to expand asset management and fiduciary activities and related business by increasing assets under management through acquisitions, internal growth and better coordination between their subsidiaries.

Merrill Lynch, Pierce, Fenner & Smith, Inc. (MLPFS) is the SEC-registered broker/dealer subsidiary of Merrill Lynch & Co., Inc., ultimately held by Charlotte-based Bank of America Corp. (NYSE: BAC). The firm was founded in 1958 and is headquartered in New York City. In 2010, Banc of America Securities LLC merged with MLPFS and the firm uses the trade name Bank of America Merrill Lynch. MLPFS's global strategy and economics team serves institutional and individual investors using a wide range of macroeconomic disciplines. Their analysis of global issues provides clients with investment ideas, market forecasts, macro overviews and specific sector recommendations across asset classes, regions and disciplines. Their equity research team conducts fundamental analysis on companies globally and provides institutional and retail clients with industry-specific and in-depth research and analysis on numerous industries. The firm's global fixed-income and equity-linked research focuses on fixed-income and equity derivatives, fixed-income strategy, convertibles, commodities, high-yield, mortgages, municipals and global foreign exchange.

Texaco, Inc. explores and produces oil and natural gas. It engages in the worldwide exploration, production and marketing of crude oil, natural gas, and petroleum products. The company was founded in 1902 and is headquartered in San Ramon, CA.