Sumit Dhanda

Headquartered in Charlotte, North Carolina, Banc of America Securities (BAS) is the investment banking subsidiary of Bank of America Corp (NYSE: BAC). The firm provides both the domestic and international equity and investment banking markets, and pursues a strategy pioneered by Citigroup that combines corporate lending with investment banking advice and services. They provide high-yield debt underwriting and leveraged finance, in addition to industry coverage groups such as healthcare, media and telecom, financial institutions, real estate and gaming. BAS also does a significant amount of work for Financial Sponsors, or private equity firms, often financing leveraged transactions. Following the strategy of Goldman Sachs, the firm lacks a standalone mergers and acquisitions department, instead employing mergers and acquisitions senior bankers throughout the industry coverage groups. The firm is registered as a broker/dealer with the SEC, is a member of the NYSE, and the NASD. The use of Banc in the BAS's name is indicative of the fact that the company is not a bank, and their deposits and other holdings are not insured by the FDIC.

LSI Corp. designs, develops, and markets high-performance storage and networking semiconductors. Its products include custom and standard product integrated circuits that are used in disk drives, solid state drives, high-speed communications systems, computer servers, storage systems, and personal computers. The company was founded on November 6, 1980 and is headquartered in San Jose, CA.

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.

Citadel Securities LLC is a registered market maker headquartered in Chicago, Illinois. The firm was founded by Kenneth Griffin in 2001 and is a subsidiary of GFH HFEVA LLC. Citadel Securities provides execution services to meet the liquidity needs of asset managers, banks, broker-dealers, hedge funds, government agencies, and public pension programs. They offer services across a broad array of fixed income and equity products.

Founded in 1991 by Ed Hyman and Nancy Lazar, International Strategy & Investment Group LLC is a broker/dealer located in New York City. The firm is a subsidiary of Evercore Partners, Inc. (NYSE: EVR). They are also known as ISI Group. The firm specializes in research on the following areas: economics, policy, technical analysis, tech strategy, portfolio strategy, quantitative research, integrated oil, accounting and tax policy research, China, machinery, banks, REITs, company surveys and client projects.