March 10, 2004

Raising Capital through PIPES (Private Investments In Public Entities)
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Private investments in public entities, or PIPEs, comprise a large and rapidly growing segment of the U.S. capital markets. Our panel will meet to discuss the techniques, terms, pricing, customers and legal issues that they see in the current PIPE market.

In 2003, total placements were approximately $20 billion. For public companies of all kinds, large and small, PIPEs provide an efficient means for placing shares directly with institutional customers, avoiding the time delays and reducing the expenses and potential liabilities associated with full-blown public offerings. PIPEs have also become a crucial source of funds for small and mid-cap public companies that cannot access the public equity or debt markets because they are undergoing a business transition or experiencing a weak trading market in their shares PIPE specialists work with a wide array of securities structures as they seek to obtain capital on the best available terms for their corporate clients.

Moderator:
Alan Kalin, Partner, Bingham McCutchen LLP

Panelists:
Albert Bender, Managing Director, Private Placements, AG Edwards
Jon Plexico, Vice President, Investment Banking, Merriman Curhan Ford & Co
K.C. Stone, Managing Director, Pacific Growth Equities