Avondale Partners Expands Investment Banking and Equity Research Groups.

NASHVILLE, Tenn. -- Avondale Partners continues to expand its equity research and investment banking departments with the addition of John Bright as vice president and senior research analyst, and veteran investment banker Linda Costello as managing director.

John Bright is an experienced analyst with 11 years in the industry. He joined Avondale to follow companies in the communications technology industry. Before Avondale, he served as business development manager for Laitram LLC and senior research analyst at Johnson Rice & Co., both in New Orleans. His coverage included the wireless and wireline communications service industries. Prior to Johnson Rice, Bright was associate vice president with Morgan Keegan in Memphis, Tenn. He started his career as associate analyst for W.H. Reaves & Co. in Jersey City, N.J. Bright earned an M.B.A. from Auburn University and a B.S. in marketing from the University of Tennessee at Martin.

"John Bright's addition to our research group reflects Avondale Partner's continuing commitment to the development of one of the financial industry's finest research capabilities," said Denise Wilder Warren, managing director and director of research. "We are confident that John's expertise will be a significant benefit to our institutional clients who look to Avondale for objective, independent and high quality equity research."

Linda Costello joins Avondale Partners' investment banking group to direct its private placement efforts. Costello is a former partner and managing director of the private placement group at J.C. Bradford & Co. in Nashville. Subsequent to the sale of J.C. Bradford, Costello served as a senior advisor in the private equity placement group for UBS Securities. She has also served as senior vice president with Dean Witter's investment banking group and as vice president with Dean Witter's public finance group. Costello holds an M.B.A. from Columbia University and a B.A. from Wellesley College.

"We believe there is a tremendous opportunity for a focused private placement effort in the senior debt, subordinated debt and institutional equity markets," said Jeff Nahley, senior managing director of Avondale Partners. "The strength of our research verticals and capital markets distribution, together with our existing banking team, provide a strong platform for further developing our private placement business. We are delighted to have someone as experienced as Linda directing this effort for us."

To date, Avondale Partners has executed more than $1.85 billion in investment banking transactions for its clients since its inception in the summer of 2001, including:

- $1.2 billion of mergers and acquisition advisory engagements including buy-side and sell-side execution, fairness opinions and valuations;

- $450 million of public equity offerings including sole managed, lead managed and co-managed transactions; and

- $200 million of private placements of equity and debt.

Avondale Partners, LLC is a leading institutional investment bank headquartered in Nashville, with offices in Boston, Philadelphia, and San Diego. The firm focuses on providing high quality equity research, sales and trading and investment banking services to institutional clients throughout the U.S., Canada and Europe. More information on Avondale Partners can be found at www.avondalepartnersllc.com