HSR Pre-Merger Reporting Threshold Decreased to $63.4 Million

The thresholds for the premerger reporting of proposed acquisitions to United States antitrust authorities under the Hart-Scott-Rodino Antitrust Improvement Act of 1976, as amended (the "HSR Act"), will be decreased effective February 22, 2010. The minimum size-of-transaction threshold will be $63.4 million.

The HSR Act requires all persons contemplating certain mergers or acquisitions of voting securities or assets, which meet or exceed the size-of-transaction and size-of-person thresholds in the Act, to notify the Federal Trade Commission and the Antitrust Division of the Department of Justice and observe a waiting period before completing such transactions. Pursuant to the 2000 amendments to the Act, the HSR thresholds are adjusted annually, based on the change in gross national product.