Lehman Brothers Acquires Townsend Analytics

LEHMAN BROTHERS ACQUIRES TOWNSEND ANALYTICS

NEW YORK,December 20, 2005 — Lehman Brothers, the global investment bank, announced today that it has acquired Townsend Analytics, a premier software development and global service provider for the financial services industry. Terms of the transaction were not disclosed.

Lehman Brothers’ acquisition of Townsend Analytics underscores the Firm’s commitment to providing leading-edge execution management systems (EMS) to its institutional clients. The success of Townsend Analytics and its marquee product, RealTick®, has been predicated on its ability to provide a global, multi-broker, multi-asset, client–facing trading platform. The Firm recognizes the value of the breadth and depth of the RealTick platform and is fully committed to preserving broker neutrality going forward.

Bart McDade, global head of Equities, said, “The acquisition of Townsend Analytics significantly enhances our franchise and demonstrates our commitment to delivering state-of-the-art electronic trading capabilities to our clients worldwide.”

In 2005, Lehman Brothers was ranked #1 in NYSE-listed trading, NASDAQ trading, NYSE-listed sales-trading, and NASDAQ sales-trading and #2 in overall U.S. equity sales by Institutional Investor. Recently, the Firm was named U.S. Equity and U.S. Structured Equity House of the Year by International Financing Review. Earlier this year, Lehman Brothers was the first member firm on the London Stock Exchange to execute over one million electronic trades in a single month (in March, July, September, October and November 2005). Lehman Brothers is also the #1 broker by number of transactions on the LSE and Xetra and #2 on Euronext. In addition, Lehman Brothers received 29 “Best in Class” awards for excellence in Global Custodian’s 2005 Prime Brokerage survey, in which responding hedge funds rated and commented on firms and their market presence. Lastly, equity research has been ranked #1 for the past three years by Institutional Investor.

“Townsend Analytics provides Lehman Brothers with the highest quality and most extensive multi-broker, multi-asset class execution management technology available from one vendor today. The RealTick platform includes many services that will enhance the execution experience for our institutional, hedge fund, investment advisor, prime broker and clearing services clients,” said Jeffrey S. Wecker, managing director and global head of Electronic Client Services.

“Since forming the Company 20 years ago, we have remained committed to maintaining the highest level of service to distribution partners and preserving the integrity and confidentiality of their data and order flow. We are confident that our partnership with Lehman Brothers will preserve this platform,” said Stuart and MarrGwen Townsend. “Lehman Brothers’ expertise in capital markets, coupled with its unwavering commitment to providing the most sophisticated execution solutions to its clients worldwide, raises our capabilities to a new level.”

Townsend Analytics has been changing the way the world trades since 1985. The Chicago-based company created many technology innovations that are now considered standards in the financial services industry. These include the first real-time financial software under Microsoft Windows®; the first product to provide real-time streaming data over the Internet; the first integrated solution for NASDAQ trading rooms; and the first Windows-based direct-access trading solution. Townsend Analytics also developed Archipelago and the Archipelago Exchange, the nation’s first all-electronic, fully open exchange. The firm has engineered direct-access solutions for money managers, asset managers, hedge funds and mutual funds worldwide.

RealTick, created by Townsend Analytics, is the electronic trading industry’s premier direct-access research and trading software. RealTick delivers real-time market data, news and analytics; sophisticated trading tools; unrivaled access to exchanges and ECNs; and risk management tools to institutions, broker-dealers and individual investors. RealTick’s advanced technical design is supported by state-of-the-art data centers and a redundant network for market data and orders.

Lehman Brothers (ticker symbol: LEH), an innovator in global finance, serves the financial needs of corporations, governments and municipalities, institutional clients, and high net worth individuals worldwide. Founded in 1850, Lehman Brothers maintains leadership positions in equity and fixed income sales, trading and research, investment banking, private investment management, asset management and private equity. The Firm is headquartered in New York, with regional headquarters in London and Tokyo and operates in a network of offices around the world. For further information about Lehman Brothers’ services, products and recruitment opportunities, visit our Web site at www.lehman.com.