3 Winners Declared in 2nd Value Investing Challenge Buyside Research Contest

NEW YORK, NY--(Marketwired - Aug 30, 2013) - SumZero, Inc. and The Value Investing Congress today announced the three winners in their annual competition designed to test the research skills of analysts at hedge funds, mutual funds, and private equity funds around the world. The 2nd Value Investing Challenge, a partnership between SumZero and the Value Investing Congress, was exclusively sponsored this year by FactSet, Inc.

The 3 winners for 2013 are Daniel Lawrence of Elmrox Investment Group in New York City for his long recommendation of Ashland, Travis Cocke of Southpaw Capital in Houston, Texas for his short recommendation of Exact Sciences, and David Swartz of Pacific West Land in Bainbridge, Washington for his short recommendation of LifeLock. All 3 winning PDF reports as well as the complete list of the 20 Finalists in this year's contest are available for free download at valueinvestingchallenge.com.

The 3 winners are in the running to win final cash prizes of $50,000, $10,000, and $5,000, respectively, as well as a speaking slot at the 9th Annual New York Value Investing Congress, and licenses to FactSet's Workstation. The name of the grand prize winner will be disclosed publicly for the first time at the Congress in New York on September 17th where the grand prize winner will deliver a presentation of his winning research.

This year's contest received more than 200 unique entries, nearly double the total of 110 from the contest's first year in 2012. Entries were collected from funds across the world, including firms in the US, UK, Canada, India, Italy, China, Hong Kong, Singapore, Switzerland, South Korea, and Poland. Participants included analysts and portfolio managers from numerous large funds within the US.

Judges for this year's contest were respected value investors from firms across the world. They include:

• Alexander Roepers, Atlantic Investment Management
• Jamie Mendola, Scout Capital Management
• Lisa Rapuano, Lane Five Capital Management
• Manny Singh, Tiger Management
• Mohnish Pabrai, Pabrai Investment Funds
• Whitney Tilson, Kase Capital
• Zeke Ashton, Centaur Capital

Contestants were asked to contribute an investment write-up covering a company of at least $500 million in market capitalization. Eligible contest participants were required to be current members of the SumZero community and had to be actively employed at a hedge fund, mutual fund or private equity fund. Judges were instructed to select winners based on the following criteria: a. Validity of the Thesis, b. Strength of the Supporting Argument, c. Feasibility of the Trade, d. Originality.

The 2012 grand prize winner of the Value Investing Challenge, Ryan Fusaro (LionEye Capital Management), was given the opportunity to pitch his long recommendation on Jack-in-the-Box last year at the 8^th Annual New York Value Investing Congress. Since his initial recommendation, the stock is up over 52%. Fusaro was subsequently named to Forbes Magazine's annual 30-Under-30 List of up and coming financial professionals for his strong work in the contest. Media coverage from last year's contest included CNBC, the Financial Times, Business Insider, and numerous financial blogs.

The purpose of the Challenge is to encourage high-quality investment research, unearth top investing talent, and level the playing field so that lesser-known (but equally-brilliant) investors have the opportunity to present in front of the same high-profile Value Investing Congress audience as legendary investors such as Leon Cooperman, David Einhorn and Bill Ackman.

"The goal of the Value Investing Congress is to bring the best and brightest on stage in an environment where variant perceptions can thrive," said John L. Schwartz, Co-Founder and CEO of the Value Investing Congress. "This contest will help our Congress attendees to capitalize on unique perspectives and hear from investors whose ideas rose to the top in a heavily-contested competition."

"We were humbled and thrilled by the turnout in this year's contest," said Divya Narendra, CEO/Co-Founder of SumZero, Inc. "Both the volume and the quality of the research submitted was even better than last year's terrific entries. It's clear to us that there is a tremendous amount of analytical talent in this industry, particularly within funds whose names you normally would not encounter in the mainstream media. We're excited to hear the grand prize winner present at the Congress in September and we are eagerly looking forward to next year's Challenge."

The Grand Prize winner will be announced at the 9^th Annual New York Value Investing Congress at Rose Hall, the home of Jazz at Lincoln Center, in the Time Warner Center on September 17th.

More information on the contest is available at the official site of the contest: www.valueinvestingchallenge.com. There may be a few seats still available to attend the Congress at www.ValueInvestingCongress.com.

About the Value Investing Congress

John L. Schwartz and Whitney Tilson established the Value Investing Congress in 2004 so that passionate value investors -- disciples of Graham, Dodd, Buffett and Munger -- can meet and learn from one another and achieve even greater investment success. Tilson is a well-known value investor and is the co-founder of Value Investor Insight. Schwartz is the founder and former CEO of Continuing Medical Education, Inc., the highly successful medical information company. More information is available at www.ValueInvestingCongress.com.

About SumZero

SumZero is the world's largest community of investment professionals working at hedge funds, mutual funds, and private equity funds. With over 8,500 pre-screened professionals collaborating on a fully-transparent platform, SumZero fosters the sharing of many thousands of proprietary investment reports every year and offers several ancillary services in support of that effort. These free services include capital introduction services, buyside career placement services, media placement, and more. SumZero's membership base is represented by analysts and PMs at nearly all of the world's largest and most prominent investment funds. Founded in 2008, SumZero is built on the belief that investing is not a zero-sum game. More information is available at https://sumzero.com.