Piper Jaffray Companies Adopts 2010 Employment Inducement Award Plan

Piper Jaffray Companies today announced the issuance of equity awards under the Piper Jaffray Companies 2010 Employment Inducement Award Plan. The Company established the Inducement Award Plan to issue restricted stock awards to new hires in connection with the acquisition of Advisory Research, Inc., an asset management firm based in Chicago, Illinois. The Company issued 158,802 shares of restricted stock on Mar. 1, 2010, with a grant-date market value per share of $44.08, or an aggregate fair value of $7 million, to seventeen employees of Advisory Research. The awards are intended to aid in the retention of Advisory Research employees and were approved as part of the definitive transaction agreement signed on Dec. 20, 2009.

The inducement award plan was approved by the Compensation Committee of the Board of Directors in connection with the acquisition of Advisory Research. Under the plan, the Company may issue awards to new employees in the form of stock options, stock appreciation rights, restricted stock, restricted stock units, dividend equivalents, or similar awards.

About Piper Jaffray

Piper Jaffray Companies (NYSE: PJC) is a leading, international investment bank and institutional securities firm, serving the needs of corporations, private equity groups, public entities, nonprofit clients and institutional investors. Founded in 1895, Piper Jaffray provides a comprehensive set of products and services, including equity and debt capital markets products; public finance services; financial advisory services; institutional equity and fixed-income sales and trading; equity research; fixed income analytics. Piper Jaffray headquarters are located in Minneapolis, Minnesota, with offices across the U.S. and in London and Hong Kong. Piper Jaffray & Co. is the firm's principal operating subsidiary. (www.piperjaffray.com)

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