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NEW YORK--(BUSINESS WIRE)--

Cowen Group, Inc. (Cowen or the Company) (NASDAQ: COWN - News) today announced that David Lu has been appointed Head of Asia Investment Banking. Mr. Lu, who is based in Hong Kong, will be responsible for leading all aspects of Cowens China-based investment banking platform, Cowen and Company Asia, including capital markets and financial advisory services. Prior to his current position, Mr. Lu served as Deputy Head of Asia Investment Banking.

I am delighted to announce the appointment of David Lu as Head of our Asia Investment Banking practice, said Jeff Solomon, Chief Executive Officer of Cowen and Company, Cowens broker-dealer business. With over a decade of investment banking experience in China, David is well prepared to further strengthen our Asia franchise. We view the region as an important source of growth for the firm and we will continue to actively build our presence in the area.

Prior to joining Cowen, Mr. Lu served as Managing Director and Chief Representative at Piper Jaffrays Shanghai-based office, where he successfully built a strong investment banking coverage and execution team. Mr. Lu holds a M.B.A. and a Bachelor of Laws from the University of Western Ontario.

About Cowen Group, Inc.

Cowen Group, Inc. is a diversified financial services firm and, together with its consolidated subsidiaries, provides alternative investment management, investment banking, research, and sales and trading services through its two business segments: Ramius and its affiliates makes up the Company's alternative investment management segment, while Cowen and Company is its broker-dealer segment. Its alternative investment management products, solutions and services include hedge funds, replication products, managed futures funds, fund of funds, real estate, health care royalty funds and cash management services. Cowen and Company offers industry focused investment banking for growth-oriented companies, domain knowledge-driven research and a sales and trading platform for institutional investors. Founded in 1918, the firm is headquartered in New York and has offices located in major financial centers around the world.

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David Lu Appointed Head of Asia Investment Banking

NEW YORK--(BUSINESS WIRE)--

Ramius LLC (Ramius), the global alternative investment management business of Cowen Group, Inc. (Cowen) (NASDAQ: COWN - News), today announced that Eric Greenhut has joined the firm as a Managing Director and Head of Quantitative Trading. Ramius quantitative trading platform was developed in-house and has been deploying proprietary capital through systematic trading programs since early 2010. Ramius is now seeking to expand and diversify the platform in order to enhance returns to proprietary capital and ultimately create systematic trading products for Ramius clients. In a newly created role, Mr. Greenhut will be responsible for the management and development of the group, including the ongoing search for premier quantitative traders, researchers, and programmers. Mr. Greenhut will report to Thomas W. Strauss, President and CEO of Ramius.

We welcome Eric to the firm and believe that his experience and skillset will be a valuable asset as we expand and advance our quantitative trading platform, said Mr. Strauss. Over the last two years, this platform has been generating superior results for Ramius own proprietary trading activities. As a result, we intend to grow the group substantially, both to enhance returns on our proprietary capital and to develop systematic trading products that will meet the ever evolving needs of our clients. We look forward to Erics contributions as we continue to build out Ramius quantitative trading group.

Mr. Greenhut brings 16 years of financial services experience with him to Ramius. Prior to joining the firm, he served as Managing Member of quantitative trading firms Hut Trading LLC & Hut Capital LLC since 2003. Previous to that, he was Managing Director, Portfolio Manager, and a Director of Research at BNP Paribas/Cooper Neff. Mr. Greenhut is an honors graduate of Harvard College and Phillips Academy.

About Cowen Group, Inc.

Cowen Group, Inc. is a diversified financial services firm and, together with its consolidated subsidiaries, provides alternative investment management, investment banking, research, and sales and trading services through its two business segments: Ramius and its affiliates makes up the Company's alternative investment management segment, while Cowen and Company is its broker-dealer segment. Its alternative investment management products, solutions and services include hedge funds, replication products, managed futures funds, fund of funds, real estate, health care royalty funds and cash management services. Cowen and Company offers industry focused investment banking for growth-oriented companies, domain knowledge-driven research and a sales and trading platform for institutional investors. Founded in 1918, the firm is headquartered in New York and has offices located in major financial centers around the world.

About Ramius LLC

Ramius offers a broad range of investment solutions to institutions and private clients worldwide. Founded in 1994, Ramius and affiliates manage $10.3 billion* (as of January 1, 2012) across multiple asset classes and investing styles. Ramius is headquartered in New York City with offices located in London, Tokyo, Luxembourg and Munich.

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Eric Greenhut Joins Ramius as Head of Quantitative Trading Group

Following its failure to separate its DVD and streaming businesses with its loud and unpopularQwiksterrebranding effort, Netflix has taken subtler tactics to segregate its two types of customers: buying up the domain DVD.com.

Domain Name Wire noticed the registration information had changed on the domain, and a spokespersonhas confirmed that Netflix indeed snatched up the URL. "Netflix cares about keeping DVD healthy, and this is just one small investment in keeping DVD healthy," a spokesperson told Domain Name Wire. From the looks of the name and the sounds of that comment, Netflix will do something DVD-related, possibly create a whole new site, with the URL.

Netflix hasn't commented on the specifics, giving TechCrunch's Ingrid Lunden an even vaguer comment: "In the U.S. we look to provide a great experience for our members, those who have DVD only, streaming only and those who have both." But, ever since Qwikster failed, Netflix has continued, in quieter ways, to push the two subscription models away from one another. The companymakes it pretty hard for anyone to sign up for DVD deliveryandit no longer lets DVD-only subscribers rate movies on the main Netflix page, pushing them to another site. Netflix CEO Reed Hastings has made clear that the company has different strategies for streaming and DVD. "DVD will do whatever its going to do," he said at the UBS media conference. "Were going to try to not hurt it, but were not putting a lot of time and energy into doing anything particular around it." Buying a domain and relegating users to that site sounds like just the type of low energy plan Hastings wants.

Update 3:22 p.m.: A Netflix spokesman has denied that the company will offload its DVD subscribers onto that site, telling AllThingsD's Peter Kafka the company bought it for "defensive reasons."

Want to add to this story? Let us know in comments or send an email to the author at rgreenfield at theatlantic dot com. You can share ideas for stories on the Open Wire.

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Netflix Snaps Up DVD.com Domain

NEW YORK--(BUSINESS WIRE)--

Fitch Ratings affirms the 'AAA/V1' fund credit and volatility ratings assigned to CRA/LA, A Designated Local Authority's (CRA/LA) investment portfolio (f/k/a Community Redevelopment Agency of the City of Los Angeles, California Investment Portfolio). As of Feb. 29, 2012, the portfolio had approximately $267.6 million in assets under management.

KEY RATING DRIVERS

The rating affirmation follows Fitch's annual review of the portfolio. The affirmation of the 'AAA' credit rating reflects the lowest vulnerability to losses as a result of defaults in securities and is based on the actual and prospective average credit quality of the portfolio's investments.

The main drivers for the credit rating affirmation are:

--The portfolio's overall credit quality and diversification;

--Sufficient portfolio liquidity relative to cash outflows;

--Investment capabilities of CRA/LA as the pool's manager.

The affirmation of the fund volatility rating is based on the stability of the market risk profile, as reflected by duration.

The 'V1' fund volatility rating reflects the portfolio's low market risk and capacity to return stable principal value to meet anticipated cash flow requirements, even in adverse interest rate environments.

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Fitch Affirms CRA/LA, A Designated Local Authority's Investment Portfolio at 'AAA/V1'

Economic zone open to Taiwan investment and 'is not political'

There are no political motives behind the setting up of a special economic zone in Fujian province that is open to Taiwan investment, a mainland official said.

The Pingtan Experimental Zone "belongs to the economic domain", and is not an experimental laboratory for the "One Country, Two Systems" policy, Yang Yi, spokesman of the State Council's Taiwan Affairs Office, said at a news conference in Beijing on Wednesday.

Yang highlighted the attractiveness of the mainland's economic policies and urged Taiwan to reciprocate.

With an area of about 324 square kilometers, Pingtan is the closest mainland island to Taiwan. The mainland aims to channel 60 billion yuan ($9.53 billion) to develop the zone this year, targeting an overall investment of 250 billion yuan during the 2011-15 period, Fujian Governor Su Shulin said in Taiwan's Hsinchu city on Sunday.

Su, who went on a five-day visit to Taiwan on Saturday, said that the Pingtan project is a goodwill "package" sent across the Straits.

"We would like to open the package and let everyone look inside to see whether the gift comes from genuine goodwill or has strings attached," Su said in a speech on Tuesday when he met Lien Chan, honorary chairman of the Kuomintang, Taiwan's ruling party.

"If the answer is positive, we are ready to offer it at anytime," he said.

"I believe Pingtan will become a modern metropolis within a decade," he said.

Tang Yonghong, deputy director of the economic research office of the Taiwan Research Institute in Xiamen University, said some Taiwan politicians have overreacted and targeted the development of Pingtan as political.

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Pingtan project 'just for business'