September 2

PacWest Bancorp Announces $100 Million Investment By CapGen Financial

PacWest Bancorp (Nasdaq: PACW) today announced that the private equity firm CapGen Financial has agreed to acquire approximately $100 million of newly issued shares of PacWest Bancorp common stock at a price of $26 per share, representing a 21% premium to the last five trading-day average closing price of PacWest common stock. CapGen will invest in PacWest through an investment vehicle advised by CapGen Capital Advisers LLC. In connection with the investment, the CapGen investment vehicle will seek to register as a bank holding company and, upon consummation of the investment, the CapGen investment vehicle will own approximately 12% of PacWest common stock on a fully-diluted basis as of June 30, 2008. Read more: PacWest Bancorp ( PACW )

September 2

Shionogi & Co., Ltd. to Acquire Sciele Pharma, Inc.

Shionogi & Co., Ltd. and Sciele Pharma, Inc. (NASDAQ: SCRX) today announced that they have entered into a definitive agreement under which Shionogi & Co., Ltd. will acquire Sciele Pharma, Inc.

Under the terms of agreement and pursuant to a tender offer, Shionogi will acquire all the outstanding shares of Sciele’s common stock at a price of $31 per share, for a total equity purchase price of approximately $1.1 billion. Upon completion of the acquisition, Sciele will become a wholly-owned subsidiary of Shionogi and will continue operations in Atlanta, GA, USA as a standalone business unit. The Board of Directors of Shionogi and Sciele have approved this transaction. This acquisition is subject to clearance under the Hart-Scott-Rodino Antitrust Improvement Act and other customary conditions. Read more: Sciele Pharma Inc ( SCRX )

Results reveal flexibility, cost and availability are key motivating factors for adopting virtualised infrastructures

Worcester, UK. – 2nd September 2008 – Double-Take Software (NASDAQ: DBTK) today announced the results of a survey that it ran in collaboration with the organisers of Storage Expo 2008, the UK’s definitive event for data storage, information and content management, which takes place in London on 15th and 16th October. Key findings include overwhelming interest in virtualisation, with 38% of respondents having already virtualised their production infrastructure and 52% having plans to do so. Read more: Survey finds 38% of Organisations have already Gone Virtual

Web Filtering Specialist Advises Anonymous Proxies are on the Rise as Students Become Increasingly Tech-savvy Each Year

Bloxx, the UK web content filtering specialist, warns that as the new academic year approaches, educational institutions should be aware of the escalating use of anonymous proxies by students trying to bypass web filtering technology and the risks associated with unrestricted internet access.

The Internet is an incredibly important and useful resource for education, yet it can also impact productivity as students have the opportunity to waste time surfing social networking websites or bandwidth-sapping media download sites. Read more: Web Filtering Company Bloxx Warns Of the Dangers Of Anonymous Proxies