Consumer >> Sector Roundtables >> April 6, 2009
William Jason Lerner is a Managing Director and a Security Analyst at Deutsche
Bank Securities, Inc. Prior to joining the firm in June 2006, he was a Senior
Vice President and Security Analyst at Prudential Equity Group, LLC. Previously,
He was a Security Analyst at Deutsche Morgan Grenfell for two years. He obtained
an MBA degree from Boston University and a BA degree in Political Science from
Syracuse University. He authored "The Irwin Directory of Emerging Market
Brokers," which was published in 1996. He is also a member of Institutional
Investor's "All American Research Team." Profile
Marla S. Backer is the Director of Research at Research Associates, LLC. She has
15 years of experience on the sell side, having begun her career as an Associate
with the Special Situations research team at Morgan Stanley. Her background as a
research generalist has given her the flexibility to cover several different
sectors over the course of her career. She spent three years as a Senior Analyst
at Bear Stearns, where she covered the global cement and construction industry.
Following that, she was a Senior Analyst at Salomon Brothers, where she headed
the emerging markets media and beverage sector teams. While at Salomon Brothers,
she was ranked for her coverage of Latin American media in the prestigious
Institutional Investor and Reuters polls. She has spent the last three years
following the domestic media industry, with a particular focus on digital media.
Starmine has ranked her as the leading analyst on several of the companies she
covers. She is quoted often in the financial press and has been a frequent guest
on CNBC and CNN. Profile
TWST: Let's start on the gaming side. Marla, what do you see going on?Ms. Backer: Things are definitely difficult in the space. I think we're seeing
pressure in general on gaming across the