PASADENA, Calif. , April 2, 2007 (PRIME NEWSWIRE) -- Guidance Software (Nasdaq:GUID), The World Leader in Digital Investigations(tm) joined the Russell(r) 3000 Index and the small-cap Russell(r) 2000 Index when Russell Investment Group reconstituted its family of U.S. indexes on March 30, 2007.
Russell indexes are widely used by investment managers and institutional investors for index funds and as benchmarks for both passive and active investment strategies. Russell determines membership for its equity indexes primarily by objective, market capitalization rankings and style attributes. More than $2.5 trillion in assets currently are benchmarked to the Russell indexes.
Investment managers who oversee these index funds purchase shares of member stocks according to that company's weighting in the particular index.
Guidance Software produces innovative solutions enabling law enforcement, government agencies and corporations to conduct digital investigations, respond to network intrusions, and electronically collect data for litigation purposes. Law enforcement agencies employ these critical capabilities to investigate crimes and combat terrorism, while business uses the technology to protect intellectual property, conduct internal investigations and fulfill eDiscovery obligations.
"The addition of Guidance Software to these major stock indexes is a significant milestone, reflecting our continuing growth, maturation and recognition as a public company," said John Colbert, chief executive officer of Guidance Software. "We're pleased that Russell is the first to add us to these key indexes, and we believe that other indexes, reflective of market interest, will follow their lead."
Annual reconstitution of Russell indexes captures the 3,000 largest U.S. stocks as of the end of May, ranking them by total market capitalization to create the Russell 3000. The largest 1,000 companies in the ranking comprise the Russell 1000, while the remaining 2,000 companies become the widely used Russell 2000. These investment tools originated from Russell's multi-manager investment business in the early 1980s when the company saw the need for a more objective, market-driven set of benchmarks in order to evaluate outside investment managers.
Separately, Guidance Software filed its 10-K with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Available at http://investors.guidancesoftware.com/sec.cfm, it will be sent to shareholders of record as of March 5, 2007 later this month.
Russell, a global leader in multi-manager investment services, provides investment products and services in more than 39 countries. Russell manages more than $135 billion in assets and advises clients worldwide representing $2.3 trillion. Founded in 1936, Russell is a subsidiary of Northwestern Mutual and is headquartered in Tacoma, Washington, with additional offices in New York, Toronto, London, Paris, Singapore, Sydney, Auckland and Tokyo. For more information, go to www.russell.com.
About Guidance Software (GUID)
Guidance Software is recognized worldwide as the industry leader in digital investigative solutions. Its EnCase(r) platform provides the foundation for government, corporate and law enforcement organizations to conduct thorough and effective computer investigations of any kind, such as intellectual property theft, incident response, compliance auditing and responding to eDiscovery requests-all while maintaining the forensic integrity of the data. There are more than 20,000 licensed users of the technology, and thousands of investigators and corporate security personnel attend Guidance Software's forensic methodology training annually. Validated by numerous courts worldwide, EnCase is also frequently honored with top security awards and recognition from eWEEK, SC Magazine and Network Computing, as well as the Socha-Gelbmann survey.
GUID-F