Platform Provides Greater Flexibility and Transparency to Employers and Participants

BOSTON, October 1, 2009 - Fidelity Investments today announced the rollout of its enhanced performance award platform for employers that offer a stock plan program for their employees. The new features on the platform are designed to support the growing demand from employers towards more performance-based equity compensation programs for their executive level employees. Nearly half of Fidelity's 220 stock plan services clients currently issue performance awards.

A performance award is typically a grant of company shares or units in which the employee's rights to those awards are contingent on the achievement of pre-established performance goals. Companies use a variety of performance metrics from traditional accounting measures such as revenue, net income, and earnings per share to market-based measures such as total shareholder return or share price appreciation. At the end of the performance period, which typically ranges from one to three years, companies determine if the goals were achieved and may adjust the number of shares accordingly.

"As the environment around company stock continues to evolve, employers are responding to the demand to better align their employee equity compensation programs with long-term corporate performance goals," said Thomas Hughes, executive vice president of Fidelity Stock Plan Services. "Our newly enhanced platform will help companies better manage their stock programs, aligning corporate and shareholder interests with executive pay and performance, enabling employers to adjust equity-based payouts appropriately and improve transparency."

New Enhancements Allow Companies to Manage Customize Performance Measures

The enhancements to Fidelity's online performance award platform enable companies to address the many types of company-specific performance metrics and incorporate unique characteristics of individual performance plans. The platform includes the ability to create customized category headings that represent specific performance parameters unique to the employer, as part of the awards program. It will also allow the employer to display a variety of payment scenarios for the employee based on different performance levels.

Also designed with plan participants in mind, the enhanced platform will enable stock award recipients to better view and track their awards through NetBenefits, the Fidelity workplace benefits site. A new summary screen will allow each participant to access timely information on the amount and dates for their target shares, shares pending, as well as shares already paid. They can also view transaction history, performance parameters, vesting schedules and plan documents all in one place.

About Fidelity Investments

Fidelity Investments is one of the world's largest providers of financial services, with assets under administration of $3.0 trillion, including managed assets of more than $1.4 trillion as of August 31, 2009. Fidelity offers investment management, retirement planning, brokerage, and human resources and benefits outsourcing services to over 20 million individuals and institutions as well as through 5,000 financial intermediary firms. The firm is the largest mutual fund company in the United States, the No. 1 provider of workplace retirement savings plans, the largest mutual fund supermarket and a leading online brokerage firm. For more information about Fidelity Investments, visit Fidelity.com.

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Stock Plan recordkeeping and administrative services provided by Fidelity Stock Plan Services, LLC.

Fidelity Brokerage Services LLC, Member NYSE, SIPC
900 Salem Street, Smithfield, RI 02917