TO:
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CSK Auto, Inc. Officers and other Insider Group Members | |
FROM:
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Randi Morrison | |
RE:
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Notice of Blackout Period Concerning Company Stock, Including Stock Trades Within the CSK Auto, Inc. Retirement Program |
| By: | ![]() |
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| Name: | Jerry Olson | |||
| Title: | Vice President of Human Resources | |||
| Date: | December 13, 2006 | |||
2
| 1. | This notice is to inform you that the purchasing (either by payroll contribution or transfer of funds) of CSK Auto Corporation common stock under the CSK Auto, Inc. Retirement Program (the Plan) will be temporarily suspended effective December 20, 2006. This is due to the pending restatement of the financial results for CSK Auto, Inc. (the Company) and the filing with the SEC of such restated financial statements and the Companys quarterly financial statements for fiscal 2006. This period is called a blackout period. | |
| 2. | The blackout period will end after the Company files these financial statements and otherwise becomes current in its financial reporting obligations. You will be provided more information about when the blackout period will end when such information is available. | |
| 3. | As a result of foregoing, you temporarily will be unable to direct investments (either of new contributions or by transferring amounts from another investment fund) into the CSK Common Stock Fund under the Plan. It is important to note, however, that unless you are a director, executive officer or other member of the Companys Insider Group (insider), the blackout period will not affect your ability to reallocate amounts currently held under the CSK Common Stock Fund into a new investment fund. Neither will the blackout affect transactions with respect to the other investment funds. In other words, during the blackout period you may transfer amounts out of, but not into, the CSK Common Stock Fund. However, insiders may neither transfer funds into or out of the CSK Common Stock Fund during the blackout period. | |
| If your current investment election directs investments into the CSK Common Stock Fund, you may change your election at any time in accordance with usual Plan procedures. However, unless and until you do so, those amounts will instead automatically be allocated to the Fidelity Income Fund and will remain in that Fund until you direct otherwise. | ||
| Please note that due to the blackout period, your CSK Common Stock Fund elections will be automatically changed to the Fidelity Income Fund (or any other option you subsequently choose). This will be an actual election change in the Plans recordkeeping system, which you can view by accessing the Plans website at https://www.retireonline.com. This election will not automatically change just because the blackout period has ended. Thus, once the blackout period ends, if you wish to invest new contributions in the CSK Common Stock Fund again, you will need to make an affirmative election at that time to do so. In the absence of a post-blackout period election, your contributions will continue to be allocated to the Fidelity Income Fund or any other investment fund(s) that you have subsequently chosen. |
| 4. | As noted above, you will temporarily be unable to direct any new monies into the CSK Common Stock Fund during the blackout period. For this reason, it is very important that you review and consider the appropriateness of your current investments. For your long-term retirement security, you should give careful consideration to the importance of a well-balanced and diversified investment portfolio, taking into account all your assets, income and investments. You should be aware that there is a risk to holding substantial portions of your assets in the securities of any one company, as individual securities tend to have wider price swings, up and down, in short periods of time, than investments in diversified funds. | |
| 5. | The U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) does not require a blackout notice where the trading suspension is due to the application of federal securities laws, but we are voluntarily providing this notice anyway. Where the DOL blackout rules do apply, federal law generally requires that you be furnished notice of a blackout period at least 30 days in advance of the last date on which you could exercise your affected rights immediately before the commencement of any blackout period, in order to provide you with sufficient time to consider the effect of the blackout period on your retirement and financial plans. If the rule applies, there is an exception to this 30 day rule where such advance notice is not possible due to events beyond the reasonable control of the CSK Auto Retirement Plan Committee, which has been delegated the authority of plan administrator. Given the current circumstances, the Retirement Committee determined that if the rule applies, it was impossible to furnish 30 days advance notice. | |
| 6. | If you have any questions concerning this notice, you should contact Jo Ann Hinson, Director of Benefits and Payroll, at (602) 631-7333, Vickie Moss, Retirement Programs Manager, at (602) 631-7119, or the Retirement Program Administrator at CSK Auto, Inc., P.O. Box 6030, Phoenix, Arizona 85005 |