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Chief Economist Stephen Stanley of Santander US wins second Blue Chip Forecasting Award

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Top forecaster to accept award and deliver 2027 economic outlook at event on Oct. 13.

TEMPE, Ariz., Sept. 16, 2026 /PRNewswire/ — Stephen Stanley has joined an elite group of two-time winners of the Lawrence R. Klein Award for Blue Chip Forecast Accuracy, earning this year’s honor for producing the most accurate economic forecast from 2022 through 2025. The award is widely regarded as one of the nation’s best-known and longest-standing recognitions for achievement in economic forecasting.

Stanley will be honored with his second Lawrence R. Klein Award for Blue Chip Forecast Accuracy Tuesday, Oct. 13, at the University Club of New York, where he will deliver his 2027 economic outlook. A livestream of the ceremony will also be available to the public at no cost.

Register to watch the livestream of the event Tuesday, Oct. 13, from 7 to 8 p.m. Eastern.

The award is judged and sponsored by the W. P. Carey School of Business at Arizona State University in partnership with the W. P. Carey Foundation. The winner is selected based on the accuracy of forecasts published in the Blue Chip Economic Indicators newsletter, which is compiled and edited by Haver Analytics. Analysts whose projections appeared in the January edition of the newsletter during the four prior years are eligible for the award.

“It is a tremendous honor to be representing Santander in receiving this esteemed recognition,” Stanley said. “Our goal is to help our clients navigate a complex, uncertain, and ever-changing landscape. To be recognized for doing so with precision and accuracy over the past four years reinforces the value of our work.”

Ohad Kadan, Charles J. Robel Dean and W. P. Carey Distinguished Chair in Business, will present the award to Stanley.

“In the 50th year of the Blue Chip panel, Stephen Stanley has once again distinguished himself among the nation’s leading business forecasters, earning the top spot for the second time in three years,” said Dennis Hoffman, professor of economics and director of the Office of the University Economist at ASU. “His GDP, inflation, and unemployment forecasts over the past four years were consistently impressive, and his near-perfect projections for 2025 gave him the final edge over the rest of the panel. I congratulate Stephen on this outstanding achievement and look forward to hearing his perspective on the future course of the economy, particularly inflation.”

Stanley is chief U.S. economist at Santander US Capital Markets, LLC (SanCap), the institutional broker-dealer of Santander in the United States operating under Santander Corporate & Investment Banking.

Before joining Pierpont Securities, the predecessor to Santander US Capital Markets, in March 2010, Stanley served as chief U.S. economist at RBS. Throughout his career, he has focused on macroeconomic analysis, Fed watching, and federal budget and Treasury financing issues. He holds a BA in economics from Washington and Lee University and an MA in economics from the University of Chicago.

Media note: Please consider adding this event to your community calendar. Journalists who attend as members of the virtual audience may ask questions during the Q&A portion of the event.

About the Lawrence R. Klein Award
Established in 1981, the Lawrence R. Klein Award for Blue Chip Forecast Accuracy, presented by the W. P. Carey School of Business at Arizona State University in partnership with the W. P. Carey Foundation, honors the economist whose four-year forecast, published in the Blue Chip Economic Indicators newsletter and compiled by Haver Analytics, shows the greatest accuracy. Over the decades, the award has become one of the most respected accolades in the field. Recent winners include Jan Hatzius of Goldman Sachs in 2025, Michael Cosgrove of The Econoclast, Inc. in 2023, Douglas Duncan of Fannie Mae in 2022, Carl Tannenbaum of Northern Trust in 2021, and Ellen Zentner of Morgan Stanley in 2020.

About the W. P. Carey School of Business
The W. P. Carey School of Business at Arizona State University is the largest and one of the top-ranked public business schools in the United States. The school is internationally regarded for its academic programs and the research productivity of its distinguished faculty members. Students come from more than 120 countries, and W. P. Carey is represented by over 140,000 alumni worldwide.

About Santander
Banco Santander is a leading commercial bank, founded in 1857 and headquartered in Spain and one of the largest banks in the world by market capitalization. The group’s activities are consolidated into five global businesses: Retail & Commercial Banking, Openbank, Corporate & Investment Banking (CIB), Wealth Management & Insurance and Payments. This operating model allows the bank to better leverage its unique combination of global scale and local leadership. Santander aims to be the best open financial services platform providing services to individuals, SMEs, corporates, financial institutions and governments. The bank’s purpose is to help people and businesses prosper in a simple, personal and fair way. In the first half of 2026, Banco Santander had €1.5 trillion in total funds, more than 182 million customers, 6,500 branches and 185,000 employees.

About Haver Analytics 
Haver Analytics is a global leader in time-series data and analytical software, offering flexible delivery tools that meet the highest standards of economists, analysts, and data scientists. It is a premier provider of time series data for the global strategy, research, and quant communities, offering primary-sourced databases, a wealth of key survey and forecast data from industry partners, and a robust offering of archive databases that drive machine learning for big data applications. For more information, contact sales@haver.com

For more information/media contacts:

Shay Moser
W. P. Carey School of Business
wpc.mediarelations@asu.edu 

Andrew Simonelli
Santander US
mediarelations@santander.us  

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SOURCE W. P. Carey School of Business at Arizona State University

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Alfar Capital, Walter Capital Partners, and BDC Capital complete the sale of MSP Corp. to Niobrara Capital, capping a four-year build from a regional Quebec IT provider into one of Canada’s largest managed IT and cybersecurity platforms

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MONTREAL, Sept. 16, 2026 /PRNewswire/ — Alfar Capital and Walter Capital Partners, together with BDC Capital, announced today the sale of MSP Operational Corp. (“MSP Corp.”), one of Canada’s largest providers of managed IT and cybersecurity services to small and midsize businesses, to Niobrara Capital, a New York-based private equity firm focused on middle-market B2B technology and technology-enabled services companies. Financial terms were not disclosed. The transaction completes the growth plan Alfar and Walter Capital Partners set out in 2022 when they acquired Groupe Access.

Founded in 1993, Groupe Access was a Quebec-focused IT services provider operating in a fragmented market served largely by subscale regional players. The investment thesis was to build a national platform by acquiring and integrating select regional providers with complementary capabilities, a scalable delivery model, and an accretive revenue profile, creating a business able to compete for SMB clients across Canada. Four years on, that thesis has been successfully executed.

During Alfar, Walter’s, and BDC’s holding period, MSP Corp. completed five acquisitions, transforming the platform from a local Quebec player into a pan-Canadian platform operating from Quebec to British Columbia, with extensive capabilities across cybersecurity, cloud computing and artificial intelligence. Since its inception, MSP Corp. has completed the acquisition and integration of more than 20 Canadian providers, now sharing a single service catalogue, a single delivery model and a single brand. Over the same period, MSP Corp. developed one of Canada’s deepest Microsoft practices, all six Microsoft Solutions Partner designations, and launched Guardian Shield, its packaged cybersecurity offering, shifting the revenue mix further towards managed services.

Alfar and Walter collaborated with management on establishing the operating infrastructure a platform of that size requires: a strengthened finance function, a rebuilt sales organization with a common go-to-market motion, standardized pipeline discipline and KPI reporting across regions, and a leadership team built to run a national business, highlighting the collaborative partnership that led to this successful outcome.

MSP Corp. today serves more than 2,300 recurring clients from coast to coast with a team of approximately 500 IT professionals across 12 offices in six provinces and one territory. Habib Malik, who has led the Company through the build-out, continues as Chief Executive Officer under Niobrara’s ownership.

“This transaction is a milestone for our clients, our team, and our partners,” said Mr. Malik. “Over the past four years, we’ve gone from a regional IT provider to a pan-Canadian platform, and with Niobrara we enter our next chapter. We see a substantial opportunity to keep consolidating a fragmented market and to broaden our cybersecurity and AI offering. None of this would have been possible without Alfar, Walter and BDC, who backed our team from day one and gave us the capital, the discipline and the room to build a national company.”

“When we invested in Groupe Access in 2022, we saw a regional company with a management team capable of running a national platform,” said Fares Kabbani, Founder and Managing Partner at Alfar Capital. “Four years later, Habib and his team have integrated five acquisitions into one business, one service catalogue, one delivery model, one culture, and built one of the deepest Microsoft and cybersecurity practices in the country, with the foundations in place for the next phase of growth. This is exactly the kind of outcome Alfar exists to create for entrepreneurs, and we are proud to hand the next chapter to Niobrara, who will use this platform as their entry point into the North American managed services market.”

Canaccord Genuity acted as exclusive financial advisor to MSP Corp, Alfar Capital, Walter Capital, and BDC.  Raymond Chabot Grant Thornton acted as financial due diligence advisor, and Fasken Martineau DuMoulin LLP as legal counsel to the sellers.

About MSP Corp.

MSP Corp. is a pan-Canadian managed services provider specializing in cloud computing, cybersecurity, and IT support services. With a strong emphasis on customer satisfaction, MSP Corp. offers tailored solutions to help businesses stay ahead in the rapidly evolving digital landscape. For more information, visit www.mspcorp.ca

About Alfar Capital

Alfar Capital is a private equity firm focused on buy-and-build strategies, that backs founder-built businesses and turns them into scaled, growth oriented, professionalized enterprises. Focused on B2B manufacturing, distribution and services, Alfar partners shoulder-to-shoulder with management teams to accelerate growth, execute strategic acquisitions, and unlock operational performance, transforming strong companies into market leaders. For more information, visit www.alfarcap.com

About Walter Capital Partners

Walter Capital Partners is a private equity firm part of the Walter Group. Its investment model combines capital inflow and operating expertise to support the growth of promising companies on solid and sustainable foundations, by drawing on the entrepreneurial background of the Walter Group and the extensive business leadership experience of its managing partners. Headquartered in Montréal, Walter Capital provides a solid international network. For more information, visit www.waltercapital.ca

About BDC Capital

BDC Growth Equity Partners is a division of BDC Capital, the investment arm of BDC, Canada’s Business Development Bank. With $9 billion of assets under management, BDC Capital serves as a strategic partner to the country’s most innovative firms. It offers businesses a full spectrum of capital, from seed investments to growth equity as well as ownership transition solutions, supporting Canadian entrepreneurs who have the ambition to stand out on the world stage. For more information, visit bdc.ca

About Niobrara Capital

Niobrara Capital is a U.S.-based private equity firm focused on middle-market technology investments. With decades of combined experience leading and scaling global technology businesses, Niobrara partners with business-to-business technology and technology-enabled services companies to deliver strategic leadership, growth acceleration, and operational excellence. For more information, visit niobraracap.com

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SOURCE Alfar Capital Management GP Inc

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NASA’s Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter Discovers a New 222-m Diameter Lunar Crater

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WASHINGTON, Sept. 16, 2026 /PRNewswire/ — NASA’s Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter Camera team recently discovered a new crater on the Moon that is twice the length of an American football field. The study, published in Science Advances, was conducted by members of NASA’s Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO) science team, including Principal Investigator and lead author Dr. Mark Robinson of Intuitive Machines and co-author Dr. Julie Stopar of USRA’s Lunar and Planetary Institute. 

The crater is scientifically important because it is the largest yet that was formed and discovered during LRO’s lifetime at the Moon. Scientists estimate that it was formed between April 11 and May 22, 2024,, about 2.5 years ago. It measures 222-m in diameter; this is a size that is estimated to form roughly once in a lifetime, or ~130 years. The crater shows the immediate effects of the impact cratering process before exposure to space and meteorite bombardment wears it down and hence is very useful for further studies. 

It is officially named McGetchin crater after Thomas McGetchin by the International Astronomical Union (https://planetarynames.wr.usgs.gov/Feature/16447). Dr. McGetchin served as Director of the Lunar and Planetary Institute (LPI), then known as the Lunar Science Institute (LSI), beginning in 1977, the same year that marked the inaugural summer of the LPI Internships in Planetary Science Program. A renowned volcanologist and lunar scientist, McGetchin made lasting contributions to planetary science. The model of impact-crater ejecta developed by McGetchin and colleagues in 1973 remains an important framework for interpreting the formation and distribution of ejecta around impact craters and basins.

The new crater seems to have formed on a boundary between the cratered and craggy lunar highlands and a wide, flat mare. Its depth is about 43 meters on average.

The crater is also surrounded by a bright blanket of ejecta — rock and dust that splashed out in all directions when the impact occurred — that extends hundreds of meters from the rim.

Additional Information

After the embargo lifts, anyone may view a copy of the manuscript at https://www.science.org/journal/sciadv.

Reporters can access the paper at VancePak, https://www.eurekalert.org/press/vancepak/.

For reporters having difficulties accessing the paper from the press package, please have them contact vancepak@aaas.org.

For information on Planetary names, go to (https://planetarynames.wr.usgs.gov/Feature/16447).

Authors of the Science Advances paper: Mark S. Robinson, Aaron K. Boyd, Prasun Mahanti, Madeleine R. Manheim, Emerson J. Speyerer, Julie D. Stopar, Robert V. Wagner

About LPI

The Lunar and Planetary Institute (LPI), an institute of Universities Space Research Association, was established during the Apollo program in 1968 to foster international collaboration and to serve as a repository for information gathered during the early years of the space program. Today, the LPI is an intellectual leader in lunar and planetary science. The Institute serves as a scientific forum attracting world-class visiting scientists, postdoctoral fellows, students, and resident experts; supports and serves the research community through newsletters, meetings, and other activities; collects and disseminates planetary data, engages and excites the public about space science and invests in the development of future generations of scientists. The research carried out at the LPI supports NASA’s efforts to explore the solar system. More information about LPI is available at www.lpi.usra.edu.

About USRA 

Founded in 1969, the Universities Space Research Association (USRA) is an independent, nonprofit organization that advances space- and Earth-related science, engineering, and technology through innovative research, education, and workforce development programs. USRA partners with government agencies, academic institutions, and industry to address some of the nation’s most complex scientific and technical challenges.

For more information, visit www.usra.edu 

PR Contact:
Suraiya Farukhi
sfarukhi@usra.edu
443-812-6945

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SOURCE Universities Space Research Association

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TEN Holdings Announces $2 Million Share Repurchase Program and Strategic Technology Relationship with GLSoft Corp.

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LANGHORNE, Pa., Sept. 16, 2026 /PRNewswire/ — TEN Holdings, Inc. (Nasdaq: XHLD) (“TEN Holdings” or the “Company”), through its subsidiary, Ten Events, Inc., a technology platform for enterprise-grade webcasts and virtual events, today announced that its Board of Directors has authorized a new share repurchase program of up to $2.0 million and approved the establishment of a strategic technology and engineering relationship with GLSoft Corp. (“GLSoft”).

$2.0 Million Share Repurchase Program

Under the newly authorized share repurchase program, TEN Holdings may repurchase up to $2.0 million of its outstanding common stock through December 31, 2026. Repurchases may be made from time to time through open-market transactions, privately negotiated transactions or other transactions deemed appropriate by the Company, including pursuant to trading plans or arrangements intended to comply with Rule 10b5-1 and/or Rule 10b-18 under the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended.

The timing, price and amount of any repurchases will be determined based on market conditions, the trading price of the Company’s common stock, available liquidity, applicable securities laws, contractual restrictions and other relevant factors.

The authorization does not obligate the Company to repurchase any specific number or dollar amount of shares, and the program may be suspended, modified or discontinued at any time.

In connection with the authorization of the new program, the Board also approved the termination of the Company’s existing share repurchase program administered through Bancroft Capital, LLC.

“We believe the authorization of this new share repurchase program provides us with an additional tool to strategically allocate capital while maintaining the flexibility necessary to continue investing in the growth of our business,” said Virgilio Torres, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of TEN Holdings, Inc. “Following the strengthening of our balance sheet earlier this year, we believe it is important to maintain a disciplined approach to capital allocation. This authorization allows us to evaluate opportunistic repurchases when we believe they represent an attractive use of capital, while continuing to prioritize investments in technology, product development and long-term growth.”

Strategic Technology Relationship with GLSoft Corp.

The Board has also authorized TEN Holdings to establish a strategic relationship with GLSoft, providing the Company with the ability to utilize GLSoft’s engineering, software development and broader technology capabilities as opportunities arise.

The relationship is expected to provide TEN Holdings with additional flexibility to pursue product engineering, software and technology development, platform integrations, technical support, technology licensing, redistribution, resale and commercialization initiatives.

Rather than committing the Company to a specific project or minimum expenditure, the authorization enables management to identify and pursue individual development and technology initiatives with GLSoft when management determines that doing so is beneficial to the Company and consistent with its strategic objectives.

“Expanding our technology and engineering capabilities is a critical component of where we want to take TEN Holdings,” Torres continued. “Our objective is to evolve beyond a traditional webinar and virtual-events offering and build a broader, more scalable technology platform. Having the ability to leverage additional engineering and development resources through relationships such as GLSoft gives us greater flexibility to accelerate product development, evaluate new technologies and bring additional capabilities to market.”

The GLSoft authorization complements TEN Holdings’ previously announced strategy to invest in expanded product functionality, automation, analytics, artificial intelligence and other technologies designed to increase the scalability of its platform and broaden its addressable market.

About TEN Holdings, Inc.

TEN Holdings, Inc. (Nasdaq: XHLD) is a technology company for enterprise-grade virtual events, offering a self-service platform through its subsidiary, Ten Events, Inc., that scales to over 100,000 concurrent attendees at 99.99% uptime. The Company is backed by more than a decade of experience producing mission-critical corporate broadcasts for Fortune 500 clients, and its roadmap extends this foundation with AI-driven capabilities in analytics, captioning, and intent data. Headquartered in Pennsylvania, TEN Holdings produces virtual, hybrid, and physical events supported by its Ten Events Pro platform. To learn more, visit www.tenholdingsinc.com.

Forward-Looking Statements

Certain statements contained in this press release may constitute “forward-looking statements” within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. The words “anticipate,” “believe,” “continue,” “could,” “estimate,” “expect,” “intend,” “may,” “plan,” “potential,” “predict,” “project,” “should,” “target,” “will,” “would” and similar expressions are intended to identify forward-looking statements, although not all forward-looking statements contain these identifying words. Actual results may differ materially from those indicated by such forward-looking statements as a result of various important factors, including, but not limited to, statements regarding the Company’s growth strategy and participation in industry conferences, and the uncertainties related to market conditions and other factors discussed in the “Risk Factors” section of the Company’s most recent Annual Report on Form 10-K filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (the “SEC”) and other filings with the SEC. For these reasons, among others, investors are cautioned not to place undue reliance upon any forward-looking statements in this press release. Any forward-looking statements contained in this press release speak only as of the date hereof, and TEN Holdings, Inc. specifically disclaims any obligation to update any forward-looking statement, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise, except as required by law.

For more information, please contact:

Investor Relations Inquiries:
Skyline Corporate Communications Group, LLC
Scott Powell, President
1177 Avenue of the Americas, 5th Floor
New York, New York 10036
Office: (646) 893-5835
Email: IR@skylineccg.com

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SOURCE TEN Holdings, Inc.

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