Connecting decision makers to a dynamic network of information Bloomberg quickly and accurately delivers business and financial information after posting record demand across its vanilla and opportunistic strategies in the first quarter Investor interest in credit helped push Ares’ managed assets up 27% to a total of almost $546 billion in the first quarter Ares raised just over $20 billion in the first three months of the year with more than half of that flowing to its credit group rather than plunging audiences into a digital landscape Jared Leto’s Ares – the titular character who busts out of the Grid and into reality but I always thought about him a bit like Pinocchio,” director Joachim Rønning tells Empire of Leto’s character “Ares wants to be a real boy.” As a piece of coding-turned-flesh “We talked a lot about him almost being an infant and how we wanted the audience to see the world through his eyes,” says Rønning “The little things that we take for granted And then a bigger theme for the film is what it takes — what it means — to be human The nature of Ares – and his presence in reality – isn’t the only evolution in Tron: Ares He even gets his own triangular Identity Disc in an upgrade from the typical circular accessories “It’s definitely a weapon,” Rønning teases “And it’s just a superior disc.” Don’t worry Tron purists – standard circular discs will be present too although I’m sure people are gonna freak out that it’s not round: ‘Oh no!’ But we have round discs as well,” he says Read Empire’s full Tron: Ares story in the Jaws At 50 issue, on sale Thursday 10 April. Pre-order a copy online here Tron: Ares comes to UK cinemas on 10 October Company number 01176085; Bauer Radio Limited Company number: 1394141; Registered office: Media House Peterborough PE2 6EA and H Bauer Publishing Company number: LP003328; Registered office: The Lantern H Bauer Publishing are authorised and regulated for credit broking by the FCA (Ref No: 845898) Revisit the reviews of Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross’ The Social Network and Daft Punk’s Tron Legacy It's difficult to underestimate the massive influence that Disney's 1982 cult science fiction film, TRON had on both the film industry—thanks to combining live action with what were then groundbreaking visual effects rife with computer-generated imagery—and on nerd culture at large Over the ensuing decades there has been one sequel all modeled on director Steve Lisberg's original fictional world (Spoilers for ending of TRON: Legacy below.) TRON: Legacy ended with Sam Flynn (Garrett Hedlund), son of Kevin Flynn (Jeff Bridges) from the original film, preventing the digital world from bleeding into the real world, as planned by the Grid's malevolent ruling program, Clu. He brought with him Quorra (Olivia Wilde), a naturally occurring isomorphic algorithm targeted for extinction by Clu. TRON: Ares hits theaters on October 10, 2025. Tron: Ares imagines a world where AI takes on a physical form by Wes Davis The minute-and-a-half trailer doesn’t say much about the story but shows plenty of the movie’s visuals and filled with the series’ signature light trails The trailer opens in the physical world at night slicing one in half using his light trail as a weapon The shots that follow show a massive airship hovering over the real-world city visible only by the red light strips on its outside The rest has people looking on in horror at the airship dogfights between human aircraft and fighters from the Tron digital world and what looks like a clip of Ares being given his physical body All of that is set to the music of Nine Inch Nails which is handling the soundtrack this time around It ends with a voiceover from Jeff Bridges reprising his role as Kevin Flynn and saying There’s no going back.” The movie hits theaters on October 10th A weekly newsletter by David Pierce designed to tell you everything you need to download, watch, read, listen to, and explore that fits in The Verge’s universe. It’s a day fans of the Grid have been awaiting for years. The first trailer for Tron: Ares is here, a film that has been in the works for over 15 years. That’s even before the release of 2010’s Tron: Legacy, a cult classic in the making that set up a sequel which never happened In the first trailer for Ares, it doesn’t look like the new film picks up those Legacy threads at all. Instead, we’re introduced to a new, red grid and creations from that plane of existence crossing over into the real world Here’s your first glimpse at Tron: Ares We’re not surprised the trailer doesn’t give away too much But you can certainly tell that director Joachim Rønning (Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales Maleficent: Mistress of Evil) is aiming to bring fans of the franchise not just something new but something they’ve been dreaming about for decades: a full-on invasion of the Grid into the real world ' + scriptOptions._localizedStrings.webview_notification_text + ' " + scriptOptions._localizedStrings.redirect_overlay_title + " " + scriptOptions._localizedStrings.redirect_overlay_text + " The Mentor Police Department is deeply committed to using all tools at their disposal to help keep our community safe and K9 units are an integral part of that effort Officer Terry Wurgler has been with the department for 19 years and a K9 handler for the past 12 Achilles passed way due to an illness last year but Wurgler was united with a new partner in April We recently caught up with him during his rounds when he introduced us to K9 Ares Ares was born in Poland and sent to a facility in Michigan where I trained with him for six weeks I love the fact that they are so intelligent I’ve been lucky to have worked with a German Shepherd and a German Shepherd/Malinois mix and saw great qualities in both It came down to three dogs that I really liked and there was something special about Ares that drew me to him Can you tell us a little about his training He’s a dual-purpose K9 certified through the state of Ohio in patrol and special purpose He’s trained in the detection of narcotics (cocaine what personality traits do you see shining through he loves to work and train as well as play He is very social and seems to be chomping at the bit to get out and meet as many people as he can and Fire departments socializing him with everyone that we can Officer Wurgler assures us that they are both excited to continue their training and hit the ground running on the road to help out the other officers not only at our department but surrounding agencies as well We look forward to watching you make a paws-itive impact on our community Ares Management saw its fee-related earnings rise 22% to $367.3 million in the first quarter of 2025 and assets under management reach $545.9 billion "We reported strong first quarter results with robust fundraising and investing activities 20% or more year-over-year growth in […] Join industry leaders who rely on Alternatives Watch’s comprehensive coverage of alternative investments across asset classes © 2019-2024 BMV Digital Inc Customize your consent preferences for Cookie Categories and advertising tracking preferences for Purposes & Features and Vendors below You can give granular consent for each Third Party Vendor and Google Ad Tech Provider Most vendors require explicit consent for personal data processing you 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relevant to you you can opt out of these cookies by checking "Do Not Sell or Share My Personal Information" and clicking the "Save My Preferences" button you can opt in again at any time by unchecking "Do Not Sell or Share My Personal Information" and clicking the "Save My Preferences" button © 2019-2024 BMV Digital Inc Join industry leaders who rely on Alternatives Watch's comprehensive coverage of alternative investments across asset classes The news: Ares Management Corp raised over US$20 billion ($30.8 billion) in the first quarter this year as appetite for private credit saw the manager’s AUM surge above US$500 billion The numbers: Ares’ assets under management climbed 27% to a total of almost US$546 billion in Q1 raising just over US$20 billion to achieve a first-quarter record for the firm with more than half of that amount flowing to its credit group The company’s Q1 results saw after-tax realised income per share of US$1.09 with fee related earnings of US$367.3 million for the quarter Ares also announced a quarterly dividend of US$1.12 per share of its Class A and non-voting common stock and a quarterly dividend of $0.84375 per share for its 6.75% Series B mandatory convertible preferred stock Ares CEO said on the results: "We reported strong first quarter results with robust fundraising and investing activities 20% or more year-over-year growth in many of our key financial metrics and assets under management that surpassed a half a trillion dollars." Ares CFO added: “With a record amount of assets under management not yet paying fees of nearly $100 billion we remain well positioned to make attractive investments in a volatile market environment We have a history of resilient growth during market dislocations as our management fee centric and asset-light business model enables us to perform well through market cycles.” The sources: Ares Management Corp, Earnings presentation ARESAres Management Corp reported quarterly adjusted earnings of $1.09 per share for the quarter ended March 31 The mean expectation of fifteen analysts for the quarter was for earnings of 95 cents per share Wall Street expected results to range from 90 cents to $1.01 per share Revenue rose 53.9% to $1.09 billion from a year ago; analysts expected $906.78 million Ares Management Corp's reported EPS for the quarter was breakeven results The company reported quarterly net income of $21.86 million Ares Management Corp shares had risen by 7.1% this quarter and lost 11.3% so far this year The mean earnings estimate of analysts had fallen by about 10.4% in the last three months. seven analysts negatively revised earnings estimates The current average analyst rating on the shares is "buy" and the breakdown of recommendations is 13 "strong buy" or "buy," 4 "hold" and no "sell" or "strong sell." The average consensus recommendation for the investment management & fund operators peer group is also "buy" Wall Street's median 12-month price target for Ares Management Corp is $159.00 This summary was machine generated from LSEG data May 5 at 01:31 p.m. UTC. All figures in US dollars unless otherwise stated. (For questions concerning the data in this report, contact Estimates.Support@lseg.com. For any other questions or feedback, contact RefinitivNewsSupport@thomsonreuters.com) Copyright © 2025 FactSet Research Systems Inc.© 2025 TradingView Ares Management (ARES) disclosed earnings for the first quarter of 2025 which unfortunately did not meet Wall Street's expectations The company reported a GAAP earnings per share (EPS) of $0.00 While the firm's assets under management witnessed growth there was a noticeable decline in fee-related earnings dropping to $367.3 million from $396.2 million in the previous quarter Moreover, the consensus recommendation from 17 brokerage firms classifies Ares Management Corp's (ARES, Financial) outlook as "Outperform," with an average brokerage recommendation rating of 2.1 Connecting decision makers to a dynamic network of information, people and ideas, Bloomberg quickly and accurately delivers business and financial information, news and insight around the world according to people with knowledge of the matter The package under discussion consists of a $5 billion funded term loan and a $500 million revolver who asked not to be identified discussing confidential information Ares Management Corporation (ARES, Financial) announced impressive first-quarter performance highlighting significant fundraising and investment activities The company experienced over 20% annual growth in several critical financial metrics with its assets under management exceeding $500 billion CEO Michael Arougheti expressed satisfaction with the initial integration of their recent acquisition of GCP International This acquisition importantly strengthens Ares' Real Assets division CFO Jarrod Phillips emphasized the firm’s advantageous position with nearly $100 billion in assets under management yet to generate fees This reserve allows Ares to capitalize on investment opportunities in a turbulent market He also noted the company’s history of robust growth during market fluctuations attributing it to a management fee-focused asset-light business model that thrives across different market conditions Based on the consensus recommendation from 17 brokerage firms, Ares Management Corp's (ARES, Financial) average brokerage recommendation is currently 2.1 For the complete transcript of the earnings call, please refer to the full earnings call transcript Ares Management Corporation (ARES) has decided to uphold its quarterly dividend at $1.12 per share This dividend will be distributed on June 30 to shareholders documented by June 16 with the ex-dividend date set for the same day this consistent payout from ARES might signal stability in the company's financial strategy In terms of brokerage sentiment, 17 firms have contributed to the consensus recommendation for Ares Management Corp (ARES, Financial) which currently stands at an average of 2.1 This rating positions ARES in the "Outperform" category on a scale where 1 indicates a Strong Buy and 5 suggests a Sell Such a recommendation might attract investors looking for stocks with room for growth potential By assessing both the optimistic and cautious insights provided by analysts and proprietary GuruFocus tools, investors can make more informed decisions about their positions in Ares Management Corp (ARES, Financial) Balancing the potential returns with inherent risks becomes crucial for those interested in navigating the complexities of the current market landscape reported an impressive achievement through its Credit Group which secured approximately $11.5 billion in direct lending commitments across 81 deals in the first quarter they amassed about $50.4 billion in direct lending commitments from 351 transactions This figure marks a new high for their U.S Ares Management Corporation (ARES) announced a GAAP EPS of $0.00 for the first quarter While fee-related earnings reached an impressive $367.3 million for the period ending March 31 the results did not meet the optimistic expectations set by analysts The consensus from 17 brokerage firms positions Ares Management Corp (ARES, Financial) with an average recommendation rating of 2.1 which corresponds to an "Outperform" status with 1 representing a Strong Buy and 5 indicating a Sell illustrates a generally positive but cautious outlook from analysts toward ARES Ares Management Corporation (ARES, Financial) reported robust direct lending activity for the first quarter of 2025 closing approximately $11.5 billion in U.S direct lending commitments across 81 transactions This quarterly performance contributes to a record-setting 12-month total of $50.4 billion in direct lending commitments across 351 transactions The company played key roles as an administrative agent or bookrunner in 13 significant transactions These deals involved major private equity firms such as TPG Capital supporting various acquisitions and growth plans in sectors including aviation Notable transactions in Q1 2025 included Ares' involvement in TJC's acquisition of Acron Aviation and TPG Growth's expansion plans for BVI Medical the company supported Permira's growth initiatives with Cambrex and Encore Fire Protection and facilitated Carlyle's acquisition of Vantive Health Ares Management (ARES, Financial) continues to be a leading global alternative investment manager with approximately $546 billion in assets under management as of March 31 showcasing its strong market positioning and commitment to providing flexible capital solutions across various asset classes Ares Management Corporation (ARES, Financial) announced its financial results for the first quarter ended March 31 The company reported a GAAP net income attributable to Ares Management Corporation of $47.2 million for the quarter net income per share of Class A and non-voting common stock was reported at $0.00 After-tax realized income for the period was $381.4 million translating to an income per share of $1.09 for Class A common stock Fee-related earnings were reported at $367.3 million The company experienced significant growth with assets under management surpassing $546 billion marking a year-over-year growth exceeding 20% in several key financial metrics highlighted the success of their recent strategic acquisition of GCP International which significantly strengthens their Real Assets business CFO Jarrod Phillips emphasized the company's strong position to make investments in volatile market conditions citing nearly $100 billion in assets under management not currently paying fees Ares declared a quarterly dividend of $1.12 per share for its Class A and non-voting common stock a dividend of $0.84375 per share was declared for its 6.75% Series B mandatory convertible preferred stock The company will also offer a Dividend Reinvestment Program effective for the upcoming dividend Ares continues to maintain its strong market position with a record-breaking amount of assets under management highlighting its resilience and growth potential amidst market fluctuations Miami Dolphins Owner Could Sell Stake to Ares Monday - Friday 9am-12pm / 2pm-6pm GMT + 1 All financial news and data tailored to specific country editions On May 5, 2025, Ares Management Corp (ARES, Financial) released its 8-K filing detailing its financial performance for the first quarter ended March 31 offers investment-related advice and strategies for capital growth through its various segments The Credit Group is the primary revenue generator managing credit strategies across the liquid and illiquid spectrum Ares Management Corp reported a GAAP net income of $47.2 million for the quarter translating to a net income per share of $0.00 This result fell short of the analyst estimate of $1.04 per share the company achieved an after-tax realized income of $381.4 million The company's fee-related earnings stood at $367.3 million reflecting robust fundraising and investing activities Ares Management Corp's performance is noteworthy due to its significant growth in assets under management The company faces challenges in maintaining growth momentum amidst market volatility but its asset-light business model positions it well to navigate these conditions Ares Management Corp's financial achievements are significant in the asset management industry where scale and diversification are critical The company's strategic acquisition of GCP International has bolstered its Real Assets business The record assets under management not yet paying fees highlight the company's potential for future revenue growth The company's income statement revealed a GAAP net income of $47.2 million while the balance sheet and cash flow statement details were not disclosed in the filing The after-tax realized income and fee-related earnings are crucial metrics for Ares Management Corp as they indicate the company's ability to generate consistent cash flows and sustain its dividend payouts Ares Management Corp declared a quarterly dividend of $1.12 per share for its Class A and non-voting common stock The company also offers a Dividend Reinvestment Program for its Class A common stockholders Ares Management Corp's first quarter results demonstrate its resilience and strategic growth initiatives in a challenging market environment the company's strong revenue performance and strategic acquisitions position it well for future growth The substantial assets under management not yet paying fees indicate potential for increased revenue streams reinforcing the company's long-term value proposition for investors Explore the complete 8-K earnings release (here) from Ares Management Corp for further details. Your Ads Privacy ChoicesIMDb, an Amazon company© 1990-2025 by IMDb.com, Inc. Heavy metal fans across Europe are in for a powerful dose of nostalgia and intensity this fall as Ashes of Ares the band featuring former Iced Earth members Matt Barlow and Freddie Vidales announces a European tour set for September and October 2025 As well as a stop at Germany’s Keep it True Fest The tour will mark the 30th anniversary of Iced Earth’s landmark 1996 album The Dark Saga—a concept record inspired by the Image comic book antihero Spawn, known for its dark melodies, galloping riffs, and Barlow’s unforgettable vocal performance. Widely considered, The Dark Saga remains a defining moment in the Iced Earth legacy and a fan favorite of 1990s American power metal. Barlow, who fronted Iced Earth twice, will once again breathe life into these iconic tracks alongside Vidales, who played bass and guitar with Iced Earth in the late 2000s. With Ashes of Ares, the duo has carved out their own sonic identity with three albums and an EP. Their last album, ‘Emperors and Fools’ was 2022. Nevermore drummer, Van Williams, has played on all releases and has done some touring with the band. While a full list of tour dates is forthcoming, as well as their touring lineup, the band has promised a setlist that includes The Dark Saga in its entirety, along with selections from Ashes of Ares’ discography. invests in stakes backed by sponsors primarily in North America and Europe the alternative asset manager said in a statement Thursday On Saturday, Disney released the first trailer and poster for TRON: Ares the highly anticipated third installment in the groundbreaking TRON franchise TRON: Ares is a follow-up to Disney’s 1982 seminal science fiction film TRON: Ares follows a highly sophisticated Program who is sent from the digital world into the real world on a dangerous mission marking humankind’s first encounter with A.I The feature film is directed by Joachim Rønning and stars Jared Leto with Russell Allen serving as executive producer WE INDEPENDENTLY CHOOSE ALL PRODUCTS FEATURED ON OUR SITE. WE MAY RECEIVE A COMMISSION WHEN YOU CLICK ON LINKS TO THOSE PRODUCTS. YOU CAN LEARN MORE ABOUT OUR AFFILIATE POLICY IN OUR TERMS OF USE 93.00°Rate This ReleaseBuy NowShai Gilgeous-Alexander Previews “Ares” Converse SHAI 001 Ahead of NBA PlayoffsRelease Converse SHAI 001 Shai Gilgeous-Alexander is now gearing up for the NBA Playoffs with a fresh new colorway of the silhouette: the “Ares Grey.” A complete tonal departure from the buttery yellow launch pair this new edition is completely blanketed in a soft cloudy grey — a monochrome look that adds versatility to the already forward-thinking design “Ares Grey” carries a more personal touch for the Oklahoma City star offering a quieter tribute through minimalist design all of the SHAI 001’s standout design elements remain intact and low-cut collar maintain the shoe’s on-court functionality the unibody molded sole setup with Zoom Air cushioning at the forefoot and radial-patterned traction returns built to support the quick cuts and smooth pace of Shai’s game No release date has been confirmed for the Converse SHAI 001 “Ares Grey,” but with the Playoffs underway fans can expect to see Gilgeous-Alexander break them out on court imminently Stay tuned for release info as Converse looks to build on the momentum of the SHAI 001’s impactful debut For more from the Nike, Inc. empire, check out all remaining Air Jordan Releases in 2025—including the Air Jordan 4 "White Cement" retro Kodiak is a pioneering autonomous driving company developing technology to address critical challenges in the transportation industry Kodiak's single-platform automated driving system combines advanced AI-driven software with modular hardware The Kodiak Driver integrates learnings from real-world experience across commercial trucking and public sector applications to continuously improve AI models and increase reliability and efficiency in a wide range of environments Kodiak's platform is designed to enable technology integration with customers' existing operations Driver-as-a-Service solution tailored to customers' needs Kodiak was founded in 2018 by industry veteran with a vision of becoming the trusted world leader in autonomous ground transportation dedicated to commercializing driverless trucking at scale we believe Kodiak became the first company to announce delivery of a driverless trucking product to a customer Kodiak provides differentiated solutions that are demonstrated to make costs more efficient and predictable and enhance safety across the commercial trucking and public sector markets By partnering with AACT and accessing the public markets Kodiak is expected to accelerate its go-to-market strategy that aims to address an estimated $4+ trillion global opportunity "This is a remarkable milestone for the Kodiak team and reinforces our confidence in the significant value proposition we see in our differentiated driverless technology," said Burnette "We believe entering the public markets will accelerate our strategy to expand our existing partner relationships provide our technology to a broader customer base and deliver enhanced solutions across the commercial trucking and public sector industries with Kodiak's disciplined approach to capital management along with strategic and financial support from Ares we believe we are well-positioned to execute on our long-term growth plans we are thrilled to be working with Ares and AACT as we continue to drive our mission to create a safer and more efficient future for the trucking industry." "As an early-mover in autonomous trucking and first to deliver a commercial driverless product to a customer Kodiak has quickly set itself apart as an industry leader in a significant addressable market," said David Kaplan Chief Executive Officer and Co-Chairman of the Board of Directors of AACT and Co-Founder of Ares "We are excited to partner with Don and the Kodiak team as they seek to further capitalize on significant industry tailwinds and deliver value for their stakeholders." position the Company to meet the evolving and growing demands of its customers and communities," said Allyson Satin Chief Operating Officer of AACT and Partner at Ares "We look forward to lending Ares' decades of experience investing and navigating through dynamic market environments in support of Kodiak's long-term goals." The proposed business combination ascribes a pre-money equity value of $2.5 billion to Kodiak The combined company is expected to receive approximately $551 million of cash held in AACT's trust account at closing assuming no redemptions of existing AACT shares and based on trust value per share as of December 31 including affiliates of Soros Fund Management have invested or committed over $110 million to support the transaction existing Kodiak investor ARK Investments has expressed its continued support of the Company The boards of directors of both Kodiak and AACT have unanimously approved the proposed business combination which is expected to close in the second half of 2025 subject to approval by AACT and Kodiak stockholders and the satisfaction or waiver of customary closing conditions Upon the closing of the proposed business combination the combined company will be named Kodiak AI and its common stock and public warrants are expected to be listed on a national stock exchange and trade under the ticker symbols KDK and KDK WS subject to approval by the relevant exchange For a summary of the material terms of the transaction, as well as a copy of the business combination agreement and investor presentation, please see the Current Report on Form 8-K to be filed by AACT with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (the "SEC") available at www.sec.gov Additional information about the proposed business combination will be described in the registration statement on Form S-4 relating to the transaction (the "Registration Statement") which AACT and Kodiak will file with the SEC Kodiak and AACT will host a joint investor presentation to discuss the proposed business combination. To listen to the webcast or a replay of the presentation, please visit the Kodiak Investor Relations website at kodiak.ai/investors Morgan Securities LLC are serving as capital markets advisors to AACT Kirkland & Ellis LLP is serving as legal advisor to AACT Ropes & Gray LLP is acting as legal advisor to the capital markets advisors Chardan and TD Cowen are acting as Financial and Capital Markets advisors to Kodiak LLP is serving as legal advisor to TD Cowen The Blueshirt Group is serving as investor relations advisors for Kodiak was founded in 2018 and has become a leader in autonomous ground transportation committed to a safer and more efficient future for all The company has developed an artificial intelligence (AI) powered technology stack purpose-built for commercial trucking and the public sector The company delivers freight daily for its customers across the southern United States using its autonomous technology Kodiak became the first known company to publicly announce delivering a driverless semi-truck to a customer Kodiak is also leveraging its commercial self-driving software to develop test and deploy autonomous capabilities for the U.S About Ares Acquisition Corporation II Ares Acquisition Corporation II (NYSE: AACT) is a special purpose acquisition company affiliated with Ares Management Corporation formed for the purpose of effecting a merger reorganization or similar business combination This press release includes "forward-looking statements" within the meaning of Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933 as amended (the "Securities Act") and Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 These include AACT's or Kodiak's or their management teams' expectations intentions or strategies regarding the future Forward-looking statements may be identiﬁed by the use of words such as "estimate," "plan," "project," "forecast," "intend," "expect," "anticipate," "believe," "seek," "potential," "budget," "may," "will," "could," "should," "continue" or other similar expressions that predict or indicate future events or trends or that are not statements of historical matters statements regarding Kodiak's and AACT's expectations with respect to future performance the addressable market for Kodiak's products Kodiak's operational and product roadmap and its ability to produce its products at a commercial level the competitive and regulatory landscape for Kodiak's products the capitalization of AACT after giving effect to the proposed business combination between AACT and Kodiak (the "proposed business combination") and expectations with respect to the future performance and the success of the combined company following the consummation of the proposed business combination (the "combined company") These statements are based on various assumptions whether or not identiﬁed in this press release and on the current expectations of Kodiak's and AACT's management and are not predictions of actual performance These forward-looking statements are provided for illustrative purposes only and are not intended to serve as and must not be relied upon by any investors as a prediction or a deﬁnitive statement of fact or probability Actual events and circumstances are difﬁcult or impossible to predict and will differ from assumptions Many actual events and circumstances are beyond the control of Kodiak and AACT These forward-looking statements are subject to a number of risks and uncertainties political and legal conditions; the inability of the parties to successfully or timely consummate the proposed business combination including the risk that any regulatory approvals are not obtained Additional information concerning these and other factors that may impact such forward-looking statements can be found in ﬁlings and potential ﬁlings by Kodiak AACT or the combined company resulting from the proposed business combination with the SEC including under the heading "Risk Factors." If any of these risks materialize or any assumptions prove incorrect actual results could differ materially from the results implied by these forward-looking statements There may be additional risks that neither Kodiak nor AACT presently know or that Kodiak and AACT currently believe are immaterial that could also cause actual results to differ from those contained in the forward-looking statements These forward-looking statements are provided for illustrative purposes only and are not intended to serve as and must not be relied on by investors as a guarantee forward-looking statements reﬂect Kodiak's and AACT's expectations plans or forecasts of future events and views as of the date they are made Kodiak and AACT anticipate that subsequent events and developments will cause Kodiak's and AACT's assessments to change while Kodiak and AACT may elect to update these forward-looking statements at some point in the future Kodiak and AACT speciﬁcally disclaim any obligation to do so These forward-looking statements should not be relied upon as representing Kodiak's or AACT's assessments as of any date subsequent to the date they are made undue reliance should not be placed upon the forward-looking statements nor any of their respective affiliates have any obligation to update these forward-looking statements other than as required by law this press release contains certain information about the historical performance of Kodiak You should not view information related to the past performance of Kodiak as indicative of future results Certain information set forth in this press release includes estimates and targets and involves significant elements of subjective judgment and analysis No representations are made as to the accuracy of such estimates or targets or that all assumptions relating to such estimates or targets have been considered or stated or that such estimates or targets will be realized Additional Information and Where to Find It can be obtained free of charge from AACT upon written request to Ares Acquisition Corporation II or that may be accessed through the websites referenced in this press release is not incorporated by reference into Kodiak and their respective directors and executive officers may be deemed to be participants in the solicitation of proxies from the shareholders of AACT in connection with the proposed business combination Security holders may obtain more detailed information regarding the names affiliations and interests of certain of AACT's executive officers and directors in the solicitation by reading AACT's final prospectus related to its initial public offering filed with the SEC on April 24 which will become available after the Registration Statement has been declared effective by the SEC and other relevant materials filed with the SEC in connection with the proposed business combination when they become available Information concerning the interests of AACT's participants in the solicitation be different from those of AACT's shareholders generally will be set forth in the preliminary proxy statement/prospectus included in the Registration Statement This press release shall not constitute a solicitation of any proxy consent or approval in any jurisdiction in connection with the proposed business combination and shall not constitute an offer to sell or a solicitation of an offer to buy the securities of AACT Kodiak or the combined company resulting from the proposed business combination nor shall there be any sale of any such securities in any state or jurisdiction in which such offer or sale would be unlawful prior to registration or qualification under the securities laws of such state or jurisdiction No offer of securities shall be made except by means of a prospectus meeting the requirements of the Securities Act This press release is restricted by law; it is not intended for distribution to any jurisdiction in where such distribution or use would be contrary to local law or regulation Kodiak Media RelationsDaniel GoffDirector of External Affairs+1 646-515-3933[email protected] Stacy MorrisPR Consultant+1 310-415-9188[email protected] Kodiak Investor RelationsLauren SloaneThe Blueshirt Group for Kodiak[email protected] Ares Media RelationsJacob Silber[email protected] Ares Investor RelationsCarl Drake and Greg Mason+1 888-818-5298[email protected] a leading autonomous technology developer focused on the trucking and defense industries a leading developer of crewed and uncrewed military ground vehicles Artificial Intelligence Computer Software Computer Software Computer & Electronics Do not sell or share my personal information: Jacob Phillips ML practitioners have always had a reputation for quick performant “production” code found in deployed systems While firing off a quick script and dumping results to disk feels productive in the moment the overall research community could benefit from more robust systems aimed at speeding up research iteration cycles. Adding the extra dimensions of reality (like spatial reasoning and friction) makes every step of the research process — ingestion pipelines the nature of academic paper publication rewards point-solutions: novel repositories of code aimed at achieving one novel contribution instead of building long-term development platforms. The coming wave of generalizable robot models shows a clear need for better benchmarks, safety tests, and model understanding We need to move beyond recordings and simulated environments executing expert policies and towards real-world data understanding to enable deployed robot systems ARES has a special place as a meta-tool to enable policy improvements with a special focus on curation and annotation for robotics research but hope to see the robotics community adopt modern tools in order to develop better models While there are many sources for robot data — including human videos and even the cars on the road — there are many open questions about robot data curation Curation is the process of filtering and cleaning datasets to find the right mixture of data to train the best model Robot data curation is difficult because we don’t have the right tools to do robot data understanding; for example using models to determine if a certain task was successful in a given video Providing the right tools and systems for robot data ingestion and curation could be a huge help. Training data curation is an incredibly important part of modern machine learning best practices. Researchers spend enormous amounts of dollars and FLOPs finding the right slice of training data to most effectively train their model. For example, the LLaMA project from Meta dedicates an entire team and several pages of their report to data curation manual curation – we need better tools to facilitate research for data selection. Right now, there are two primary — and extremely useful — open-core tools for robot data understanding: Foxglove and Rerun Foxglove markets itself as “visualization and observability for robotics developers,” while Rerun aims to be “the multimodal data stack.” Managed infrastructure to handle data pipelines and scalable deployment of real-world robots are excellent approaches for shortening robotics iteration cycles has excellent tools for managing robot data at the edge and has built out a ton of ingestion Another tool, Roboflow offers solutions for annotation and model training but focuses less on robotics and more on general computer vision applications modern solutions built for machine learning workflows we want ways to interact with our datasets and determine how to generate new annotations and datasets to make policy improvements ARES is an open-source (Apache 2.0) platform that aims to improve robotics models by simplifying ingestion Researchers can use it to understand the distribution of ground-truth datasets evaluate the performance of policy rollouts we turn raw robot data into structured representations helpful for robotics researchers Transforming raw data into structured representations is just the first step. We also want the ability to interactively explore our data, add more annotations, develop curated slices, and draw learnings from data distributions. To accomplish this, ARES provides a simple frontend developed in Streamlit for easy local development and deployment Researchers can use the frontend to perform structured data filtering such as selecting episodes of a certain length or highlighting specific background surfaces like wood or plastic. Users can curate slices of the dataset by selecting robot embodiments Users can also perform unstructured data filtering by exploring the latent embeddings of task instructions or episode descriptions using the interactive tool to investigate clusters Once the researcher has selected interesting groups of episodes they can dive into more in-depth representations viewing all the collected information and visualizing relevant annotations like object detections. Researchers can explore the latent space represented by task instructions or episode descriptions Use the helpful ‘summarize selection’ tool to learn more about a given cluster ARES also provides the ability to retrieve similar examples over the text space (covering task instructions and descriptions) or trajectories (robot actions and states) This provides extra help in understanding model performance as comparing policy rollouts between similar episodes helps to explain where and why a model may struggle with a given task The ARES Hero Plot displays all information about an episode from details like the data collection method to VLM predictions like “background estimate.” The Hero Plot also contains traditional annotation information like grounding box detections and segmentation masks or more modern VLM predictions like success criteria and other descriptors The Hero Plot also finds similar examples across text and state-action spaces Retrieving rollouts that have different task instructions (such as “move the mustard bottle” and “move the ketchup bottle”) but extremely similar trajectories may reveal a lack of diversity in the training environment similar tasks with extremely different trajectories may reveal unusual training environments Examining joint actions and state trajectories can also reveal out-of-distribution paths through the action or state space explaining why a robot may fail at a given task. The Robot Display is helpful for understanding the motion of a robot during an episode We display all the joint states and actions so users can find in- and out-of-distribution actions Once a researcher has selected a curated slice of their dataset we want to make useful representations for further knowledge-sharing or experimentation Users can export the dashboard as a graphical representation of their findings such as demonstrating low performance on a certain set of tasks or strong performance over a variety of background surfaces researchers can export training artifacts like pre-processed dataframes enabling the training of new robot models. Here are two case studies that give real-world examples of the ARES platform. Zawalski et al’s “Robotic Control via Embodied Chain-of-Thought Reasoning” (ECoT) is one of my favorite recent robotics papers showing how to compose annotations from purpose-built models (like detectors and LLMs) into generalized plans to post-train VLMs for greater spatial reasoning This paper is a great work of machine learning literature: simple synthetic annotations leading to large advances in robot foundation models. There’s lots to love in the released codebase but it’s also a great example of a point-solution built for a research paper as opposed to a durable robot data platform we can replace the custom Gemini LLM object with generalized ML APIs and prompt templates; we can use Docker and Modal to scale annotating models; we can deploy modern databases like MongoDB in place to dumping to disk; and we can use asynchronous parallelized processing to massively speed up any labeling runs This is not meant as a critique of the ECoT team as building out all this infrastructure for a single paper is unjustified; instead researchers should have tools like ARES to begin with. Using ARES, we reimplemented a labeling effort similar to ECoT We generated ECoT datasets in a fraction of the time at extremely low cost; creating 2,500 ECoT annotations (with grounding and segmentation annotations combined into plans with subgoals) took about 10 minutes and cost about five dollars See scripts/annotating/run_pseduo_ecot.py for more details. and not release success or failure annotations. We provided the available hard-coded information like dataset_name and left the robot embodiment and other hidden fields as null (See scripts/pi_demo_ingestion.py for more details.) This enabled us to evaluate our models on their ability to determine successful versus unsuccessful rollouts and the results of this evaluation led to the system specifications for ingesting the rest of the rollouts (See scripts/eval.py and notebooks/eval_nb.ipynb for more details.) ingesting the Pi Demos dataset lets us run the typical structured extraction pipeline providing data distributions over surfaces A simple display of the ARES frontend after ingesting the Pi Demos dataset ARES is built to address a gap for robot researchers: how to build long-term durable infrastructure to improve robotics research and improve model performance across a variety of embodiments and use cases Current generation models are extremely helpful in pseudo-labeling robotics data but we also acknowledge that model-based systems can introduce errors. We hope that future VLMs and annotating models will provide better and cheaper solutions to address these problems — and that robotics researchers and developers will adopt modern data infrastructure practices like cloud-scaling APIs and databases in order to develop stronger models If you’re interested in collaborating or contributing to ARES or just want to talk about ML infrastructure for robotics and Philipp Wu for reviewing drafts of this post and individuals building toward a more dynamic future Jacob Phillips is an Engineering Fellow on a16z's American Dynamism team The views expressed here are those of the individual AH Capital Management (“a16z”) personnel quoted and are not the views of a16z or its affiliates Certain information contained in here has been obtained from third-party sources including from portfolio companies of funds managed by a16z While taken from sources believed to be reliable a16z has not independently verified such information and makes no representations about the enduring accuracy of the information or its appropriateness for a given situation this content may include third-party advertisements; a16z has not reviewed such advertisements and does not endorse any advertising content contained therein Ares Management Corporation (NYSE: ARES) announced that it has completed its acquisition of the international business of GLP Capital Partners Limited and certain of its affiliates (GCP International) Ares’ leading global alternative investment platform managed over US$525 billion in assets including more than US$115 billion in its global Real Assets business Latham & Watkins LLP represented Ares in the transaction with a deal team led by asset management M&A partners Alex Kelly and Daniel Breslin and real estate partner Michelle Kelban ~$304 Million of New Equity Capital to Support Deleveraging and Accelerate Company's Strategic Growth Initiatives a global leader in the production of precision-engineered components today announced that Ares Management funds ("Ares") have acquired a majority of the Company's common equity Form Technologies has substantially deleveraged its balance sheet and received approximately $304 million in new equity capital comprising $154 million of common equity from investors including Ares as well as $150 million of preferred equity from the D The new capital is expected to support additional investment in Form Technologies' leading operational capabilities and accelerate the Company's commercial strategy With a robust global footprint of 32 facilities across 22 countries Form Technologies has built strong commercial momentum through its ability to offer diversified casting services at scale investment casting and metal injection molding the Company has invested significantly in its proprietary processes and engineering capabilities to support product design and manufacturing with a higher level of precision for its customers Form Technologies has also implemented important enhancements to its commercial organization in that time and has accelerated the success of new customer programs increasing the Company's customer count to nearly 2,000 organizations across key end markets we have undertaken a platform-wide strategic repositioning that has solidified Form Technologies as a global leader in precision-engineered parts," said David Angell Chief Executive Officer of Form Technologies "I am very proud of the work our team has done to deliver on our operational objectives while continuing to meet our customers' needs We are excited to move forward with additional strategic support from Ares as we seek to build on our commercial momentum expand our presence in key regions and drive long-term growth." we have observed the acceleration of Form Technologies' commercial success through its differentiated solutions-based offering and engineering excellence," said Aaron Rosen Partner and Co-Head of Opportunistic Credit at Ares Management Form Technologies is well-positioned to address the growing needs of its diversified customer base across key regions and sectors We look forward to the exciting opportunities ahead as we support the team's goals for driving revenue growth and value creation." Jefferies LLC served as financial advisor and Kirkland & Ellis LLP served as legal counsel to the Company Evercore served as financial advisor and Paul Wharton & Garrison LLP served as legal counsel to Ares Form Technologies is a leading global producer of precision-engineered components with complex geometries and tight tolerances Utilizing proprietary processes and engineering expertise the company manufactures over five billion high-precision components annually With 32 manufacturing facilities across 22 countries Form Technologies provides customized solutions to meet its customers' most demanding challenges The Company has included statements in this press release that constitute "forward-looking statements." As a general matter forward looking statements are those focused on future or anticipated events or trends the Company's expectations with respect to its business including investments in its operational capabilities Such statements are intended to be identified by using words such as "believe," "expect," "intend," "estimate," "anticipate," "will," "plan" and similar expressions in connection with any discussion of future operating or financial performance Not all forward-looking statements in this press release may contain one or more of these identifying terms Several factors could cause actual results to differ materially from those contained in any forward-looking statement such as factors related to our ability to execute our strategic plans to realize benefits from our investments in our operational capabilities and to service or refinance our indebtedness Any forward-looking statements are and will be based upon the Company's then-current expectations estimates and assumptions regarding future events and are applicable only as of the dates of such statements and the Company undertakes no obligation to update them Readers are cautioned not to rely on such forward-looking statements [email protected] Jacob Silber, +1-212-301-0376Brennan O'Toole, +1-212-301-0391[email protected] a Form Technologies company and a leader in advanced metal injection molding (MIM) solutions is pleased to announce a strategic joint.. 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