Hot Topic, Inc. Announces Appointment of Steven R. Becker and Matthew A. Drapkin to the Board of Directors

Hot Topic, Inc. HOTT announced today the appointment of Steven R. Becker and Matthew A. Drapkin to its board of directors, effective October 1, 2010. In addition, Mr. Becker will serve as a member of the compensation committee, and Mr. Drapkin will serve as a member of the governance and nominating committee. The appointment of Mr. Becker and Mr. Drapkin will increase the size of Hot Topic's board of directors from seven to nine. Mr. Becker, age 43, has served as Managing Partner and founder of Becker Drapkin Management (previously known as Greenway Capital), a Dallas based small cap investment fund, since September 2004. Prior to founding Becker Drapkin, Mr. Becker was a partner at the Special Situations Funds, a New York City-based asset manager. Mr. Becker joined Special Situations in April 1997 and ran the Special Situations Private Equity Fund since its inception. Prior to joining Special Situations, Mr. Becker was a part of the distressed debt and leveraged equities research team at Bankers Trust Securities. He began his career at Manley Fuller Asset Management in New York as a small cap analyst. Mr. Becker currently serves on the board of directors of SDIX Inc., a publicly traded life sciences company, and previously served on the board of directors of Plato Learning, Inc., a publicly traded educational software company, until it was acquired in May 2010. Mr. Becker received a B.A. from Middlebury College and a J.D. from the University of Florida.