Chairman R. Charles Loudermilk, Sr. |
Aarons, Inc.
309 E. Paces Ferry Rd. N.E. Suite 1100 Atlanta, Georgia 30305-2377/(404) 231-0011 |
|||
President & CEO Ronald W. Allen |
||||
Executive Vice President & CFO Gilbert L. Danielson |
||||
COO William K. Butler, Jr. |
March 9, 2012
VIA EDGAR
U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission
Division of Corporation Finance
100 F Street, NE
Mail Stop 4631
Washington, D.C. 20549
Attention: Mr. Rufus Decker, Accounting Branch Chief
RE: | Aarons, Inc. |
Form 10-K for the Year ended December 31, 2010
Filed February 25, 2011
Form 10-Q for the Period ended September 30, 2011
Filed November 7, 2011
File No. 1-13941
Dear Mr. Decker:
Aarons, Inc. (the Company) hereby provides below a response to comment 5 of the staff of the Division of Corporation Finance (the Staff) of the Securities and Exchange Commission (the Commission) contained in your letter dated February 3, 2012. The Company previously responded to comments 1-4 of your February 3 letter in a letter dated February 23, 2012. For convenience of reference, the Staffs comment 5 is reprinted in italics above the Companys response.
The Company is requesting confidentiality pursuant to the Commissions Rule 83 for its response to comment 5, and consequently the response is redacted from this EDGAR filing.
Unless the context requires otherwise, references to we, our, us, Aarons or the Company in the responses below refer to Aarons, Inc.
Letter to the Securities and Exchange Commission
March 9, 2012
Page 2
Form 10-K for the Year ended December 31, 2010
Note E Commitments, page 12
Litigation, page 12
5. | We have reviewed your response to prior comment seven from our letter dated December 21, 2011. Please help us understand how you determined that disclosures regarding the Alford v. Aaron Rents, Inc. matter did not need to be provided in filings prior to the June 2011 settlement, including how you determined that any reasonably possible loss was not likely to have a material effect on your financial statements. Please specifically address the following: |
| Please provide us with a timeline of any significant developments regarding the matter from when the lawsuit was originally filed in October 2008 through the June 14, 2011 jury decision date; |
| Please tell us whether any potential settlement discussions took place. Please tell us any proposed settlement amounts discussed; and |
| Please provide us with a summary of past experiences you have had in similar cases, including actual settlement and judgment amounts. |
Response:
[The Company has requested confidential treatment for this response pursuant to the Commissions Rule 83 and has consequently redacted it from this EDGAR filing. The Company has previously provided its unredacted response to the Staff.]
*****
The Company acknowledges that: (i) it is responsible for the adequacy and accuracy of the disclosure in its filings; (ii) staff comments or changes to disclosure in response to staff comments do not foreclose the Commission from taking any action with respect to the filing; and (iii) it may not assert Staff comments as a defense in any proceeding initiated by the Commission or any person under the federal securities laws of the United States.
Letter to the Securities and Exchange Commission
March 9, 2012
Page 3
The Staff is requested to direct any further questions regarding these filings and this letter to the undersigned at (678) 402-3388. Thank you.
Sincerely, | ||
AARONS, INC. | ||
By: |
/s/ Robert. P Sinclair | |
Robert P. Sinclair, Jr. | ||
Vice President, Corporate Controller |