VC Buzz – $25.77+ Million in Today’s Deals

LOS ANGELES– Zkey.com (formerly Zcentral.com), a division of
SDN Online Inc., closed its second round of funding, totaling
more than $10 million. Investing in this round were Bear
Ventures, Ridgely Capital, Zone Ventures and Oracle. Bear
Ventures led the round with a $5 million investment. Ridgely
invested $2 million. Zone Ventures, Los Angeles affiliate of the
Silicon Valley Venture Capital Firm Draper Fisher Jurvetson, led
the first round and has participated in this second round.

SAN MATEO, Calif.– NexTag.com Inc., an online buying service
where sellers compete to give great deals to buyers, closed its
second round of financing in the amount of $7 million from
technology investment firm, Morgenthaler Ventures. NexTag.com
also announced the completion of its marketing and sales
management team including former Coca-Cola executive, Jim
Taschetta, now vice president of marketing and former
Multiple Zones International executive, Mark Bradley,
appointed vice president of sales.

BALTIMORE– eOriginal Inc. received an additional $6.5
million investment from both GE Capital Corp., a new investor in
the company, and existing investors Hat Creek Partners and Intel
Corp. This additional equity funding brings the company’s total
1999 external funding to $22.5 million. eOriginal’s patented
business process creates Electronic Original documents–unique,
unalterable digital documents–including electronic negotiable
instruments.

SAN JOSE, Costa Rica– cyberoad.com Corp., a Florida
corporation (OTCBB: FUNN), announced that it completed an
offshore offering in the aggregate principal amount of $2.27
million dollars. The company issued 648,859 shares of
cyberoad.com common stock at a price of $3.50 per share.
cyberoad.com develops distributed wide area network gaming
(Sportbook and Casino) systems, markets its licensee’s
sportsbooks and casinos, and manages daily operations of its
licensee’s sites.

WHITE PLAINS, N.Y.– Winfield Capital Corp. (Nasdaq: WCAP)
announced the closing of an equity investment in Aeneid Corp. of
San Francisco, Calif. Terms of the investment were not
disclosed. Aeneid is building the Internet Information Exchange,
a network of vertical portals allowing business professionals to
gain access to the most recent and relevant industry-specific
information.

NEW YORK — Ziff-Davis Inc. (NYSE: ZD; ZDZ) signed a
definitive agreement to sell its 64% interest in ZDTV to Vulcan
Ventures Inc., the investment organization of Paul G. Allen, for
$204.8 million. The transaction is expected to be completed
within 45 days, subject to regulatory approvals. ZDTV will
continue to maintain certain business agreements with ZDNet and
ZD Publishing following completion of the transaction.

DEERFIELD BEACH, Fla. — Inflightonline.com, the first
provider of in-flight Internet and intranet services, announced
a strategic alliance with Lycos Inc. (Nasdaq: LCOS), an Internet
portal and online community, to provide intranet and Internet
services to airline passengers. As part of the alliance, Lycos,
Inc. has acquired a 10-percent stake in Inflightonline.
Inflightonline will offer intranet and Internet access with
Lycos content and services.

BOSTON– Artificial Life Inc. (Nasdaq: ALIF), a technology
leader of intelligent software robots for the Internet,
announced the acquisition of the remaining 49% of Artificial
Life Ventures Inc., a Boston-based venture capital firm
previously jointly-owned with Cybermind AG, a German holding of
Internet companies. The purchase was made in cash and stock
options. Details of the purchase will not be disclosed. The
company intends to use Artificial Life Ventures as a vehicle for
acquiring leading-edge technology companies that will complement
and add value to Artificial Life’s existing technological
capabilities. Artificial Life Ventures will focus primarily on
the U.S., German, Swiss, and eastern European markets.

NEW YORK– Salomon Smith Barney announced several senior
appointments, hirings and consulting agreements focused on
expanding the firm’s private equity businesses. Josh
Lerner and Paul Gompers, both of Harvard Business
School, have joined SSB to work with the Private Equity Group.
Josh Lerner is a Professor of Business Administration, and Paul
Gompers is an Associate Professor of Business Administration.

Additionally, Salomon Smith Barney has named John
Barber to be deputy head of the Financial Entrepreneurs
Group. John Barber formerly had been a senior managing director
in Salomon Smith Barney’s Public Equity Capital Markets Group.
The firm also announced four new hires in the Firm’s Private
Equity Fund Group: Loren Boston, Neil Banta,
Tina Courpas and Carolyn Choi. All four joined
after leaving Deutsche Banc Alex. Brown’s private equity finance
group (a subsidiary of Deutsche Bank) within the last two
months.

PALO ALTO, Calif.–Credit Suisse First Boston announced that
it has hired a Latin American banking & research team from
Lehman Brothers. Internet research analyst Will Landers
and investment bankers Emmanuel DeSousa and Adriano
Borges will join the CSFB Technology Group’s global Internet
team. They will focus on Latin American Internet companies.

MCLEAN, Va.– FutureNext Consulting, an e-business and supply
chain consulting firm serving the mid-market, announced the
appointment of Kathleen Barton to vice president of
marketing. Prior to joining FutureNext, Barton served as vice
president of marketing for The Hunter Group. FutureNext
Consulting was formed through a partnership between
Chicago-based private equity investment firm GTCR Golder Rauner
LLC and industry leaders Michael Caggiano and Loren Burnett,
with GTCR committing $75 million in private equity capital.

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