VC Buzz – $648.95+ Million in Today’s Deals

BOULDER, Colo.– Vstream, a communication services provider, raised $100 million of private capital. The funding comes from current investment partners The Centennial Funds, Highland Capital Partners and SOFTBANK Venture Capital. In addition, Vstream has added new strategic investors in this round, including Excite@Home, GE Equity, Nexus Group, Matsushita Electric Industrial Co. Ltd. (Panasonic), Pequot Capital and Viventures Capital. Netcall, Vstream’s flagship collaboration service, allows for on-demand conference calls, Web presentations and webcasts. Vstream’s “back-end” service engines and system architecture converge voice, video and data into a single communication platform

SALT LAKE CITY — Convergence Communications Inc., a facilities-based operator of broadband telecommunications networks in Latin America, secured $109.5 million of private equity and credit facilities ($83.5 million of private equity and a credit facility of $26 million). An investor group consisting of Telematica EDC C.A., TCW/Latin America Partners LLC, FondElec Essential Services Growth Fund L.P., Internexus S.A., the International Finance Corp. and Glacier Latin-America LTD., participated in this round.

NEW YORK– e-STEEL Corp. announced that investors, led by Goldman, Sachs & Co., have committed $66 million to back its advanced, online global marketplace for steel. e-STEEL is the neutral, negotiation-based e-Commerce exchange for both buyers and sellers throughout the $700 billion worldwide steel industry. Additional strategic investors in this later-stage round include Vulcan Ventures Inc., MSD Capital, GE Capital, Generation Partners, Amerindo Investment Advisors, Mitsui & Company U.S.A., DuPont, and Mitsubishi International and MC Capital, subsidiaries of Mitsubishi Corp. In addition, the company’s three initial investors, Bessemer Venture Partners, Greylock, and Kleiner Perkins Caulfield & Byers, have committed further funding.

FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla., NEW YORK and LONDON, — Sports.com Limited, the majority-owned subsidiary of SportsLine.com Inc. (Nasdaq: SPLN) and an Internet-based provider of sports content in Europe, announced that Sports Capital Partners, manager of the IMG/Chase Sports Capital funds, and affiliates of Soros Private Equity Partners LLC have agreed to lead a second round of funding under which Sports.com will raise $49 million through the issuance of preferred stock. Hicks, Muse, Tate & Furst Inc., the Goldman Sachs Group Inc., Wit Capital’s Arista Capital Partners, LP and certain existing Sports.com shareholders will also participate in the financing. Based on the proposed terms, the funding will represent approximately 23% of Sports.com Limited’s post-funding valuation. Completion of the transaction is expected by the end of the year. Minority interests are held by IMG, Intel Corp., MediaOne Ventures and Reuters.

SANTA MONICA, Calif.– BizBuyer.com, an online business-to-business marketplace that connects buyers and sellers of business products and services, raised $38.5 million in third-round financing from venture capital firms and financial institutions, as well as from previous BizBuyer.com investors. As part of the announcement, BizBuyer.com has named TMCT Ventures partner and executive vice president and CFO Tom Unterman to its board of directors.

Lead investors in this round include TMCT Ventures, the recently formed venture fund by Times Mirror and Chandler Trust; previous investor @Ventures, the venture capital affiliate of CMGI, Inc. (Nasdaq:CMGI); and Redpoint Ventures. Additional investors include eCompanies Venture Group, Morgan Stanley Dean Witter Ventures and US Venture Partners. Since January 1999, BizBuyer.com has raised a total of $44.5 million that includes a previous $5 million investment from @Ventures and a $1 million angel round that included eBay’s Meg Whitman.

PRINCETON, N.J.– Paytrust.com, a Web-based consumer service providing one-stop bill delivery, payment and management, announced that some of the nation’s top financial organizations and largest billers have invested $30 million in the company. SOFTBANK Venture Capital, American Express, GE Equity, Goldman Sachs and Thomas Weisel Partners are among the investors in this second round of funding. AT&T Ventures and Spectrum Equity are continuing investors who are also participating in the second round.

MINNEAPOLIS– techies.com Inc., a full service career resource for technology professionals in local markets throughout the United States, closed the second phase of its planned $25 million third round financing effort. The proceeds will be used for continued brand development and expansion of the techies.com network of career resources. Leading investors include CNET, Red Hat, East Peak Partners LP, and SI Investors (affiliated with Gartner Group). Investments were also made by a number of individual investors including: Charles Conn, CEO, Ticketmaster Online – CitySearch; Bill Melton former CEO of Verifone and Cybercash; Manny Fernandez, Chairman, Gartner Group. Investors for the first phase of this round include: ZDNet, Norwest Venture Partners and Crosslink Capital (formerly Omega Venture Partners, the venture capital arm of Robertson Stephens).

MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif. — Epinions.com, an online consumer shopping guide, announced the details of Epinions’ second round of funding. Three new investors have invested a total of $25 million dollars in Epinions, including Goldman Sachs (NYSE: GS), Dell Computer Corp.(Nasdaq: DELL) and Bowman Capital. Benchmark Capital and August Capital, which participated in Epinions’ first round of financing, have invested as well. Bradford C. Koenig, co-head of Goldman Sachs’ Global High Technology Group, will be joining the Epinions board.

MAYNARD, Mass.– Enermetrix.com, a leader in Internet commerce for energy, raised more than $20 million in equity financing. The third round of financing will allow Enermetrix.com to accelerate its development and deployment of Internet technology and services to deregulating energy markets around the globe. The investment comes from Insight Capital Partners, GE Capital (Parent, General Electric NYSE: GE), Duquesne Enterprises (Parent, DQE Inc. NYSE: DQE) and Unitil Corp. (AMEX: UTL). The deal includes a plan for Enermetrix.com and GE Power Systems to form a commercial effort to bring technology and services to deregulating energy markets around the world. Representatives from both Insight Capital and GE will serve on the board of directors of Enermetrix.com.

PARIS & NEW YORK– Europ@Web, the Internet investment arm of the Arnault Group, and Leisureplanet, an international Internet-based travel services provider that is majority owned by Leisureplanet Holdings Ltd. (Nasdaq: LPHL), announced that Europ@Web has made a direct investment of $20 million to acquire a 27% equity stake in Leisureplanet. As part of the transaction, LPHL will have the right to invest an additional $10 million into Leisureplanet, at the same valuation as the Europ@Web investment, on or before January 31, 2000.

SAN FRANCISCO — salesforce.com, a new Internet site that allows sales organizations to easily access, manage and share all their vital information, announced total financing of $17 million. Founded by former Oracle executive Marc Benioff, salesforce.com investors also include: — Larry Ellison, chairman, Oracle (Nasdaq: ORCL ); Halsey Minor, chairman, CNET (Nasdaq: CNET); Magdalena Yesil, partner, U.S. Venture Partners; William Hambrecht, chairman, WR Hambrecht & Co.; Patrick McGovern, chairman, IDG; John Friedenrich, partner, Bay Partners; Bob Anderson, founder, KLA/Tencor; Attractor Partners; Igor Sill, founder, Geneva Group and general partner, Geneva Venture Partners. salesforce.com is currently available to select partners through its Pilot Program at http://www.salesforce.com, and will be generally available in Q1 of 2000. In other news, John Dillon was named president and CEO.Dillon, previously president and CEO of Hyperion Solutions, will also join salesforce.com’s board of directors

BURLINGTON, Mass.– InteQ Corp. secured a capital infusion of $15 million through a partnership between venture capital firms Charles River Ventures and M/C Venture Partners. Since its inception in early 1995, InteQ, an IT infrastructure management services provider, has operated solely on company earnings. This round of funding will be used to bolster the company’s infrastructure management services offerings. These new services are designed to bring predictability to IT infrastructures, which frees clients to devote full attention to their core business and to seize the many growth opportunities of the new Internet economy.

SAN FRANCISCO — Creditland, an Internet-based unbiased credit marketplace that offers a fast, easy comparison-shopping experience, closed $15 million in equity funding. This round of financing was funded by a consortium of investors, including Wheatley Partners, Pacific Century CyberWorks, Thomas Weisel Partners, and Robertson Stephens. In other news, Michael Bartholomew, former chief operating officer of Cheap Tickets, has joined the company as president and chief operating officer.

NEW YORK– Patricof & Co. Ventures Inc. led a $13.5 million investment in Spree.com Corp. Technology Crossover Ventures and Odeon Capital were the primary co-investors. Spree.com allows consumers to earn cashback on their online purchases, enables merchants to acquire and retain customers without costly advertising expenditures, and helps content and community sites deliver compelling value to their members.

CAMBRIDGE, Mass.– AnyDay.com, creator of an Internet-based integrated time management solution, completed a second round of venture capital financing totaling $12.5 million. The latest round of financing is from SOFTBANK Venture Capital, an affiliate of SOFTBANK Corp., and Carlyle Venture Partners, an affiliate of the Carlyle Group. Coupled with the $8 million first round of funding from SOFTBANK Venture Capital and Carlyle Venture Partners announced in May 1999, AnyDay.com has raised more than $20 million in just over six months.

LOS ANGELES — NetNext Inc., a subsidiary of Nextera Enterprises Inc. (Nasdaq: NXRA) formed to make Internet investments, is joining @Ventures, the affiliated venture capital arm of CMGI Inc. (Nasdaq: CMGI) and Paul Allen’s Vulcan Ventures in making an investment as part of a $12 million initial round of financing in Oncology.com. Oncology.com, which is focused entirely on the needs of cancer healthcare professionals, patients, their families and the entire cancer community, offers a daily news network dedicated to providing accurate and unbiased coverage of cancer research, treatment developments and patient care trends written by healthcare journalists.

Other investors in the financing round include Knowledge Health LLC, an indirect subsidiary of Knowledge Universe; Entertainment Media Ventures LLC; and ProQuest Investments L.P. and ProQuest Companion Fund L.P. According to Oncology.com, all of the investors in the company have been touched by cancer in some way and share a vision to leverage Internet technologies to improve the quality of cancer care. Existing Angel investors in Oncology.com include Andy Grove, founder & chairman of Intel; Avram Miller, director, CMGI and AltaVista; Paul tephens, director, Oncology.com and founder, Robertson Stephens & Co., and Mark Kvamme, director, Oncology.com and founder USWeb/CKS.

HAYWARD, Calif.– Cohera Corp. closed its Round C of venture funding for $11.8 million. Venture firms participating in Round C include Accel Partners, Merrill Lynch, Sequoia Capital, Ignite Ventures and Cambridge Technology Capital. Round C brings Cohera’s total funding to more than $18 million. Cohera’s Federation System core technology, developed by a University of California–Berkeley computer sciences team led by industry pioneer and Cohera founder and CTO Michael Stonebraker, universally aggregates, integrates and presents enterprise and web-based information regardless of the data’s format, platform, location or ownership.

NASHVILLE, Tenn. — eConception, an Internet incubator company, closed its first round of financing with over $10 million in commitments from private individuals. The first-round financing will be used to grow six e-commerce companies already under management by eConception and may possibly be used to help start others. The six companies identified by eConception include: BidExpress.com – an online home and commercial property improvement contract bidding service; KidCareView.com – offering video solutions that allow parents to watch their children in day care via the Internet; eLearnX.com – an interactive and certified professional continuing education service for legal, real estate and accounting professionals; GrooveTone.com – a digital destination for Americana music fans; HelpNetworks.com – an online retail site that assists non-profits and schools in their fundraising activities; Weberize – a web development company that creates innovative Internet solutions for businesses.

LOS ANGELES– oCen Communications Inc., an Internet-based Communication Services Provider, raised over $10 million in institutional equity and debt fundraising to support the deployment and operation of its large, carrier-grade Internet Protocol communications network. The investment capital represents oCen’s second and third rounds of institutional fundraising, and will be used to deploy a large pan-Asia managed IP network to carry high-quality voice, fax, data, video and other IP-based communications services traffic. The new network will be officially launched this month, connecting Hong Kong, Taiwan and the United States. The company’s founders and early investors include the prominent Bao family of Taiwan, owners of Chung Shing Textiles; the Pacific Group, a Taiwan-based conglomerate with significant interests in telecommunications; and a private equity fund managed by ING Barings, the global financial services firm. Earlier this year, oCen secured $8.7 million in equity funding from the New World Group, the Anderson Group, Lotus Asset Management and other institutional and high net-worth investors. In addition to the equity raised, oCen secured approximately another $2.0 million in debt financing from several vendors.

In other news, the company announced the addition of two veteran executives to its senior management team. James Courtney, an established telecommunications operations executive with Cable & Wireless, joins oCen as the company’s chief operating officer. Eckhart Gouras, previously founder and executive director of Poptel Communications AG, Europe’s first Internet Telephony Service Provider, has been appointed vice president of business development.

AUSTIN, Texas — Internet startup Liaison Technology, a company delivering live data from the Internet, raised $10 million in its second round of funding led by SSM Ventures with participation from Austin Ventures, Dell Computer Corp.(Nasdaq: DELL), and Techxas Ventures. Austin Ventures and Techxas Ventures had also provided seed funding to Liaison earlier this year.

SAN RAFAEL, Calif. — New Internet venture icPlanet Corp., an online employment site that will help corporate hiring managers and personnel agencies find qualified independent contractors, secured more than $8 million in venture capital and private investment financing. The majority of funding came from Polaris Venture Partners II and Polaris Venture Partners Founders II LP, Spectrum Equity Investors, and the Texas Pacific Group. The company also announced the formation of an accomplished executive management team, led by Douglas Carlston, founder and former chairman and chief executive officer of Broderbund Software.

HONG KONG– First Ecom.com (OTCBB:FECC), a global provider of electronic payment processing, announced the Bank of Bermuda has made a US$6.5 million strategic investment in First Ecom.com with the purchase of 1 million shares of First Ecom.com stock. The Bank of Bermuda, which completed the stock transaction Nov. 26, also holds warrants for an additional 1 million First Ecom.com shares. Through strategic partnerships with Banks, ISPs, E-commerce system integrators and storefront solution providers, First Ecom will process credit card transactions made over the Internet in multiple currencies, either domestically or offshore in a tax-neutral jurisdiction.

BELLEVUE, Wash. — Trans Cosmos USA Inc., a strategic international investor and business development firm, announced the closing of a $5 million investment in SOUNDSBIG.com, an online music company. This investment expands Trans Cosmos USA’s strategic investments in audio-video streaming media technologies, and the online entertainment and music industries. SOUNDSBIG.com provides a Web site where artists can connect directly with fans and where listeners can find the music they like, chat with other listeners, get free MP3 downloads and buy CDs — all from one location.

MIAMI, Dec. 6 — From2.com, an international e-commerce logistics company and creator of the patent-pending Global Delivered Cost Calculator, received a first-round investment of $5 million led by STI Ventures. Linked directly to the merchant’s website, the GDC Calculator instantaneously calculates all freight (including air and ocean shipping options), insurance, duties, taxes, customs clearance fees and other import charges involved in shipping any product to any international destination.

ATLANTA– Ockham Technologies Inc. announced a $2.25 million venture capital investment from two Atlanta technology investment firms, Noro-Moseley Partners and Monarch Capital Partners. The first round of institutional funding follows Ockham’s launch of the SalesRazor Series, a set of Web-native tools that help sales management at all levels increase sales productivity through best practice processes. Ockham is located in the Advanced Technology Development Center, a high-technology launch pad based in Atlanta.

PORTLAND, Ore.– Fios, a national provider of electronic discovery services for litigators, closed its initial round of seed funding. The company raised $750,000 from angel investors in Seattle and Portland. The company plans to use the money to enhance its Portland-based information-processing center, and to expand its national consulting services operations. Fios provides consulting and information processing services to law firms, corporations, and insurance carriers, helping litigators identify, capture, and use electronic evidence in the lawsuit discovery process.

MINNEAPOLIS– LearningByte International, a provider of e-learning products and services, recently concluded a significant capital investment by an affiliate of the Aditya Birla Group, one of the largest business groups in India. LearningByte International will use the capital infusion to further accelerate the company’s growth in the expanding e-learning market.

SAN FRANCISCO — Cary, NC-based Relativity Technologies, an enterprise software vendor specializing in legacy to e-business transformation solutions, received an investment from the Intel 64 Fund. Financial details were not disclosed. The funding will help Relativity to develop an optimized version of its RescueWare solution for Intel’s upcoming IA-64 product family, beginning with the Itanium processor.

PALO ALTO, Calif.– Accel Partners, a venture capital firm, announced the investment by major Internet partners in its Internet Fund III. Corporate investors include Dell Computer Corp. (Nasdaq: DELL), Microsoft Corp. (Nasdaq: MSFT), Nortel Networks (NYSE/TSE: NT), Novell Inc. (Nasdaq: NOVL), Sun Microsystems Inc., (Nasdaq: SUNW) and The Walt Disney Co. (NYSE: DIS). In addition executives and entrepreneurs from the defining Internet and communications companies have made personal investments in Accel Internet Fund III. These entrepreneurs include founders and executives from companies such as America Online Inc., Amazon.com Inc., Cisco Systems Inc., CNET, Inc., eBay, Inc., Excite/@Home, Intel Corp., RealNetworks Inc., and Yahoo Inc.

BOULDER, Colo.– With a founding private equity fund of $100M, Pete Estler, former CEO and founder of MatchLogic, announced the formation of iBelay.com, a new Internet accelerator firm that offers a unique program to young Internet companies in their seed stages of financing by providing scalable technology, engineering and business expertise. Excite@Home (Nasdaq: ATHM), a global media company that purchased MatchLogic in the first quarter of 1998 for $90 million, has taken a minority equity stake in iBelay.com.

BETHPAGE, NY/SAN FRANCISCO– Rainbow Media Holdings Inc., a subsidiary of Cablevision Systems Corp. (AMEX: CVC), and Salon.com (Nasdaq: SALN) announced a 10-year strategic equity agreement. The agreement includes content exchange and development, as well as extension of each company’s brands onto new platforms and to new audiences. In the first collaboration, Salon.com will develop new original television programming based on its Internet content for Rainbow’s film and arts network, Bravo. Under the terms of the agreement, Salon.com will issue 1,110,000 common shares to Rainbow, representing approximately 10% of Salon.com’s outstanding common stock. In exchange, Rainbow will provide Salon.com approximately $11.8 million in advertising and promotional time, delivered over several years, across Rainbow’s media properties. Salon.com and Bravo Networks will exchange content and cross-promote throughout their web properties.

NEW YORK, Dec. 6 — About.com (Nasdaq: BOUT), a network of niche vertical sites, announced the acquisition of privately held North Sky Inc. North Sky, which operates freeservers.com, provides Web site development tools and is a hosting network for thousands of Web sites. North Sky will remain as an independent subsidiary of About.com and will continue to focus on the tools development and hosting needs of the Internet industry at large and About.com, specifically. The acquisition, expected to be closed before year-end 1999, will be an all stock transaction, with current North Sky stockholders receiving approximately 500,000 unregistered shares of About.com common stock. Other financial terms were not released.

REDMOND, Wash. — InfoSpace.com (Nasdaq: INSP), a provider of infrastructure services for consumers, merchants and wireless devices, agreed to acquire Mountain View, Calif.-based Prio Inc. With this acquisition, InfoSpace.com will be able to provide an enhanced e-commerce infrastructure that integrates online promotion technologies with merchants’ existing credit card processing infrastructure, bridging the gap between the online and offline worlds. Current investors in Prio include Microsoft Corp., Intel, American Express, DataCard Corp., Knight Ridder, SOFTBANK and VeriFone (Hewlett-Packard). Under the terms of the acquisition, which will be accounted for as a pooling of interests, InfoSpace.com will exchange 2,685,000 shares of common stock for all of Prio’s outstanding shares, warrants and options. The historical operations of Prio are material to InfoSpace.com’s results of operations, therefore, prior period financial statements will be restated for this acquisition. The acquisition is expected to be completed in Q1 2000.

InfoSpace also acquired Saraide, a wireless Internet services provider in Europe, Japan and Canada. InfoSpace.com will merge Saraide with its own wireless services and will issue 2,397,716 shares of InfoSpace.com Common Stock to the existing shareholders of Saraide in a transaction to be accounted for as a purchase. InfoSpace.com will control 80% of the combined company with operations located throughout Europe, Japan, Canada and the United States. Saraide’s investors include Nortel Networks, Microcell Telecommunications Inc., Omnipoint Communications, Ericsson and GSM Capital L.P., whose investors include Deutsche Telekom, France Telecom, Singapore Telecom, ESAT Digifone, Aerial Communications, and SmarTone. The acquisition is expected to be completed in Q1 2000.

WALL, N.J. and JOHNSTOWN, N.Y. — BiznessOnline.com (Nasdaq: BIZZ) entered a definitive agreement to acquire Telecon Communications Corp., a New York State CLEC, and its ISP affiliate Telesupport Inc., both based in Johnstown, NY. This step will allow BiznessOnline.com, a provider of Web solutions and broadband Internet access in the Northeast’s secondary markets, to provide customers bundled services. The company expects that transaction will close in the first quarter of 2000. Following Telecon’s acquisition, BiznessOnline.com will service over 50,000 subscribers. Terms of the transaction were not disclosed.

NEW YORK– Hollinger International Inc. (NYSE:HLR) purchased a minority stake in Bidhit.com, Inc. (OTCBB:BHIT), a rapidly growing online real time auction company. As part of the financing Bidhit.com will receive $1 million US in advertising in Hollinger owned publications. Hollinger International Inc. is a global newspaper publisher with English-language newspapers in the United States, UK, Canada and Israel. As part of the agreement Hollinger will provide consulting services to Bidhit.com to advise and assist the company in its international expansion and future growth.

MIAMI– Master Communications Inc. (OTCBB: MASC) changed its name to i-Incubator.com Inc. and will reformat its business as an internet incubator. The company also announced a 3-1 forward common stock split which was effective November 22, 1999 and distributed on November 26, 1999. The company also announced its ticker symbol will change to INQU, effective December 7. i-Incubator.com has also purchased the URL address www.i-Incubator.com.

PALO ALTO, Calif.– Garage.com, the Web-based venture investing firm that matches promising startups with high-quality, early-stage investors, announced its newest office in the booming high tech hub of Austin, Texas. Garage.com now has four U.S. offices — Silicon Valley, Seattle, Boston, and Austin — located in key high tech markets to serve entrepreneurs and investors.Technology industry veteran Jamin Patrick will head the Austin office. In addition to expanding its U.S. coverage, Garage.com announced last week the opening of its first international office, located in Israel.

SAN FRANCISCO — Cogit.com, a provider of real-time, relevant eMarketing services, announced the appointment of Harry Cook to the position of vice president of operations. Cook will have responsibilities over the data center, MIS, quality assurance, and customer support departments for Cogit.com’s recently introduced eMarketing services, RealProfile and RealTarget. Cook joins Cogit.com from Sybase Corporation, where he was director of the product support engineering department. Cogit.com has venture backing from New Enterprise Associates, Institutional Venture Partners and Crosslink Capital (formerly Omega Ventures-Robertson Stephens Funds).

LOS GATOS, Calif.– fusionOne, a pioneer in the development of next-generation Internet sync technology, announced that Noreen Bergin has joined the company as senior vice president and chief financial officer. Bergin comes to fusionOne from Netscape Communications Corp., where she served as senior vice president of finance and corporate controller since late 1995. fusionOne is backed by funding from Nokia Ventures, 3Com Ventures, El Dorado Ventures, its founders and recognized leaders in the high technology industry.

SEATTLE– Scott H. Ehrlich, formerly the senior vice president and executive producer at News Corporation’s (NYSE:NWS) News Digital Media, has joined Rivals.com, a large network of sports team and sports specialty channel Web sites as executive vice president and general manager. Investors include Hummer Winblad Venture Partners, Intel Corp., News America Digital Publishing, and The Phoenix Partners.

DALLAS– S2 Systems, a global provider of high-availability transaction processing solutions for e-commerce, announced the appointment of Stephen J. Clark as chief operating officer. He was formerly president & CEO of OpenConnect Systems. S2 ownership includes Baker Communications Fund, a private equity fund investing exclusively in communications and network-based applications companies.

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