THE WIRE — Wednesday 7/3

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NEW YORK — 24/7 Real Media, (Nasdaq: TFSM), a leader in interactive marketing, today announced that it has secured an investment of at least $5 million in equity funding from Sunra Capital Holdings Limited, an investment vehicle advised by Merchants Group International, a San Francisco based investment firm. Sunra has an option to increase its investment by an additional $2 million

NEW YORK – JPMorgan Partners (JPMP), the private equity arm of J.P. Morgan Chase & Co. (NYSE: JPM), announced today the addition of two partners and one managing director to the organization. Buck French will join JPMP in San Francisco as a partner. French will focus on developing JPMP’s enterprise software investment portfolio, specifically looking at investing in companies that focus on software infrastructure and applications. French is well known in the software arena as a successful entrepreneur and chief executive officer who raised $37 million in three rounds of venture funding for his own start-up OnLink Technologies that he sold to Siebel Systems for $600 million in August 2000. French joins JPMP after serving as Vice President and General Manager of Siebel Systems’ Interactive Selling Group, Siebel’s third largest horizontal business unit and supervised market launches of six individual product lines.

Thomas Walker, who joins JPMP as a partner in London, previously served as Managing Director and head of financial sponsor coverage for J.P. Morgan Chase & Co. in the European region. Greg Carney has joined JPMP’s real estate group as a Managing Director and will direct the portfolio management of JPMP’s real estate investments. Carney, formerly served as Senior Vice President and head of International Asset Management for Starwood Capital Group.

BOSTON — State Street Corp. (NYSE: STT), the world’s leading specialist inmeeting the needs of sophisticated global investors, today announced that ithas entered into a definitive agreement to acquire International Fund Services(IFS), a leading provider of fund accounting and administration as well astrade support and middle office services for alternative investmentportfolios. The acquisition increases State Street’s capabilities in servingthe expanding requirements of sophisticated global investors in theinstitutional and private investment fund markets.

NEW YORK — International law firm O’Melveny & Myers LLP and New York-based privateequity specialist O’Sullivan LLP announced today that they have entered into aletter of intent to merge their firms. The combination, which is subject to partnership approval, will create oneof the top global transactional and private equity law firms, with more than800 attorneys in major markets from New York to Hong Kong and 206 in New York

FRANKLIN, TN — Psychiatric Solutions Inc. (“PSI”) today announced that it has completed a $20 million private placement of senior subordinated notes with detachable nominal warrants. The Company intends to use the proceeds from the securities, which were placed through the Company’s exclusive financial advisor, Brentwood Capital Advisors LLC, to fund acquisitions of freestanding psychiatric hospitals, including the 210-bed Riveredge Hospital in Forest Park, Illinois, with which PSI signed a definitive agreement in June 2002.

The senior subordinated notes were placed with The 1818 Mezzanine Fund II, LP, a private equity investment fund managed by Brown Brothers Harriman & Co. (“BBH”), America’s largest private bank and one of the oldest owner-managed partnerships in the country. The 1818 Funds are a family of private equity partnerships with committed capital exceeding $1.5 billion, which BBH organized to acquire substantial, non-controlling long-term ownership positions in growing, strongly positioned companies. As a result of the placement, Joseph P. Donlan, Managing Director of BBH, has joined PSI’s Board of Directors.

NEWS FROM TUESDAY 7/2

SAN CARLOS, CA — ePocrates, the largest physician handheld network, has secured a round of funding from several of the most prominent healthcare and technology focused venture capital firms. Participants in the round of funding include Sprout Group, Interwest Partners, Three Arch, Draper Fisher Jurvetson and Bay City Capital.

SANTA CLARA, CA — ARYx Therapeutics Inc., a privately-held biopharmaceutical company dedicated to retrometabolic design to engineer safer drugs, announced today that it closed a $25 million placement of Series C Preferred Stock to a group of investors led by MPM Capital. Co-investors include OrbiMed Advisors and Merlin BioMed Group. The financing will enable ARYx to carry its drug development programs into human clinical testing. Life Science Group acted as financial advisor and Cooley Godward as legal counsel to ARYx.

ARYx invents drug candidates using a chemistry approach known as retrometabolic design, which involves analogs of known drugs which have been engineered to have improved properties. Specifically, ARYx creates active molecules prospectively designed to be metabolized into inactive, safe by-products that are pharmacologically inert (thereby optimizing the potential value of existing drugs, currently limited by metabolic, pharmacokinetic and pharmacodynamic issues).

LAGUNA NIGUEL, CA — Volcano Therapeutics, an early stage medical device manufacturer, announced today that it has completed a $24 million round of private equity financing. Volcano Therapeutics is focused on the discovery, development and treatment of vulnerable plaques located in the coronary or peripheral arteries. Vulnerable plaques are the leading cause of heart attacks that kill over 1 million people worldwide each year. Significant investors in this transaction include existing investor Domain Associates, and new investors: Johnson & Johnson Development Group, Medtronic, Neomed, and Mayo Medical Ventures.

LONDON — Following news that four of the UK’s leading retail brands are joining forces to launch a new consumer loyalty program, Loyalty Management UK (LMUK) announced that it has secured a commitment of 25 million pounds in equity financing from Warburg Pincus, one of the leading global private equity firms. LMUK will launch and operate Nectar, which brings together Sainsbury’s, Barclaycard, BP, and Debenhams to form the UK’s largest and most comprehensive customer loyalty program, which is expected to sign up over 50 percent of all UK households following its autumn 2002 launch.

ALPHARETTA, GA — GlobalCare Inc., a leading healthcare technology and medical services company announced today closure on a private equity financing totaling $11 million. The funding was led by Insight Venture Partners of New York, an expansion stage private equity investor with over $1 billion in capital under management, and included C&B Capital, L.P. of Atlanta, as well as THK Private Equities of San Mateo.

WAYNE, PA — Tucker Twitmyer has joined EnerTech Capital as a Principal of the firm. He will be responsible for analyzing and supporting the venture capital firm’s investments in energy, utility and telecommunications. Before joining EnerTech, Twitmyer was a Managing Director of Katalyst, LLC, of Conshohocken, Pa., a provider of banking and management services to venture-backed businesses. He was responsible for service delivery and business development in Katalyst’s Philadelphia office. While there, he served on the executive board of Katalyst and the internal investment committee for Katalyst’s affiliated venture fund, Katalyst Venture Partners I.

ROBBINSVILLE, NJ — NexMed Inc. (Nasdaq: NEXM), a developer of innovative topical treatments based on its proprietary drug delivery technology, today announced that the Company has raised over $6 million in gross proceeds from a private placement of its securities to institutional and accredited individual investors. Institutional investors taking part in the private placement included Capital Research and Management Company and a mutual fund managed by a major investment firm. Security Research Associates, Inc. of Larkspur, CA acted as the placement agent.

ANDOVER, MA — CMGI Inc. (Nasdaq: CMGI) announced today that it has entered into a definitive agreement to acquire substantially all of the worldwide assets and operations of Software Logistics Corp., a California corporation doing business as iLogistix.

COSTA MESA, CA — Pillsbury Winthrop LLP is pleased to announce that corporate securities attorney Ethan Feffer has joined the firm’s Orange County office as a partner. Prior to his new appointment, Feffer was a partner at Brobeck, Phleger & Harrison where he worked since 1996. He began his career as an associate with Pillsbury, Madison & Sutro in 1992, the firm that went on to become Pillsbury Winthrop through a merger in 2000.

Feffer brings significant experience with his corporate practice, which emphasizes public offerings, venture capital financings, mergers and acquisitions, and domestic and international strategic alliances. He represents public and private companies and investors in a variety of industries, including financial services, semiconductors, life sciences and software. He has completed more than $5 billion in financings and mergers and acquisitions for clients that include Bank of America, Wells Fargo Bank, US Bancorp Piper Jaffray, Baxter International, Conexant Systems and others.

NEWS FROM MONDAY 7/1

MINNEAPOLIS — Eschelon Telecom Inc., an Integrated Communications Provider (ICP) of voice, data, Internet services and business telephone systems, announced today that it has closed new equity investments of $35 million. The proceeds of the financing will be used to expand the company’s business plan

BOISE, ID — ProClarity Corp., an award-winning provider of innovative analytic solutions for the enterprise, today announced it has closed an equity investment of $7.75 million led by Summit Accelerator Fund, the venture capital arm of Summit Partners. As the fastest growing vendor in the strategic business intelligence market, ProClarity will use the investment to continue its aggressive growth and global expansion. In addition, ProClarity announced today that Marc Friend, General Partner of the Summit Accelerator Fund, would join the ProClarity board of directors.

HERNDON, VA & ST. LOUIS — Global managed services provider SAVVIS Communications Corp. (NASDAQ:SVVS) today announced that is has secured a $20 million investment from Constellation Ventures, a Bear Stearns Asset Management Fund, in return for preferred stock. Constellation Ventures is a media, communications and technology venture capital fund that manages $450 million. This relationship will facilitate SAVVIS’ expansion beyond its stronghold in financial services and mid-market enterprises into growing media-intensive industries.

NEWS FROM FRIDAY 6/28

NEWPORT BEACH, CA — Private equity investment firms William Blair Capital Partners and ClearLight Partners today announced a joint commitment of $50 million to Irvine, Calif.-based U.S. Education Corp., a company focused upon providing postsecondary education programs. In conjunction with the investment, U.S. Education today announced it closed its initial acquisition, Silicon Valley College, a postsecondary educational institution with four campuses in Northern California offering programs in health care and IT training and certification.

MALBOROUGH, MA — According to its Web site, Cerevea Networks Inc. ceased business operations on Tuesday. The network storage company received over $156 million in venture funding from such backers as Goldman Sachs, Intel Capital, Matrix Partners and Worldview Technology Partners. Its last round of funding was a $51 million Series D deal last summer, at which point the company received a $221 million valuation.

BERLIN — Biopsytec Holding AG, one of the leading European companies in molecular biology applications for Agriculture, has announced the raising of over EURO 5 million in a second round of financing. The deal, led by SAM Sustainability Private Equity LP from Guernsey and supported by the VCG fund of Deutsche Venture Capital in Munich together with the VCB fund of Industrie Management Holdings in Berlin, is a major boost to the company, founded in 2000 in Berlin, and which has further locations in Bonn, Luxembourg and Paris.

PITTSBURGH — Eizel Technologies Inc., an enterprise software company whose breakthrough products enable companies to quickly and inexpensively integrate mobile devices throughout their operations, today announced the closing of a seed round investment totaling $4.2 million. The financing was led by ITU Ventures and included Nokia(R) (NYSE: NOK), through Innovent, a Nokia(R) entrepreneurial innovation unit, and private investors.

OTTAWA — Workstream Inc. (NASDAQ:WSTM) – a leading provider of Human Capital Management (HCM) Web-enabled solutions and professional services – announced today the second closing of its Series A Preferred Debt investment round, bringing the total amount of the round to $2.9 million. This latest investment was led through Chicago-based Crestview Capital Funds.

LAVAL, CANADA — BioSyntech Inc. (OTCBB: BYSI), a developer of tissue repair therapies and innovative drug delivery vehicles, today announced the receipt of the funds associated with the debt/equity financing announced April 3, 2002. The Company has received the $2.5 million (Canadian) as per the agreement with BDC Venture Capital, a division of the Business Development Bank of Canada (BDC). The $2.5 million financing, along with the $1.2 million (Canadian) credit facility being negotiated with a major chartered bank in Canada, and the $1 million (Canadian) in the Company’s reserves, is expected to provide sufficient financing to allow operations well past the end of calendar 2003.

CAMBRIDGE, MA — Polaroid Corp. announced today that it will seek final court approval of a revised bid submitted by One Equity Partners to purchase substantially all of its business. A hearing on the proposed transaction is scheduled for 9 a.m. tomorrow at the U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Wilmington, Del. The revised bid from One Equity Partners provides for cash consideration of $255 million plus a 35 percent interest in the new company for the benefit of unsecured creditors, significantly more equity than the prior bid. Both the unsecured creditors committee and the company’s secured lenders support the proposed sale transaction.

AUSTIN, TX — Perficient Inc. (Nasdaq: PRFT) a leading eBusiness solutions provider to Global 3000 companies, announced today an equity investment from 2M Technology Ventures, L.P., a private equity firm founded by Morton Meyerson, former Chairman and CEO of Perot Systems and President of EDS.

NEWS FROM THURSDAY 6/27

MARLBORO, MA — Egenera Inc., the leader in next-generation data center infrastructure, today announced that it has secured $44 million in a third round of equity financing while notably increasing its valuation. To date, Egenera has raised $94 million in venture capital

With this transaction, San Francisco-based Crosslink Capital, which led the round, has joined the blue-chip syndicate of Egenera backers as have Lehman Brothers Venture Capital, UBS Capital and Mizuho Bank. Moreover, each of Egenera’s previous investors–Spectrum Equity Investors, Austin Ventures, CSFB Private Equity, Kodiak Venture Partners, The Goldman Sachs Group Inc. and YankeeTek Ventures–participated in the funding.

PETALUMA, CA — Teknovus Inc., developer of broadband access semiconductor solutions, today announced the closing of $5 million in first round venture financing. The financing was led by investors Partech International and U.S. Venture Partners (USVP), with participation from Portview Communications Partners. Partech, USVP, NEC Electronics, Dr. John Cioffi and Gerry Pesavento join the Board of Directors.

CINCINNATI — In its second round of financing, AtriCure Inc. has received a $21 million infusion from several East and West Coast venture capital firms. The deal was led by new investors Camden Partners, Foundation Medical Partners, and New England Partners, and existing investors U.S. Venture Partners, Charter Venture Group, and Partisan Management Group. The deal is believed to be the third-largest financing among Cincinnati technology companies.

SAN FRANCISCO — Golden Gate Capital announced today that it has closed on the acquisition of the Supply Chain Enablement (SCE) division of Peregrine Systems Inc. (Nasdaq:PRGNE). The newly formed private company will retain the existing management team and staff, with Dave Williams, a 19-year software industry veteran and the current General Manager, continuing to lead the company as President and CEO. Joining Golden Gate Capital in the transaction are Cerberus Capital Management and Parallax Capital Partners.

WASHINGTON — Washington DC — Core Capital Partners, a $180 million private equity fund that invests in both early-stage and mid-sized technology companies, announced today that it has participated in a Series A round of funding for Sourcefire Inc., a Columbia, MD-based network security company. Sourcefire’s round of $7.55 million also included Sierra Ventures, Inflection Point Ventures, and the Maryland Department of Business and Economic Development.

PALO ALTOCA — Conor Medsystems Inc., a medical device company developing solutions for controlled local drug delivery, announced today that it received $10 million in financing from new and existing investors. Highland Capital Partners led the round and was joined by previous investors Easton Hunt Capital, Musket Research Associates and Calmedica Capital.

MENLO PARK, CA — Clearstone Venture Partners has added Vish Mishra as a venture partner focusing on software and communications. Vish has over 30 years of management experience in the high tech industry. His prior experience includes founding VP of Operations of Excelan, VP of Novell, EVP of iPlanet (a unit of Sun Microsystems and AOL), CEO of Mindworks, IntelliMatch, and Ace Software. Vish is an active charter member of TiE.

GREENWICH, CT — Michael G. Medzigian, formerly President and Chief Executive Officer of Lazard Freres Real Estate Investors and a former Managing Director of Lazard, announced today the creation of Watermark Capital Partners, LLC, a new real estate private equity investment firm based in Greenwich, Connecticut. Mr. Medzigian is Chairman and Managing Partner of the new firm.

NEW YORK & LOS ANGELES — First Look Media Inc. (OTC BB: FRST, www.firstlookmedia.com), a diversified entertainment company, today announced that it has closed the transaction announced on May 20, 2002 whereby Seven Hills Pictures, LLC, a privately owned company controlled by Reverge Anselmo, has provided more than $8.0 million in new capital to First Look to expand its U.S. theatrical, video and DVD distribution operations.

ARNOLD, MD — Aros Corp. (OTC:AROS) today announced the completion of its acquisition of ReGen Biologics Inc., a privately held tissue engineering company that designs, develops, manufactures and markets minimally invasive human implants and medical devices for the repair and regeneration of damaged human tissue. Aros has acquired all of ReGen’s business and operating activities, including its employees, and will continue ReGen’s business out of ReGen’s current headquarters in Franklin Lakes, New Jersey.

AUSTIN, TX — Austin Ventures, one of the nation’s largest venture capital firms announced today that Michael Dickstein, formerly Vice President of Strategy and Corporate Development for Internet Security Systems Inc. (ISS), has joined the firm as an Entrepreneur-in-Residence (EIR). Joining AV from Atlanta-based ISS, Dickstein is the first specialist in his field to be added to the EIR program. As an entrepreneur-in-residence, Dickstein will be applying his expertise in security technologies and trends to assist portfolio companies in developing innovative products that best meet market needs.

 

NEW YORK — M&A activity in the US appears to be bottoming out, with the number of deals announced in April and May showing a slight uptick after three fairly flat quarters. This may signal the end of a long decline that began two years ago, according to a midyear M&A forecast by the Transaction Services group at PricewaterhouseCoopers. But substantial obstacles — including wary investors and CEOs, continued tight credit markets, less than stellar operating results, and stock price volatility — need to be overcome before the deal market returns to more robust levels. And when it does, corporate acquirers may be surprised to find that their fiercest competitors for acquisitions will be aggressive private equity firms pooling resources to play bigger.

SAN FRANCISCO — JPMorgan Chase announced today that Daniel H. Case III, 44, Chairman and CEO of JPMorgan H&Q, died early this morning after a year-long battle with brain cancer. David Golden, head of JPMorgan West Coast Investment Banking, informed employees this morning of Mr. Case’s death.

Dan Case was Chairman of the Board of JPMorgan H&Q (formerly Hambrecht & Quist). A member of the firm since 1979, Dan was named co-CEO in 1992 and CEO in 1994. He added the role of Chairman in 1998. Dan had earlier served in a variety of senior roles within the firm, including Partner, Venture Capital; co-head of Mergers & Acquisitions; head of Investment Banking; and Executive Vice President.

LONDON — Bowman Power Limited, the Southampton (UK) based micro-turbine system manufacturer has announced it has raised a further 15 million pounds from a group of leading global investors in its latest funding round. Lehman Brothers European Venture Capital Group led the investment round. Quester, OPG Ventures Inc, 3i and other existing investors also participated.

NEW YORK — The Columbia House Co., the world’s largest direct marketer of music, videos and DVD home entertainment products, closed the previously announced acquisition by Blackstone Capital Partners III LP, an affiliate of The Blackstone Group, the New York-based private investment bank, of a majority interest in the Company from AOL Time Warner Inc.’s Warner Music Group and Sony Corporation’s Sony Music Entertainment Inc. The terms of the transaction were not disclosed.

Both Sony and Warner Music Group will retain minority interests in Columbia House and will remain important suppliers of music and video content to The Columbia House Company. Financing for the transaction, was arranged by UBS Warburg LLC and Banc of America Securities LLC. Blackstone was advised by UBS Warburg and Pathway Ventures.

NEWS FROM TUESDAY 6/25
REDWOOD CITY, CA — DiCarta, a leading provider of enterprise contract management solutions, announced today that it has closed a $19 million round of venture capital funding. This investment round is led by Menlo Ventures, a 25-year veteran of funding software, communications, and life sciences companies. With over $2.7 billion under management, the Menlo Ventures team brings extensive collective experience in technology, marketing, sales, and general management to their investments. Other participants in the financing include new investor Needham Capital Partners, as well as existing investors Sequoia Capital, Deloitte Ventures, Skywood Ventures, and other private investors.

PORTLAND, OR — Qsent, a leading directory information services provider, announced today that it has secured $12 million in Series B private equity financing from its original blue chip group of investors. This round was led by Oak Investment Partners, Palo Alto, Calif., along with Voyager Capital and Maveron LLC, Seattle, Wash., and Silicon Valley Bank, Santa Clara, Calif. With this infusion of capital, Qsent has closed more than $46 million in funding since the company’s inception in 1998.

SANTA CLARA, CA — Think3, Inc., an MCAD and PDM solution provider, today announced that it has secured more than $10 million in additional financing led by top-tier venture firm New Enterprise Associates (NEA). The funding comes on the heels of several major machinery design customer wins, the release of a new product suite and the appointment of an industry veteran to head up worldwide sales. In other news today, think3 announced that for the second year in a row it has received the prestigious Editors’ Choice Award from CADENCE Magazine for its thinkdesign software. The award recognizes trend-setting companies that are demonstrating a high level of innovation and moving the CAD industry forward.

SPARKS, NV — BluePoint Energy Products, Inc. (“BluePoint”) announced today that it has signed a Letter of Intent with Calim Private Equity, LLC (“Calim”) of Aspen, Colorado for a maximum investment into BluePoint of $5.9 million. The anticipated placement of the finance facility is two-staged with a $500,000 Convertible Bridge Note coming in Stage One and $1,500,000 in five-year Convertible Bonds in Stage Two. Each level of financing also contains a combination of warrants and common stock bringing the total investment to a maximum of $5,933,375.00.

SUNNYVALE, CA — Surgical Inc., the developer of a revolutionary mesh support system to mitigate the devastating impact of congestive heart failure, announced today that it has received $16.3 million in second-round venture financing. Pequot Ventures and InterWest Partners led the round. De Novo Ventures and RWI Group, the original investors in Paracor, also participated in the round.

MOUNTAIN VIEW, CA — Vernier Networks, a developer of innovative systems and software to protect, manage, and enhance wireless networks, today announced that it has received $24.2 million in Series C financing from top-tier investors. The completion of this round brings the company’s total funding to date to $34.5 million. Technology investors Allegis Capital and Financial Technology Ventures (FTVentures) led the round and are joined by UV Partners, a West coast investment firm focusing on information technology and health care companies. Vernier’s existing investors Foundation Capital, Doll Capital Management, Masthead Venture Partners, and Weber Capital Management also fully participated in the Series C financing. The company will use the new capital to accelerate product development, expand sales and marketing efforts, and fund ongoing business operations.

WALTHAM, MA — Confluent Surgical, Inc., today announced that it has completed a $20 million Series C round of venture funding, led by Essex Woodlands Health Ventures. Other venture investors participating in this financing include: Cross Atlantic Partners, General Electric Capital Corporation, HLM Ventures Partners, and Merlin Biomed Private Equity Fund. Existing investors, Schroder Ventures Life Sciences, Spray Venture Partners, and TVM Techno Venture Management also participated in this financing.

HOUSTON — RST (BVI) Inc. has entered into a funding agreement with Shell Technology Ventures Inc. (STVI). Under the agreement, STVI is taking an equity position in RST (BVI) Inc., for the purpose of accelerating development of additional sizes of the simple and reliable tool design.

SAN FRANCISCO — Iridigm Display Corp., a developer of flat panel displays for mobile devices, today announced an additional $8 million in financing. These additional funds complete its Series-A funding round and bring the total funding in the round to $21 million. The new strategic investors include: QUALCOMM, Steamboat Ventures — the venture capital arm of The Walt Disney Company, VentureTech Alliance — the venture arm of Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC), Global Strategic Investment Fund, and Prudence Capital. They join the preceding investors in the round: Dynafund Ventures, IDEO Ventures, Intel Capital, Paralink Capital Management, Picvue Electronics, Technology Associates, as well as private investors.

MENLO PARK, CA — Foundation Capital, a venture capital firm committed to early stage company building, today announced that Paul Holland has been named a general partner. Holland brings nearly two decades of start-up operating experience to Foundation Capital. Most recently he was senior vice president of worldwide sales for Kana Communications (Nasdaq: KANA). Before that, Holland served as vice president and general manager at Pure-Atria.

SAN BRUNO, CA — IronPort Systems, provider of the world’s first Intelligent Messaging Gateway appliances, announced today that it raised $16.5M from Menlo Ventures, Allegis Capital, Western Technology Investment, Starter Fluid and Amicus Capital. Starter Fluid, L.P. and Amicus Capital were also investors in IronPort’s seed financing. In another announcement today, IronPort unveiled its Bonded Sender(TM) Program, designed to stop the delivery of unsolicited email messages commonly referred to as “spam.”

SEATTLE — Cardiac Dimensions, a leading medical device company developing novel interventional tools for the treatment of congestive heart failure (“CHF”) and related conditions, today announced that is has secured $12 million in Series B equity financing co-led by Polaris Venture Partners and InterWest Partners, joined by existing investor, MPM Capital. The company plans to use the proceeds from the offering to commercialize implantable devices for Congestive Heart Failure (CHF) patients. In conjunction with the funding, Michael Sweeney, Venture Partner at InterWest Partners and former CEO of Epicor and Brian Chee, General Partner, Polaris Venture Partners have joined the Board of Directors.

CHICAGO — Dillon Kane Group LLC, an advisory and private equity firm focused on identifying new technologies for the financial services industry, today announced the creation of an alliance with Cochran, Caronia & Co., an investment banking firm specializing in the insurance industry. As part of this newly-created partnership, Cochran, Caronia & Co. will assist Dillon Kane Group LLC in raising $50 – $100 million for the Dillon Kane Capital Fund I, L.P., a private equity fund established to fund early to mid-stage technology companies serving the financial services arena. This fund is being raised to support effective technological solutions for the financial services industry and to assist in the deployment of this technology to financial services companies. Dillon Kane intends to establish a working roundtable comprised of investors representing separate segments of the financial services industry. Dillon Kane investment partners will have the opportunity to access their unique knowledge repository and gain an unbiased perspective on some of the most difficult problems facing large financial services institutions.

WASHINGTON — On June 26, 2002 in Washington, DC, DRI-WEFA, one of the world’s leading econometric firms, will unveil the results of a year-long study that reveals for the first time the economic impact of the venture capital industry on the US economy. The study will show that venture-backed companies have made an unparalleled contribution to job and revenue growth, innovation, and the US standard of living on both a regional and national basis.

NEWS FROM MONDAY 6/24

SANTA CLARA, CA — Chip Express today announced that it has secured an additional $16 million in venture capital from investment firms and corporate partners. Led by Wasserstein Venture Capital, the funding round included Elron Electronic Industries, Ltd. (NASDAQ: ELRN), Needham Capital Partners, Newlight Associates and Parker Price Venture Capital. UMC (NYSE:UMC), a key manufacturing partner of Chip Express, also participated in this round of funding. To date, the company has raised approximately $44 million.

AUSTIN, TX — Expresiv Technologies Inc. (formerly MD Productivity Inc.), today announced that it has secured $9.8 million in funding. The Series A funding round was led by Polaris Venture Partners and supported by Eaglestone Capital and Independent Bankers Capital, with bridge financing by Eyes of Texas Partners. Expresiv currently develops advanced speech recognition and transcription technology and solutions for the healthcare industry. The company plans to use the investment to support marketing, sales, product development and expansion into new markets.

IRVINE, CA — Alteer Corp., a leading provider of integrated software applications for physician offices, today announced $4.5 million in financing led by Skyline Ventures. Financing was completed earlier this year and included existing investors — Kingsbury Capital Partners, Bluestem Capital and Edgewater Private Equity. As part of this transaction, Stephen J. Sullivan, M.D., Partner, Skyline Ventures, has joined the Alteer board of directors.

BALTIMORE — While many companies are having trouble finding VC firms to even talk to them, Bartech Systems International, the largest provider of automated mini-bars in the world, announced today it has raised an additional $3.5 million in capital for future growth opportunities from a variety of public and private investors.

PRINCETON, NJ — Princeton eCom, a leading provider of electronic billing and payment services, announced today that it had received a $10 million private equity investment from Lazard Technology Partners (LTP), an affiliate of Lazard LLC.

PITTSBURGH — Vivisimo Inc., a global provider of advanced document clustering (automatic categorization) software, announced it will receive a third investment from Innovation Works, a publicly funded venture capital organization. Innovation Works has now invested a total of $500,000 in the Pittsburgh-based company. The funds will be used for aggressive market penetration in 2002: ramping up the sales team, building strategic partnerships, and other business development efforts in both North America and Europe.

MENLO PARK, CA & FAIRFIELD, CT — Francisco Partners, the world’s largest technology buyout fund, today announced a definitive agreement with General Electric Company (NYSE: GE) to acquire GE’s business-to-business (B2B) e-commerce company, GE Global eXchange Services (GXS). The boards of directors of both companies have approved the agreement, and the transaction is expected to close by October 31, 2002. Harvey Seegers, current president and CEO of GE Global eXchange Services, will continue to lead the company, which will become part of the portfolio of technology businesses owned by Francisco Partners. GE will retain a 10% ownership stake in GXS.

BOSTON — Infinity Pharmaceuticals today announced that it has raised $70 million through a private placement of Series B Preferred Stock. Three Crowns Capital served as placement agent, assisting in the arrangement of the Series B financing. The financing was led by Advent Venture Partners (UK), and includes both Series A investors, Venrock Associates and Prospect Venture Partners, and several new leading life science investors — Vulcan Ventures Inc., HBM Bioventure Ltd., Novartis Bioventure Fund, Wellcome Trust Limited, Tallwood L.P., Lotus BioScience Investment Holding and Alexandria Equities, LLC. It also included private investors, Stelios Papadopoulos, Managing Director, SG Cowen and two founders of the company: Infinity CEO Steven Holtzman, and Bowstreet Chairman Frank Moss.

SAN FRANCISCO — Blueprint Ventures announced that Martin Levetin has been named a venture partner with the firm. With an extensive background in communications technology, including wireless, messaging, infrastructure and operational support, Levetin brings more than 30 years of technology leadership experience to Blueprint. Blueprint Ventures is strengthening its team while capitalizing on Levetin’s combination of deep operating and technical experience. Most recently, Levetin was the president and CEO of ShareGate Inc., a company that developed and marketed breakthrough distributed voice and data residential gateways.

SEATTLE — Voyager Capital, Seattle’s leading information technology venture firm, today announced it has moved its Silicon Valley office from Page Mill Road in Palo Alto to 3000 Sand Hill Road in Menlo Park.

ANN ARBOR, MIO — HandyLab, a company that develops microfluidic testing systems for immediate point-of-care diagnosis of infectious disease and genomic identification, announced today that it has completed its Series B funding of $5.5 million with both current and new investors. HandyLab’s first products, now entering pre-clinical trials, are low-cost, disposable genotyping tests for infectious diseases.

Two new investors, SBV Venture Partners and Hewlett-Packard (NYSE:HPQ), joined Series A investors Ardesta, EDF Ventures, the Wolverine Venture Fund, and XR Ventures in this round. All Series A investors increased their investment in HandyLab in this second round. The additional investment will fuel aggressive growth for HandyLab through stepped-up development of new infectious disease and biodefense pathogen detection chips as well as expansion of the management team.

PALO ALTO, CA — Walden International, a leading global venture capital firm, today announced the appointment of Mary Coleman as a general partner. Coleman has more than 25 years of software industry experience and management expertise, which includes having been CEO of two publicly traded software companies. Most recently, Coleman was CEO of Rightworks Corp., an e-commerce software company acquired by I2 Technologies in March 2001. She joined Rightworks from Internet Capital Group, where she had been a managing director focusing on investments in enterprise software and Internet infrastructure.

SARASOTA, FL — Comdial Corp. (Nasdaq: CMDL) announced it has closed on a $2.25 million bridge loan from ComVest Venture Partners LP and Nick Branica, the CEO of the Company, under an agreement which provides for up to $4 million of bridge financing. Proceeds will be used by the company for working capital and to accelerate its development and delivery of its innovative Small and Medium Business (SMB) telephony solutions.

WELLESLEY, MA — The Boston Globe is reporting that Duncan McCallum is leaving One-Liberty Ventures in Cambridge, where he’s been a general partner since 1999, to join Bessemer Venture Partners.

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