CMG@Ventures III Closes At $272 Million; Limited Partners Include Microsoft Corp., Vulcan Ventures, KingWorld Productions, BancBoston Capital, and LVMH Moet Hennessy Louis Vuitton

Business Wire, Dec 17, 1998

ANDOVER, Mass.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Dec. 17, 1998--CMGI (NASDAQ:CMGI) today announced the close of @Ventures III. @Ventures III, the largest of the CMG-related venture funds to date, exceeded early targets to reach $272 million in capital committed. In keeping with CMGI's core business focus, @Ventures III will focus exclusively on investments in emerging Internet services and technologies.

Fueled by significant demand from outside venture funds and corporations, @Ventures III represents the first fund for which CMGI has accepted outside investors. Limited partners in the new fund span geographically, including North America, Europe and Asia, and across industry segments, including media, entertainment, software and hardware, financial services, real estate, cable, pharmaceuticals, fashion, and the Internet. A partial list of investors joining the fund as limited partners includes Microsoft Corp., Vulcan Ventures, KingWorld Productions, BancBoston Capital, LVMH Moet Hennessy Louis Vuitton, Sumitomo Corporation, Onex Corporation and JAFCO America Ventures.

As a limited partner, CMGI has committed to contribute 19.9% or $54.1 million of the total @Ventures III fund. CMGI will co-invest side by side with @Ventures III through the entity CMG@Ventures III.

"The successful close of @Ventures III, and particularly the diversity of partners included in this new fund, is a testament to the success of our earlier investments," said David Wetherell, Chairman and CEO, CMGI. "Equally important for our future growth is the extension to our network of relationships built through this new fund."

As previously announced, @Ventures III has already completed strategic investments in Ancestry.com, (http://www.ancestry.com), the Internet's leading commercial service for genealogy research and family publishing, Raging Bull (http://www.ragingbull.com), a fast-growing financial message boards service, and Virtual Ink (http://www.virtualink.com), an emerging provider of Digital Meeting Assistant(TM) technologies. Additional investments are now in negotiations and will be announced as completed.

CMG@Ventures is one of the Internet's leading venture capital funds, with a proven track record of successful liquidity events benefiting both investors and shareholders. In 1998 alone, CMG@Ventures completed nine new investments and realized four significant liquidity events including the successful IPO of GeoCities (GCTY), the sale of PlanetAll to Amazon.com (AMZN), the sale of Reel.com to Hollywood Entertainment (HLWY), and the sale of Ikonic to USWeb (USWB).

About CMGI

A recognized leader in the Internet arena, CMGI (NASDAQ:CMGI) combines venture investment with Internet operating companies to create a broad and diverse portfolio of businesses delivering innovative Internet solutions. Microsoft, Intel and Sumitomo hold minority positions in CMGI.

The CMGI Internet Group consists of its majority-owned subsidiary companies Planet Direct, NaviSite, NaviNet, Engage Technologies, ADSmart, and The Password, as well as a minority investment in Magnitude Network.

The company's CMG@Ventures investment affiliates have ownership interests in Lycos, Inc. (NASDAQ:LCOS), blaxxun, GeoCities (NASDAQ:GCTY), Vicinity, Parable, KOZ, Silknet, Chemdex, Speech Machines, Softway Systems, TicketsLive, Critical Path, Mother Nature, Raging Bull, Universal Learning Technology, Virtual Ink, Ancestry.com, and Visto. CMGI also includes CMG Direct, SalesLink, InSolutions and On-Demand Solutions as wholly owned subsidiaries in the direct marketing, fulfillment and turn-key arenas.

Corporate headquarters is located at 100 Brickstone Square, Andover, MA 01810. Telephone: 978-684-3600. Fax: 978-684-3814. Additional information is available on the company's Web site, http://www.cmgi.com.