TransMedia Communications Selected as 1999 'Best of Breed' Startup by Industry's Top Venture Capitalists

Business Wire, March 5, 1999

SAN JOSE, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--March 5, 1999--TransMedia Communications, a provider of a new generation of multimedia telecommunications equipment that integrates carriers' Internet/packet and traditional telephony networks, has been selected a 1999 'Best of Breed' venture-backed company by independent research firm VentureOne and its advisory board.

The VentureOne advisory board consists of 55 of the most successful venture capitalists in the industry, as proven by the total equity created by their portfolio companies.

"Following a rigorous two-month nomination and balloting process, TransMedia was selected out of 500 nominated companies based on our advisory board's review of the company's market opportunity, management team, earnings potential, and product quality," said David Witherow, CEO of VentureOne.

As a Best of Breed company, TransMedia's CEO, Gwong-Yih Lee, has been invited to speak at VentureOne's '99 Summit, an invitation-only event held March 24-25 in San Francisco, which brings together the leading venture capitalists, corporate investors, service professionals and members of the media to hear presentations by entrepreneurial companies judged to be the most promising in the Information Technology, Healthcare, and Retail/Consumer segments.

Said Witherow, "The Summit brings together the most outstanding venture-backed companies in each industry, as identified by the most highly qualified professionals in the business: the investors and service providers whose acute judgment has made them the top in their fields. Last year's Best of Breed IT companies included Extreme Networks, Avici Systems, and i-Pass. We're pleased to have TransMedia join this year's winners circle as a 1999 hot company."

Said Gwong-Yih Lee, TransMedia Communications founder and CEO, "We're pleased to be recognized as a leader by this distinguished group, and to be in such good company with the other startups selected. We look forward to 1999 being an exciting year, both for our company as well as for carriers who can now exploit converged Internet and telephony networks to deliver a whole new range of advanced data and voice services."

About TransMedia Communications

TransMedia Communications is delivering a new-generation "media-aware" switch that gives carriers a new edge -- bridging the gap between high-performance Internet/packet (IP/ATM) network and traditional public network communications to provide lower cost services and enable high-impact customer services. TransMedia's intelligent MMS-1600(TM) system provides a flexible, risk-free evolution to new technologies while defining "carrier-class" reliability and management in the new-world carrier network.

The company is backed by leading investment firms Venrock Associates and Brentwood Venture Capital, and has brought together top talent from Nortel Networks (NYSE:NT)/Bay Networks (NYSE:BAY), Cisco (Nasdaq:CSCO), 3Com (Nasdaq:COMS), Trillium, Alteon Networks and Advanced Micro Devices (NYSE:AMD). For more information about TransMedia and its products, please visit www.trsmedia.com, email info@trsmedia.com or call 408/363-8988.

About VentureOne

Founded in 1987, VentureOne Corporation is the leading provider of information and analysis on the venture capital industry. VentureOne tracks venture-backed companies from initial funding to an ultimate liquidity event. The flagship product is VentureSource, an online database containing 10 years of comprehensive information on more than 7,800 companies, 18,000 financing transactions, and 50,000 key executives. VentureOne's clients include the top-tier venture capital firms as well as the major investment banks, accounting practices and law firms serving the venture capital community. For more information about VentureOne and the VentureOne'99 Summit, please visit www.ventureone.com.

Note to Editors: TransMedia Communications, the TransMedia logo and MMS-1600 are trademarks of TransMedia Communications Inc. All other products or brand names are trademarks of their respective companies.