Fifty of the Most-Promising Information Technology and Health-Care Start-Ups to Present at the 6th Annual VentureOne Exchange

Business Wire, Sept 30, 2004

BOSTON -- Four unique tracks providing detailed growth strategies for software, communications, life-sciences and start-up companies will be featured at this year's VentureOne Exchange Conference, Oct. 19 and 20, 2004, at the Hilton Boston Logan Airport. The Exchange also will offer presentations from 50 of the most promising entrepreneurial companies, hand-selected by an advisory board of pre-eminent venture capitalists and VentureOne, a unit of Dow Jones Newswires.

Already established among the premier events for networking new venture deals, companies presenting at the Exchange have gone on to attract approximately $700 million in new investment annually since the conference began in 1999.

In addition to showcasing today's most interesting emerging companies, the Exchange will kick off with a panel of top East Coast venture capitalists, highlighting the outlook for start-up companies in 2005. On the panel are: Allan Ferguson, managing director, 3i Group; Dave Furneaux, founder and managing general partner, Kodiak Venture Partners; Sean Dalton, general partner, Highland Capital Partners; and William Seifert, general partner, Prism Venture Partners.

The conference also will feature a special luncheon keynote panel discussion on the return of the Internet and the next wave of viable online business models in areas such as digital media entertainment, contextual advertising and search-engine marketing. Panelists include Bob Davis, general partner, Highland Capital Partners; Michael Yavonditte, chief executive officer, Quigo; Jeffrey Anderson, president and chief executive officer, Turbine Entertainment Software Corp.; and Carl Rosendorf, president and chief executive officer, SmartBargains, Inc.

On the heath-care side, leading investors and corporate executives will discuss the opportunities for partnership with pharmaceutical companies. Featured in this panel are: Dr. Robert Bratzler, president and chief executive officer, Coley Pharmaceutical Group; Joseph S. Mohr, president and chief executive officer, Gloucester Pharmaceuticals; Jean-Pierre Sommadossi, chairman and chief executive officer, Idenix Pharmaceuticals; Steve Elms, managing director, Perseus-Soros Biopharmaceutical Fund; Dianne Hyde Russell, senior vice president and manager, Comerica Bank; and Kingsley L. Taft, partner, Goodwin Procter LLP.

For more information on the VentureOne Exchange, please contact VentureOne at 781-304-1500 or visit its Web site at www.ventureoneexchange.com.

About VentureOne

VentureOne (www.ventureone.com http://www.ventureone.com), a unit of Dow Jones Newswires, has been the leading provider of finance and investment data to the venture capital industry for almost 20 years. VentureSource, a sophisticated electronic database on the venture capital industry, is published by VentureOne.

About Dow Jones Newswires

Dow Jones Newswires (djnewswires.com) offers real-time news and information solutions for financial professionals providing investment, advice and institutional services. The division also offers news for financial firms' Web sites and Dow Jones Financial Information Services' database, newsletter and event businesses. In addition to Dow Jones Newswires, Dow Jones & Company (NYSE:DJ; dj.com) publishes The Wall Street Journal and its international and online editions, Barron's and the Far Eastern Economic Review, Dow Jones Indexes and the Ottaway group of community newspapers. Dow Jones is co-owner with Reuters Group of Factiva, with Hearst of SmartMoney and with NBC Universal of the CNBC television operations in Asia and Europe. Dow Jones also provides news content to CNBC and radio stations in the U.S.