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Non-Tech : Wit Capital Group Inc - (Nasdaq - WITC) -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: William Miller who wrote (741)	7/27/1999 4:05:00 PM
From: Mohan Marette	Respond to of 845

I doubt we will have the same effect since the outcome is now known,it is the uncertainty that usually spooks the market,then again I could be wrong.

To: William Miller who wrote (741)	7/28/1999 9:51:00 AM
From: Mohan Marette	Respond to of 845

Lycos starts $70 million venture fund By Stephanie Gates Redherring.com July 28, 1999 In what could signal a new role for portal companies, Lycos (Nasdaq: LCOS) is forming a $70 million venture capital fund, Lycos Ventures. The Waltham, Massachusetts-based Internet search and portal site has committed $10 million. Other investors include Mellon Ventures, Triangle Capital, Bear Stearns (NYSE: BSC), Lycos's Korean partner Mirae, Sumitomo Bank (OTC: SUBJY), and Microsoft cofounder Paul Allen's Vulcan Ventures. The general partner of the fund is Lycos Triangle, a Delaware limited liability company formed by Lycos and Triangle Capital. The fund has a broad target: Internet-based startups. "Our sweet spot is any technology that could benefit from a distribution deal with Lycos," says Dennis Ciccone, managing director of Lycos Ventures. The "sweet spot" includes companies in e-commerce, online media, and any developing or using Internet technology, content, or services. Lycos will limit its investments to $5 million per venture. Lycos operates a family of Web sites, including search engine HotBot, news site Wired News, and home-page builder Tripod. Online traffic counter Media Metrix (Nasdaq: MMXI) ranks Lycos fourth among both general Web properties and search sites, in terms of unique visitors. FORMALIZING THE FUND Corporate venture capital funds are usually a means for more established companies to fill their pipeline for technology innovations and potential acquisitions. In the Internet Age, a corporate venture fund can serve as an online keiretsu. "We've been the first company -- formally -- within the portal space to think this venture fund is a reasonable thing to do," claims Mr. Ciccone, who had been CEO of WiseWire until it was acquired by Lycos last year. The concept for the venture fund grew out of Mr. Ciccone's work. "Through the past one-and-a-half years, I've been heading up M&A for Lycos," he says. "[The fund] was really a way of formalizing an investment strategy." During his stint at Lycos, the company made a variety of minority investments in both private and public companies, such as online investment bank Wit Capital (Nasdaq: WITC) and online email service Mail.com (Nasdaq: MAIL). EXPERIENCED HANDS Mellon Ventures, an affiliate of Mellon Bank (NYSE: MEL), invested in Lycos Ventures because "it was a perfect combination," says Lawrence Mock, president of Mellon Ventures. Mr. Ciccone and his investment team had the operational experience, Mr. Mock says, and Triangle Capital has the venture capital experience. The strategic relationship is important to Mellon Ventures, which invests both directly and in other private equity funds. Mellon has its own Internet fund called NetWorth Partners. Besides, "we had invested with Dennis before in WiseWire and we liked what he did," adds Mr. Mock. CONFLICTING INTERESTS All of the fund's partners are interested in coinvesting, Mr. Ciccone says. "It is a very deep-pocketed consortium of companies that can help our portfolio companies further down the road," he explains. What about a potential conflict of interests between the fund's investors, who are primarily return-driven, and the strategic motives of Lycos? That's not an issue, according to Mr. Ciccone. "In the fund's documents, there are a lot of checks and balances" designed to avoid a conflict of interest, he says. He declined to elaborate on the specifics of the checks and balances. The fund will be structured as a traditional venture capital fund. That means general partner Lycos Triangle Partners will get 20 percent of the fund's profits, while the other investors will split the remaining 80 percent. Mr. Ciccone also remained mum about his exact portion of the profits. redherring.com