THEDEAL.COM INTRODUCES DEAL FOCUS, A YEAR-IN-REVIEW DATABASE ENABLING USERS TO TRACK DETAILS OF 2002's M&A DEALS

December 17, 2002--New York, N.Y.--The Deal (www.TheDeal.com), the online hub serving the deal community, today unveiled its latest editorial feature - a 2002 year-in-review database of M&A deals, called Deal Focus.

Deal Focus offers data and characteristics on middle-market to major M&A deals, covered by The Deal, The Daily Deal and TheDeal.com over the past year. Searching Deal Focus provides users with links to all relevant articles published by media company The Deal, LLC, assisting users to spot trends and analyze the past year's transactions. The service is currently available to registered TheDeal.com subscribers.

"Deal Focus gives our users a fast and efficient database for investigating the past year's M&A transactions." said Kevin Worth, president and publisher of The Deal. "This online editorial enhancement strengthens our commitment to serve up relevant and timely electronic services that members of the deal community have come to rely on. The Deal continues to invest in its electronic media businesses and has increased its subscribers by more than 150%."

An annual subscription to TheDeal.com costs $189 and gives subscribers full access to breaking e-mail alerts and daily news updated throughout the day, Web-only columns, The Deal's commentary, special reports and archives. Among the advantages shared by TheDeal.com users is the ability to obtain previews to the stories that appear in The Daily Deal newspaper the next day or the articles and columns running in The Deal, the newsweekly introduced this fall, every week.

Deal Focus also offers advertisers online sponsorship opportunities that can be combined with specific year-end round up issues of the newsweekly, The Deal. The Deal issue on Dec. 23 issue will carry numerous features that look back at the year's more interesting deals and dealmakers across key sectors, while the newsweekly's January 27 issue will be the annual Deals of the Year issue that will analyze the most significant deals that took place in 2002, supported by abundant statistics.

About The Deal
The Deal is a diversified media company dedicated to providing must-read financial news, commentary, data and services to corporate and financial dealmakers, their advisers and investors worldwide. Through The Deal, The Daily Deal, TheDeal.com and Corporate Control Alert, the company gathers, reports and disseminates information that offers a detailed look at transactions, industry sectors and financial services, along with the personalities and players who are the central figures driving change in the global economy. Investors in The Deal, a privately held company, include majority owner U.S. Equity Partners, a private investment fund sponsored by Wasserstein & Co. LP, and Rustic Canyon Ventures, one of the largest venture capital funds in Southern California.