THE DEAL SHOWS HOW STRATEGIC ACQUIRERS TAKE ADVANTAGE OF TODAY'S M&A MARKET CONDITIONS

June 9, 2008--New York, N.Y.--As the tight credit markets allow strategic acquirers to surge ahead of private equity investors, The Deal's Corporate Dealmaker shows how they do it. The latest issue of The Deal LLC brand that helps companies succeed in the deal economy debuts today on its rapidly expanding online platform at www.thedeal.com/corporatedealmaker.com and as a magazine report within The Deal newsweekly.

The big merger news these days is coming from strategic acquirers such as Verizon Wireless, J.M. Smucker Co. and InBev SA. Market conditions are in their favor, and as the latest issue of The Deal's Corporate Dealmaker reports, strategic acquirers are well positioned to take advantage. The cover story, "What's it worth to us?" takes readers behind the scenes for a timely look at how companies approach the crucial task of valuing their targets. Corporate Dealmaker editor Ken Klee writes that strategic dealmakers have gotten much better at mapping the synergies and the details that will make a deal work, and using the knowledge to guide their bidding. "So when things get frothy," Klee writes, "they are more likely to bide their time."

A deal that aptly illustrates this strategic approach is Verizon Wireless' $28 billion purchase of Alltel, announced on June 5. Verizon CEO Ivan Seidenberg indicated in a conference call that the 2007 Alltel auction, dominated by financial buyers, became too pricey for Verizon. "Rather than overpaying," Seidenberg said, the company took the risk that "there would be a better day." That better day came last week.

Valuation issues are the theme of two other features as well. "Check your assumptions at the border," by James Marshall and Stamos Nicholas of Deloitte Financial Advisory Services, takes the reader through the challenges of performing valuation work in emerging markets where economies and business practices are less established. "Fairly decent," by senior editor Suzanne Stevens, discusses fairness opinions, the sometimes controversial documents mainly used by boards of selling companies to protect against shareholder lawsuits.

The Corporate Dealmaker Web site, (www.thedeal/corporatedealmaker.com), unveiled a new look, feel and functionality in January, with multiple posts each day that look at developments in the deal world from the corporate point of view. It combines the power of The Deal's online news operation with specialized corporate development knowledge, for a unique take on news, trends and best practices in strategic dealmaking. Featuring videos and links to myriad resources and an archive of magazine articles on how top companies execute deals, it is the most comprehensive resource for the increasingly important in-house deal specialists employed by the largest and most acquisitive companies today.

Along with the new Web site and the quarterly magazine reports, Corporate Dealmaker produces a highly regarded conference series that gathers the top deal executives from some of the world's best-known companies. The next Corporate Dealmaker Forum will take place on October 2 - 3, 2008 in New York City.

About The Deal LLC
The Deal LLC (www.thedeal.com) is a diversified media company that is the authoritative voice of the deal economy. We serve the global deal community-corporate and financial dealmakers, advisers and institutional investors-by providing business and financial news and information that offers fresh insights on the deal economy, a set of interrelated activities, focused on dealmaking of all kinds, whose purpose is to generate corporate growth in a continually changing global market. We offer a comprehensive line of print and electronic products - The Deal, The Daily Deal and TheDeal.com - and live annual events including Private Capital Symposium, Distressed Investing Forum, Corporate Dealmaker Forum and M&A Outlook. The Deal LLC, a privately held company, is owned by private investment funds, including U.S. Equity Partners LP, sponsored by Wasserstein & Co. LP.