THE DEAL LLC ANNOUNCES WINNERS OF THE MOST ADMIRED CORPORATE DEALMAKERS AWARDS

Awards recognize companies that have done the best work in strategic M&A in three sectors: healthcare, industrials and information technology

November 12, 2008--NEW YORK, N.Y.--The Deal LLC, (www.TheDeal.com), the authoritative voice for news, analysis and information on the global deal economy, today announces the winners of the inaugural Most Admired Corporate Dealmakers Awards. Winners were selected in three industry sectors in a survey of The Deal's readers, conducted by Guideline Inc., based upon their excellence in conceiving and executing transactions worldwide.

Companies recognized for making the most effective use of transactional tools include Abbott Laboratories in healthcare, General Electric in industrials and Cisco Systems Inc. in information technology. Runner-ups include Johnson & Johnson in healthcare and Oracle in information technology. Award winners were recognized today at a luncheon ceremony co-hosted by Kenneth Klee, editor of The Deal's Corporate Dealmaker and Brian Sullivan, anchor for Fox Business Network at the M&A Outlook 2009 conference (see related release).

"These award results are a testament that transactional skills are more important than ever in the corporate world," said Kenneth Klee, editor of The Deal's Corporate Dealmaker. "Current market conditions are challenging, but companies remain committed to dealmaking as a strategic tool. Many are taking advantage of the current financial turmoil to improve their deal teams. Our readers responded enthusiastically to the survey and identified leaders in dealmaking."

Companies considered for the awards survey were those with a market cap of $5 billion or more as of June 30, 2008. The Deal, along with data partner Capital IQ, the leader in web-based professional financial information services, then screened for the companies in each sector that closed the highest number and dollar value of acquisitions and divestitures in the past three years. The selection formula also recognized companies for doing a high dollar volume of deals compared to their market capitalizations on the start date.

After the initial pool of candidates was determined by Capital IQ, editors at The Deal reviewed each company's transaction lists and checked them against The Deal Pipeline, (www.thedeal.com/pipeline), a deal discovery and sourcing database, to narrow the list to thirty major companies.

The Deal's readers--transaction-focused corporate executives, financiers, investors and advisers--then determined the winners. With the assistance of survey partner, Guideline Inc., readers were asked to rate each company on four criteria: choice of targets and strategy; price paid (or received) compared to value; execution, including integration; and overall quality of the deal team.

An article detailing the Most Admired Corporate Dealmakers study, along with data on the deals done by the candidate companies, appeared in the September 22-28 issue of The Deal magazine, and online at www.thedeal.com/corporatedealmaker. A second article, announcing the winners, will be published in both The Deal and online, on December 1.

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.

About Capital IQ and Standard & Poor's
Capital IQ, a division of Standard & Poor's, provides high-impact information and workflow solutions to over 2,400 leading financial institutions, advisory firms, and corporations. Its solutions are based on the Capital IQ Platform, a unique combination of global private and public capital market data and technology that enables end-users to draw deep market insights, generate better ideas, leverage relationships, and simplify workflow. Clients can deploy the Capital IQ Platform either as a standalone solution or seamlessly integrate its components into existing business applications and portals via systems integration and data feeds. For more information, please visit Capital IQ's web site at www.capitaliq.com.