Boston Ventures Management, Inc. Appoints Barry Baker, Former President and COO of USA Networks, Inc., Managing Director and Venture Partner.

Business, Entertainment & Finance Editors

BOSTON--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Oct. 3, 2000

Baker to Join $1.2 Billion Investment Fund

Boston Ventures Management, Inc. today announced that Barry Baker, former President and Chief Operating Officer of USA Networks, Inc., has been named Managing Director and Venture Partner.

As Managing Director, Mr. Baker will assume senior responsibility, participating in all of Boston Ventures' investment activities. Additionally, as a Venture Partner, Baker will provide hands-on operating management of some portfolio companies as CEO/Executive Chairman, and he will directly participate in those portfolio companies' operations. Effective immediately, Baker will become a general partner in Boston Ventures Fund VI, the firm's new $1.2 billion fund.

Started in 1983, Boston Ventures is one of the oldest U.S. private equity firms. Four of the five founding partners are still active in the firm and there are a total of 15 investment professionals. The investment firm focuses on companies involved in communications, media, and leisure activities. Boston Ventures' portfolio has included investments in companies such as News Corporation, National Law Review, Continental Cablevision, Panavision, Billboard Communications, Sygnet and MetroRED. Each of the firm's initial funds has shown a gross IRR in excess of 20% and all but one reached or exceeded 30%.

"Boston Ventures' history of success in adding value to portfolio companies, from Six Flags and Saga Communications to American Media and Motown Records, makes them an impressive, irresistible firm with which to join forces," said Barry Baker. "This opportunity will provide me with a chance to develop and direct initiatives of my own as part of an established and savvy team of investors."

"Barry is very well known to the partners of Boston Ventures, having worked closely with him since the early 1990s in River City Broadcasting," said Richard Wallace, Senior Managing Partner at Boston Ventures. "Barry's addition will serve to further distinguish Boston Ventures in the entertainment and media industries and enhance our ability to identify attractive investment opportunities and provide experienced, active management. Barry's operational track record is unsurpassed in many of the fields in which we invest," Wallace added.

Most recently, Barry Baker served as President and Chief Operating Officer of USA Networks, Inc. He was also a member of the Executive Committee and the Office of the Chairman, and held a seat on the Board of Directors. While at USA Networks, Inc., Baker led all 9 operating divisions, many of which were global, including 29 profit centers in old and new media. Before joining USAi, Mr. Baker served as Chief Executive Officer/Designate of Sinclair Communications where he ran a business of 64 television and 54 radio stations in 28 states. In late 1989, Mr. Baker founded River City Broadcasting with $5.5 million of seed capital and six years later engineered the sale of River City's assets to Sinclair Broadcast Group for $1.2 billion. Prior to this, Mr. Baker managed radio start-ups in Houston and St. Louis. In 1983, he became General Manager of KPLR-TV in St. Louis and was promoted to a group executive's position with the station's parent company in 1984. Mr. Baker began his broadcasting career in 1975 as Marketing Director of Upstate Cablevision in Syracuse, New York.

Mr. Baker has served on numerous industry boards. He was Chairman of the Television Bureau of Advertising from 1995-1997, the industry's leading trade and sales organization. He also served on the FOX Affiliate Board of Governors, where he chaired the Ownership Committee, the ABC Affiliate Board of Governors, and the Association of Local Television Stations (ALTV). In 1998 he was appointed to the National Association of Television Program Executives (NATPE) Board of Directors. The following year he was appointed to the Board of Directors of the Ad Council.

In 1999 he joined the Board of Directors of publicly traded Ticketmaster-Citysearch (Nasdaq: TMCS) and the Hotel Reservations Network (Nasdaq: ROOM). iBeam (Nasdaq: IBEM) and the Production Resource Group added him to their boards as an outside director in 2000. Mr. Baker attended Syracuse University, where he currently serves on the Newhouse School of Communication Advisory Board and is a guest lecturer.