LinkGuard Funded to Map Internet's Infrastructure; Questor-Led Venture Capital Syndicate Provides $8 million for Generation and Maintenance of LinkMap.

Business Editors/High-Tech Writers

MAIDENHEAD, United Kingdom--(BUSINESS WIRE)--June 16 2000

LinkGuard, a company set to eradicate broken page-links from the Internet with its unique Intelligent Link Management technology, announced today that it has raised $8 million from a syndicate of venture capital investors, led by Quester, and including Initiative & Finance and Natexis Investissement of Paris, GE Equity, and NewMedia SPARK, who had provided LinkGuard with first-round funding.

The Problem of Broken Links: Or LinkRot is estimated to affect over 25% of all web pages. With the average life of a web page now down to only 44 days and with over 20 million new page-links being added each day, it is has become impossible to track links manually. LinkGuard has developed patented technology that automatically detects, reports, bypasses and prevents broken links found on the Internet and Intranets.

The Unique Ability to Repair Broken Links: In addition to automatically identifying and bypassing Broken Links, LinkGuard uniquely provides the ability to repair broken links. This protection is effective for both outbound and inbound links to ensure a LinkRot-free website. The technology is based around LinkGuard's LinkMap -- a highly distributed, dynamic, constantly-refreshed repository of all the links on the Internet.

Franck Jeannin, CEO and founder of LinkGuard, said "I am delighted to have such a strong venture capital team investing in LinkGuard and I am pleased to welcome Simon Acland of Quester to the LinkGuard Board. This round of funding will allow us to confirm our position as the only provider of a dynamic solution to the problem of broken links and to push forward with our new generation of products."

Simon Acland, Director of Quester, said, "All web users are aware of the frustration caused by the error message "404; page not found" that identifies a broken link on the web. However, with billions of web links being broken, there are clearly huge impacts on productivity, damage to brands and reputations and, potentially, loss of e-commerce revenues. LinkGuard's patented technology provides a very exciting and world leading tool against this enormous problem and I am very proud that the company asked Quester to lead this round of funding."

Sherwood Dodge, Managing Director of GE Equity Europe said, "We believe that the LinkGuard solution will be of enormous value to companies that manage large websites, not only in Europe, but also on a global basis. We will be actively promoting the product range within GE Capital going forward."

About LinkGuard: LinkGuard was founded by Franck Jeannin in 1999, after he left his role as Technical Director (EMEA) at Business Objects. LinkGuard is the first company to recognize the enormous impact of broken page-links on e-business and focuses on the automatic detection, reporting, bypass, prevention and, uniquely, the repair of broken links found on the Internet and Intranets. LinkGuard received first-round funding from NewMedia SPARK in 1999. LinkGuard's corporate Web site can be found at http://www.linkguard.com.

About Quester: Quester is an independent venture capital firm which invests funds raised from institutions and individuals in private companies. Both its institutional funds and its venture capital trusts have strong track records. They focus particularly on growth companies in sectors such as information technology, software, telecoms, new media, leisure, healthcare and life sciences.

Quester was founded in 1984 and has funds under management of over 200 million pounds. These include three venture capital trusts -- Quester VCT plc, Quester VCT 2 plc and Quester VCT 3 plc -- the University Challenge Funds for Oxford and Bath and Bristol Universities, the Isis College Fund, focused on technology companies emerging from Oxford University, and the CGU e-commerce fund aimed at investing in financial services companies. Quester's website is at: http://www.quester.co.uk.

About GE Equity: GE Equity is one of the leading providers of equity capital to growing companies across continental Europe. It has $1 billion a year available to invest in growth capital, replacement or secondary capital, buy-outs and buys-ins. Headquartered in London, it has offices in Italy, Warsaw and Frankfurt. GE Equity's website is at http://www.geequity.com.

GE Capital, with assets of more than $345 billion, is a global, diversified financial services company with 28 specialized businesses. A wholly owned subsidiary of General Electric Company, GE Capital, based in Stamford, CT, provides equipment management, mid-market and specialized financing, specialty insurance and a variety of consumer services, such as car leasing, home mortgages and credit cards, to businesses and individuals around the world. GE is a diversified manufacturing, technology and services company with operations worldwide.

About NewMedia SPARK plc: NewMedia SPARK, listed on the London Stock Exchange's Alternative Investment Market, is one of Europe's leading listed technology and Internet investment companies.

SPARK is building a portfolio of investments in early-stage companies in the UK, Scandinavia and elsewhere in Europe and the United States. Based principally in London and Stockholm, SPARK has one of the largest and most experienced teams in Europe, with skills ranging from investment banking to active involvement in the formation and running of new media companies. SPARK's portfolio spans the following sectors -- Internet transaction platforms, Interactive entertainment, Wireless infrastructure and applications, Web infrastructure tools, Internet content and commerce.