RSS Investors Announces Creation of $100 Million Technology Fund; Leading Technology Experts, Internet Pioneers and Venture Capitalists to Support RSS-Related Internet Technology Companies

CAMBRIDGE, Mass.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--June 30, 2005--RSS Investors, LP, today announced the creation of the first investment fund specializing in companies based on the Really Simple Syndication (RSS) family of standards and services. This technology includes OPML and the newly proposed Microsoft extensions to RSS and is rapidly becoming integral to the next generation of Internet technology. The fund, created by Jim Moore, John Palfrey, Richard Fishman, and Steve Smith and Tom Crowley (representing Ritchie Capital Management), will focus on supporting and nurturing the technologies and leaders who are championing RSS-related technologies, including news aggregation, blogs and new classes of search engines. In addition to examining technologies that utilize RSS for news aggregation, RSS Investors will strongly pursue RSS applications that aggregate data, particularly in the financial and medical industries.

"RSS is emerging as the next great tool in the spread of information and ultimately freedom: freedom of expression, freedom of communication and freedom of information," said Jim Moore, RSS Investors partner. "The Internet is the driving force behind the invention of new forms of communication enabling instantaneous personal dialogue across the globe. Like a mind constituted of millions of inter-networked neurons, the participants in this exchange of information are capable of astonishingly rapid and sometimes subtle community consciousness and action. The evolution of these communities has already had a profound effect on the media, professions and enterprises."

Increasingly, individuals are connecting on a global level due, primarily, to the Internet and new communication tools like RSS and blogs. For the first time in history, people who share points of view can communicate around the world in real-time to exchange and build ideas. Recognizing the economic opportunities growing from the next generation of Internet tools, the mission of RSS Investors is to support the growth of these borderless communities built on collective thoughts and goals.

Jim Moore is a noted technology expert who was the first to identify the significance of business ecosystems in the development of new markets, summarized in a variety of writings including "Predator and Prey: A new ecology of competition" (Harvard Business Review). John Palfrey is an authority on the use of the Internet to champion global freedom of expression. He directs the leading Internet and society think-tank and teaches Internet law. Steve Smith is currently responsible for the global venture and private equity business at Ritchie Capital Management, L.L.C., the lead investor in the fund. Both Smith and Tom Crowley, also at Ritchie Capital, have extensive experience in GE's process disciplines from running GE Equity's Internet and Telecommunications portfolio. Richard Fishman is a successful venture capitalist most recently heading technology investing for MacAndrews & Forbes Group, Inc.