| AutoNation | The largest automotive retailer in the United States. NYSE - AN |
| Blockbuster Entertainment | Nation's leading home video retailer. NYSE - BB |
| Gerald Stevens | Nation's leading retailer of flowers and floral gifts. |
| Hungry Minds | Internet based learning portal. Sold to Thomson Interactive. |
| MetaExchange | ASP enabling any commodity to be traded on an exchange. |
| Pivotal Fitness | Developer, operator and franchisor of full-service health and fitness clubs in mid-sized markets. |
| Reel.com | Leading Internet retailer of movies. Sold to Hollywood Video (WLLY) |
| Women First Healthcare | Internet community and e-commerce site on women's health. Nasdaq - WFHC |
AutoNation
Fort Lauderdale, FL
www.autonation.com
AutoNation, Inc. is the largest automotive retailer in the United States. We own and operate more than 400 vehicle franchises from dealership locations in 26 major metropolitan markets in 19 states, predominantly in the Sunbelt. In 1998, Fortune magazine named AutoNation. the fastest-growing company in America. The Company entered the Fortune 500 list at number 151 in 1998, jumped to 83rd in 1999 and improved again to 63rd in the 2000, with over $20 billion in revenue. AutoNation was recently rated #1 Most Admired Company in the automotive category on the Fortune 500 list.
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Blockbuster Entertainment
Dallas, TX
www.blockbuster.com
Calypso easily enables users to create contextual shopping based web pages and receive an affiliate fee (rebate) from merchants for every product purchased through the site. The company's wizard-based platform allows anyone, including computer novices, to create home-pages that can feature a mix of images, text and products for sale. More importantly, the fees due to home page owners are paid immediately via the Calypso stored-value card that may be used anywhere credit cards are accepted, including online and offline merchants. Customers of Calypso include individuals, associations or organizations looking for fund-raising alternatives, and web-based companies seeking a unique home-page alternative. Calypso was founded by former executives from AOL and is one of the first companies involving AOL alumni to receive funding from AOL Ventures.
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Gerald Stevens
Fort Lauderdale, FL - (NASDAQ - GIFT)
www.geraldstevens.com
Gerald Stevens is the nation's leading branded retailer of flowers and floral related gifts. The company is one of the first truly integrated retailers that combines a network of physical stores, the internet, catalog, and 800#'s to control all channels through which customers buy flowers. Additionally, the company has vertically integrated by owning an import operation and maintaining long-term supply agreements with farms around the world.
New River has been involved with the company since inception. We worked with senior management to write the business plan, assemble the management team and spearhead a merger with a strategic public company. In addition, we provided the initial funding, and continue to advise the company on several major acquisitions and Internet relationships. New River has two representatives on the Gerald Stevens Board of Directors and maintains a significant equity interest.
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Hungry Minds
San Francisco, CA
www.HungryMinds.com
Hungry Minds is a web-based learning portal and cyber-college that enables students to take Web-based courses on anything from Internet-related professional development topics to lifestyle and continuing education. The classes leverage the flexibility of the Internet, allowing students to customize each course for their own personal learning experience. Hungry Minds "university" is geared towards the adult education distance learning market. Unlike traditional colleges and other distance-learning centers that primarily cut and paste classroom curricula onto the Internet, Hungry Minds produces, aggregates and tailors content to maximize the functionality of the Internet.
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MetaExchange
Emeryville, CA
www.metaexchange.com
MetaExchange is a "stock exchange" enabler for any product that can be "commoditized". Unlike auctions that have a time based component, MetaExchange trading pits "clear" orders whenever all the specified criteria match (price, shipping terms, etc.). The founders have launched with a selective number of collectible products, but is branching out into consumer electronics and other markets. The founders of MetaExchange have substantial experience in stock exchange software and parallel computer processing from time at Lawrence Livermore Labs and other employers.
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Pivotal Health and Fitness
Pivotal Health and Fitness, LLC (the "Company" or "Pivotal") was formed to develop, operate and franchise full-service health and fitness clubs in mid-sized markets ("B" markets). The Company plans to establish Pivotal® as one of the most recognized and respected brands in the fitness industry through the development of state-of-the-art health clubs ("Centers") in underserved markets primarily in the eastern portion of the United States.
Pivotal's services are offered in clean, large, modern facilities conveniently located to local residents and complete with a full range of the latest strength and cardiovascular equipment. By virtue of the Company's real estate strategy, these Centers are typically three-to-five times the size of other health clubs in the local market. Management believes this incremental square footage is a competitive advantage that addresses one of the principal complaints of health club members by limiting equipment wait-times and by providing members timely access to a broader and more complete range of equipment.
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Reel.com
Sunnyvale, CA - (NASDAQ - HLYW)
www.Reel.com
Reel.com is the leading Internet retailer of movies. The company was founded in 1996 by Stuart Skorman, former owner of one of the nation's most successful video store chains, and quickly established itself as the premier video web site by providing highly differentiated and engaging movie information. Additionally, the company recognized the opportunity to create a new brand and partnered with other leading entertainment web sites to provide them an e-commerce solution. Hollywood Entertainment, the nation's 2nd largest video retailer, purchased Reel.com in July 1998 for $100 million in cash and stock. Tom Byrne was a founding investor in Reel.com and New River invested along side CMGI, Intel, Allen & Co. and Bessemer Ventures in a later round.
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Women First Healthcare
San Diego, CA - (NASDAQ - WFHC)
www.womenfirst.com
Women First is dedicated to improving the health of women in midlife, physically and emotionally, by offering a broad array of pharmaceutical and self-care products, educational programs and support systems that help women manage the transition through midlife. The company provides balanced, credible content (medical information) and products in a manner designed to support the partnership between a woman and her clinician.
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