Canada NewsWire, Wednesday, July 12th, 2000.

MONTREAL, July 12 /CNW/ - J.L Albright Venture Partners announced today that IBM Canada is investing $5 million in the J.L Albright III Venture Fund as a limited partner. The fund is established to invest in emerging Internet, e-commerce, network and software companies. The two organizations also have a strategic alliance partnership agreement, under which Albright-funded companies will have access to IBM's dedicated relationship and technical managers, co-marketing activities, and competitive special bid pricing for the acquisition of e-business products and services.

"In discussions with IBM, we found that we were both looking at the same kind of companies," said John Albright, who founded J. L. Albright Venture Partners in 1996. "We're both interested in companies that possess the capability of becoming global market leaders. Working in combination to provide capital, management expertise and technology infrastructure, we can increase the value of our investments by propelling these young companies into market leadership positions quickly and effectively."

"This is an important investment for us, central to our business development strategy," said Stephane Boisvert, head of IBM Canada's Net Generation Business unit. "Net-Gen's raison d'etre is to find the best emerging e-businesses in Canada and supply best-in-class hardware, software and services to launch them quickly into a market leadership position. Building relationships with venture capital firms is critical to that mandate."

J. L. Albright Venture Partners invests in emerging Internet, e-commerce, networking and software companies with exceptional prospects for growth, superior technology and a sustainable competitive advantage. Its investments include: The Descartes Systems Group, Pixstream Inc., Servicesoft Inc., Chrysalis-ITS Inc. and Grocery Gateway Inc.

The Partnership's largest limited partner is Sofinov, a wholly owned subsidiary of The Caisse de Depot et placement du Quebec, Canada's largest pension fund manager and one of North America's largest portfolio managers, with assets of more than $100 billion.

About J.L. Albright Venture Partners

Toronto-based J. L. Albright Venture Partners invests in emerging Internet, e-commerce, networking and software companies with exceptional prospects for growth, superior technology and a sustainable competitive advantage. For more information visit www.jlaventures.com.

About IBM

IBM is the world's largest information technology company, and with 80 years of leadership, is helping businesses innovate. IBM creates, develops and manufactures the industry's most advanced information technologies, including computer systems, software, networking systems, storage devices and microelectronics.

IBM develops and delivers products, services and support programs that help companies in the fast-emerging Net Generation marketplace establish their businesses and become profitable. Drawing on resources from across IBM and from the 90,000 IBM Business Partners, IBM's Net Generation Business is helping Internet Service Providers, Web hosting companies, portals and born-on-the-Web companies take advantage of the tremendous business opportunity before them. For more information on how IBM is helping Net Generation companies, visit http://www.ibm.com/solutions/netgeneration.