San Francisco (October 14, 1999) - The Walden International ("WI") is pleased to announce the successful initial public offering of one of its portfolio companies, LookSmart, Ltd. The shares of LookSmart began trading on August 20, 1999 on the NASDAQ under the symbol "LOOK". A total of 7.7 million shares were offered at US$12.00 per share, raising approximately US$92.4 million to the Company. The offering was underwritten by Goldman, Sachs & Co., BancBoston Robertson Stephens and Hambrecht & Quist.

LookSmart was founded in Melbourne, Australia in 1995 as HomeBase Directories and subsequently relocated to the United States in 1996. LookSmart is now a leading category-based Internet directory provider that has assembled a huge collection of high quality, granular content on the Internet. The LookSmart directory contains over 800,000 unique URLs in over 60,000 categories, organized in an easy-to-navigate format. LookSmart distributes its proprietary directory to a large number of Internet users through LookSmart-owned Internet properties and through its strategic alliances. Its Internet properties, including looksmart.com, primarily target a focused demographic of female household purchase decision-makers and generate advertising and e-commerce revenues.

LookSmart broadens the reach of the LookSmart directory through syndication and licensing of its content. It currently provides its directory to leading Internet portals, such as the Microsoft Network, Netscape Netcenter, Excite@Home and Alta Vista, and to 220 ISPs, including IBM.net and NetZero. Looksmart has recently moved into the world's top ten web sites - Media Metrix ranked LookSmart at No. 7 with a daily average of 1.5 million unique users in the most recent survey.

Established in 1987, WIG is an international venture capital firm with over US$900 million in funds under management. WI's international network of investment professionals are located in the United States, Singapore, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Malaysia, the People's Republic of China, the Philippines, Thailand, Indonesia, India, and Australia.