San Diego – January 4, 2000 - PlacementTracker.com, the only site for Research, Reporting & Analysis on Private Placements by Public Companies, today announced that it is launching PlacementWatch, a free e-mail notification service that automatically informs site members every time a public company on their watch list closes a private placement financing. Members can choose to be notified for specific companies or for all of the companies within a specific industry.

The PlacementTracker.com online Research, Reporting & Analysis Site can be found at www.placementtracker.com. PlacementTracker.com is a service of DirectPlacement.com, Inc. of La Jolla, CA.

Brian M. Overstreet, President of DirectPlacement.com stated, "PlacementWatch is a service that we have always envisioned offering to our members and we are very pleased that the system is now operational. We firmly believe that all investors are entitled to the same information as corporate or institutional investors and with PlacementWatch our members can now stay constantly informed about the private placement financings undertaken by their companies. This service is particularly important for investors when PlacementTracker.com reports on a private placement transaction before the company publicly announces it, as we did twice in the last week of December."

Robert F. Kyle, Vice President of DirectPlacement.com added, "PlacementTracker.com’s mission is to educate and inform investors about private placement financing. PlacementWatch once again demonstrates our commitment to level the investment playing field. We remain committed to building the predominant online destination for private placement information and look forward to launching more free content and services on the site in the near future."

PlacementTracker.com is one component of the DirectPlacement.com online portal. DirectPlacement.com was founded in March 1999 to provide an online forum for public companies to directly access the private equity market. The full DirectPlacement.com site will be launched in the first quarter of 2000.

Press Contact:
Brian M. Overstreet
+1 (858) 623-1600
+1 (858) 623-1601 (FAX)