NEW YORK, NY -- (MARKET WIRE) -- 04/26/2005 -- WhenU.com Inc., a leading provider of software-based contextual online advertising, announced today that it secured $20 million of Series A equity from ABS Capital Partners, a leading private equity firm focused on investing in established and profitable growth companies. The investment will be used to expand the sales and marketing force, acquire new distribution channels, continue software development and provide working capital. Ralph Terkowitz, a general partner at ABS Capital Partners, former CEO of WashingtonPost.com and current vice-Chairman of TrustE, had previously joined WhenU's Board of Directors in October 2004.

"We are pleased to add ABS Capital as our partner," said Bill Day, CEO of WhenU since October 2004 and former CEO and Co-Founder of About.com. "Ralph Terkowitz is an experienced leader in privacy policy and media development and has a proven and successful track record as an investor with leading technology (media) companies such as Junglee, Exchange.com and Personalogic. He has been an invaluable partner for WhenU, bringing extensive knowledge and guidance that has been highly beneficial to our growth over the past six months. We are happy that the relationship has resulted in an investment from ABS."

Analysts predict that more than half of Internet-based content and advertising will be delivered via software applications that are independent of browsers. Desktop software-based advertising is expected to emulate the growth of paid search advertising, which grew from 4% of the online advertising market in 2000 to 29% of the market in 2003, and exceeded $3.5 billion in 2004.

"Given the complexity of the industry and some of the negative perceptions surrounding adware, we were interested in backing only a company that had the highest standards and was a thought leader on emerging best practices. We took the unusual approach of joining the Board before we decided to invest in WhenU," noted Mr. Terkowitz. "Through our participation on the Board, we were able to bring in reputable privacy and technology experts to audit WhenU. Our intensive due diligence confirmed that the company is the clear standards leader in its field, and has developed a robust proprietary technology platform that provides highly targeted advertising in a uniquely privacy-protective manner. Under Bill Day's leadership, WhenU has taken the right actions to move the industry and the company forward. More importantly, we believe that WhenU will be a leading media company as advertisers increasingly shift more of their budgets online."

WhenU's suite of innovative products includes adware, toolbars and deskbars and integrated contextual engines that power other software applications. WhenU's products are designed to deliver greater value and choice to consumers and enhance the online shopping experience. Each product comes with easy instructions on how to download the software safely onto a computer, what to expect, as well as how to uninstall it. All products also come with WhenU's privacy guarantee, which states that the company does not track individual user data, use cookies, track clickstream data, or engage in any type of user profiling.

Headquartered in New York City, WhenU's unique advertising technology applies precision logic at the desktop level. WhenU software examines keywords, URLs and search terms in use on the opted-in consumer's browsers and then presents highly relevant advertising and services. WhenU accomplishes this in a fundamentally unique manner, keeping all user personally identified information encrypted on the user's computer and avoiding collecting any browsing data -- even anonymously -- about individual users. For more information please visit http://www.whenu.com.

ABS Capital Partners is a private equity firm that was founded in 1990 to invest in mid- to later-stage growth companies in order to create significant, market-leading companies. The firm's investment strategy focuses on companies in the healthcare, technology, business services and media and communications sectors. Its investment professionals partner with strong management teams to help build businesses with substantial revenues, near-term profitability and solid customer bases. The firm has created long-term value for management and investors. ABS Capital Partners leverages over 100 years of combined investing and operating experience among its partners and provides a range of investment structures, including expansion financings, management buyouts and recapitalizations. With an extensive history and knowledge of equity and mergers and acquisitions markets, ABS Capital Partners provides strategic guidance and helps companies to capitalize on their business opportunities. ABS Capital Partners has $1.5 billion under management and nine investing partners within offices in Baltimore, San Francisco and Boston. Over the past twelve years, ABS Capital Partners has backed industry leaders including AMISYS Managed Care Systems Corporation (now McKesson Corporation), American Radio Systems Corp, Corporate Express, Inc. (a Buhrmann company), DoubleClick, Inc., OTG Software, Inc. (now Legato Systems, Inc.), @Road, Inc. and Transition Systems, Inc. (now Eclipsys Corp.) Additional information can be found at: www.abscapital.com.