eStara, the Voice of eBusiness, Receives $15 Million in Financing

November 1, 2000 Reston, Va. - eStara Inc., a developer of live web voice solutions for eBusiness, today announced it has closed $15 million in second round funding. Banc One Venture Partners led the financing round. A Texas Pacific Group affiliate and J Net Venture Partners I also participated in the round.

"eStara was formed last year to give eBusinesses the power to talk directly to their customers live over the Internet, to close more online sales and boost customer service," said Tom Natelli, eStara's Co-Founder, Chairman and CEO. "eStara's ability to attract such high quality investors reflects the company's success in achieving this goal. To date we've recruited top-flight talent, created an unrivaled web voice product and started implementing eStara solutions for name brand customers," he added.

eStara will use proceeds from this financing round to expand the roll-out of its OneClick Contact^sm web voice product suite, fund additional technology development, expand the company's marketing and sales talent and augment its corporate infrastructure.

"eStara has developed the first high quality, voice over the Internet (VoIP) solutions truly ready for eBusiness implementation," said Burt McGillivray, a partner at Banc One Venture Partners. "Banc One is extremely pleased to contribute its energy, technological expertise and financial capital to help eStara continue to reach the highest level of execution in the web voice marketplace," he added.

eStara Welcomes Three New Board Members Burt McGillivray, a Partner at Banc One Venture Partners; David Coxe, Special Limited Partner, Banc One Venture Partners and President and CEO of Tech Horizons; and Keith Meister, Co-President of J Net Enterprises, have joined Thomas Natelli, eStara's Chairman, Co-Founder and CEO; Chris Gibbons, eStara's Chief Technology Officer and Executive Vice President, formerly CIO of Microsoft Corp.; David Bonderman General Partner & Founder, Texas Pacific Group; and Bruce Wardinski, Chairman, President & CEO, Crestline Capital on eStara's Board of Directors.

About eStara eStara gives the power of voice to eBusiness with a simple online solution: point, click, talk. Its Internet telephony solutions humanize the web experience, helping eBusinesses attract customers and close sales in real-time. eStara provides instant clear voice connections that integrate seamlessly into web sites, ad banners, email and search engine links. Based in Reston, VA, eStara can be reached at www.estara.com.

Banc One Venture Partners is the private equity investment group of BANK ONE CORP. (NYSE: ONE), the nation's fourth largest bank holding company, with assets of more than $270 billion. Founded in 1958, Banc One Venture Partners is among the largest and oldest institutional private equity investors in the world and is a leading acquirer of corporate divisions and subsidiaries. It also builds existing portfolio companies in targeted industries, including communications, business services, and industrial technology. Since 1995, the company has made acquisitions totaling more than $500 million.

About J Net Enterprises
J Net Enterprises, Inc. (NYSE:J) is a technology holding company with concentrated investments in leading enterprise software and Internet infrastructure companies. Through J Net Ventures I, the Company manages its own and third party capital in excess of $75 million. Investors in J Net Ventures I include Gilbert Global Equity, a leading private equity partnership with in excess of $1.5 billion under management and Alpha Investment Management, a group of hedge funds and private equity partnerships with in excess of $1.5 billion under management.

About ACON Ventures (Texas Pacific Group)
ACON Ventures, an affiliate of Texas Pacific Group, was founded in 1993, is an international private investment partnership with capital in excess of $7 billion and with offices in Fort Worth, TX; San Francisco, CA; Washington D.C. and London.

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