Partnership with Hikari Tsushin, Inc. Extends Reach of idealab! Venture into World's Second Largest Market

Boston, Mass. (January 11, 2000) - Intranets.com (www.intranets.com), provider of the world's first free intranet portal, announced today a joint venture with Hikari Tsushin, Inc., Japan's largest distributor of wireless communication devices and Internet services, to offer free intranets to the Japanese market. Last month, Hikari Tsushin led Intranets.com's $20 million second round of venture capital funding. The service will launch in Japan this quarter.

The joint venture targeting Japan's five million small and mid-sized businesses will be hosted in Japan and offer localized content, support and services. Intranets.co.jp will be based on the successful Intranets.com model, which provides businesses and organizations with free hosting, custom URLs, industry news, calendar scheduling and vendor services. According to the Ministry of International Trade and Industry in Japan, 99.7 percent of all Japanese companies have 300 or fewer employees.

"Hikari Tsushin is one of the most respected and influential businesses in Japan and Asia," said Steve Crummey, CEO and president of Intranets.com, which has signed on more than 75,000 registered organizations since launching in August. "Hikari Tsushin's expertise in delivering Web-based services through a variety of wireless appliances makes them a natural and strong partner for Intranets.com."

"Our investment in Intranets.com was strategically aligned with our goal of bringing this unique service to Japan," said Masahide Saito, board member and director of corporate strategy and investment headquarters of Hikari Tsushin. "Intranets.com complements our existing business and our vision for the future."

About Hikari TsushinHikari Tsushin, a $2.3 billion company, is the largest distributor of wireless communication devices in Japan and also provides Internet services. Hikari Tsushin owns a vast sales network of 1,975 shops and has 13 offices in Japan and three subsidiaries worldwide. The company has launched several new initiatives since 1998 including a web hosting service for the business community, an Internet community site for the consumer market, a CS digital broadcast television business and a web-TV business.

About Intranets.com
Intranets.com is the world's leading provider of on-demand collaboration services for small businesses or departments and groups inside large organizations. The company serves more than 350,000 users across 10,000 companies worldwide and offers a secure, web-based collaboration suite to share critical business information quickly and easily at any time from anywhere. Privately held and profitable, Intranets.com is led by an experienced team of software industry professionals who are committed to providing a secure, customizable, easy-to-deploy intranet solution supported by world-class customer service. Intranets.com is a PC Magazine "Editor's Choice" winner and is rated one of the world's "Top 25" leading service providers by ASPNews. The company has also been ranked by the Boston Business Journal as one of the fastest growing private companies in Massachusetts for two consecutive years. For more information or to take a FREE 30-day test drive, visit http://www.intranets.com/pr, e-mail corpsales@intranets.com or call 888-932-2600 or 781-565-6000.

About idealab!
idealab! (www.idealab.com ) identifies, creates and operates Internet businesses. Founded in March 1996 by Bill Gross, idealab! currently has approximately 50 businesses in various stages of development. idealab! generates ideas for new Internet businesses and creates, capitalizes and operates a separate company to conduct each new business. Actively participating in the on-going operations of its network companies through board representation, information sharing and facilitating collaboration among the companies, idealab! also recruits management to oversee the day-to-day operations allowing senior management to concentrate on executing the business plan. Additionally, idealab! provides each operating company with a full range of operational support services including office space and the accompanying network infrastructure, technology, graphic design, marketing, competitive research, legal, accounting and business development services. idealab! public companies include eToys (Nasdaq: ETYS), GoTo.com (Nasdaq: GOTO), CitySearch (TMCS), NetZero (Nasdaq: NZRO) and Tickets.com (Nasdaq: TIXX).

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Press Contact:

Colin Smith
Director of Public Relations
408.566.5694

Intranets.com is a trademark of Intranets.com, Inc. idealab! is a registered trademark of idealab!, Inc. Inc.com and Click of Approval are trademarks of the Goldhirsh Group, Inc. Other product and company names herein may be trademarks of their respective owners.