HoustonStreet Weaves New Round of Investments And Strategic Partnerships
Into Its `web for the Web'

03/23/2000
Business Wire
(Copyright (c) 2000, Business Wire)

  PORTSMOUTH, N.H.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--March 23, 2000--


  Thomas H. Lee Company, Sapient, Bowstreet and others bring financial,
marketing and B2B Internet savvy to Web-based wholesale
  energy exchange


  Taking another step toward becoming the Internet-based energy trading
leader, HoustonStreet Exchange today announced a new round of investments and
strategic relationships with key experts. Thomas H. Lee Company, Sapient and
Bowstreet have all joined HoustonStreet's web for the Web, a virtual network
of business and technology companies that support HoustonStreet's delivery of
wholesale energy trading platforms.

  HoustonStreet established the web for the Web business model as a
rapid-development network of strategic partnerships with companies that have
expertise in disparate fields, rather than building its own departments
in-house. Leveraging the core competencies of its key partners, HoustonStreet
is able to execute quickly and effectively in a rapidly changing environment.
After helping HoustonStreet launch its company and its wholesale power trading
exchange, HoustonStreet.com, these businesses are now helping the company
improve the exchange and expand it aggressively into additional markets.

  Thomas H. Lee Company, one of the oldest, largest and most successful
private equity investment firms in the country with more than $6 billion in
total capital under management, will provide HoustonStreet with important
financial advisement and significant contacts to help the company expand.

  "HoustonStreet has a great Internet exchange platform and stands alone in
its ability to give energy traders the information they need within an
easy-to-use, fluid trading environment," said Tom Hagerty, managing director
at Thomas H. Lee Company. "We believe online energy trading will grow
dramatically in the months and years ahead, and HoustonStreet is well
positioned to seize this opportunity."

  In addition to Thomas H. Lee Company, leading technology companies Sapient
and Bowstreet, private equity investment firms Omega Advisors, Inc. and
Elliott Associates, L.P., and principals from MicroArts Corporation
participated in this round of financing. Sapient, Bowstreet and MicroArts all
play integral roles in HoustonStreet's Web-driven business model, and will
continue to help the company respond to market demand in Internet time.
HoustonStreet Exchange relied on Sapient's strategic and systems integration
experience to design and build the site. MicroArts developed the user
interface, interactive marketing Web site, and marketing plan for the site's
launch. Bowstreet is working with HoustonStreet.com to develop the platform
for HoustonStreet to provide additional value-added services to its customers
and to link trading information directly to trading companies' mid- and
back-office systems using XML (Extensible Markup Language) technology. This
will allow risk managers to have a real-time view of trading activity.

  "These relationships demonstrate the strength of our web for the Web," said
HoustonStreet president and CEO Frank Getman. "We pride ourselves on working
with the best and brightest in their particular areas of expertise who share
our commitment to execution and success. Omega, Elliott and Thomas H. Lee
bring financial and Wall Street expertise, while Sapient, Bowstreet and
MicroArts provide us with the technology and marketing savvy that have given
us a leadership position in the market."


  About HoustonStreet Exchange


  Designed by traders for traders, HoustonStreet Exchange represents the first
Web portal for the trading of wholesale energy products. HoustonStreet.com
provides an online trading engine that allows traders to buy and sell their
energy products faster, more efficiently and more easily than they do today.
HoustonStreet Exchange is headquartered in Portsmouth, New Hampshire with
offices in Houston, Texas. HoustonStreet Exchange is a majority-owned
subsidiary of BayCorp Holdings, Ltd., (AMEX:MWH). For more information, visit
HoustonStreet at www.houstonstreet.com.


  About Thomas H. Lee Company


  Thomas H. Lee Company is one of the oldest and most successful private
equity investment firms in the United States. Since its founding in 1974,
Thomas H. Lee Company has invested more than $5 billion of total capital. The
firm's investment strategy has been consistently focused over its 25-year
history on growth companies with strong fundamentals.


  About Sapient


  Sapient (NASDAQ: SAPE) is a leading e-services consultancy providing
Internet strategy consulting and sophisticated Internet-based solutions to
Global 1000 companies and startup businesses. As Architects for the New
Economy, Sapient helps clients define their Internet strategies and design,
architect, develop and implement solutions to execute those strategies.
Founded in 1991, Sapient has been providing Internet solutions for over five
years and employs approximately 2,100 people in offices in Cambridge, Mass.,
the company's headquarters, as well as London, Sydney, Milan, New York, San
Francisco, Chicago, Atlanta, Dallas, Los Angeles, Washington D.C., Denver and
Houston. More information on Sapient can be found at www.sapient.com.


  About Bowstreet


  Bowstreet provides the XML infrastructure to automate the creation of
dynamic and customized B2B web marketplaces that enable new business models,
extend companies' market reach and generate new revenue. These "business webs"
link an infinite number of customers, suppliers and partners in minutes
instead of months and at a fraction of the cost of today's web development
methods. Founded in January 1998, Bowstreet was ranked as one of the top
e-commerce start-ups in the country at the Enterprise Outlook Conference, and
has raised $90 million from leading venture capital firms, global investment
banks and strategic corporate investors. For more information, visit
www.bowstreet.com or call 603-436-9100.


  About MicroArts


  Designers of technology brands since 1988, MicroArts Corporation focuses on
business-to-consumer and business-to-business e-commerce brand marketing,
including: brand strategy, identity design, user-experience design and
demand-generation campaigns. Employing both print and interactive media,
MicroArts has established brands that turn e-commerce start-ups into industry
leaders and repositioned traditional businesses as e-businesses. Clients
include: APC, Celarix, FitPlay.com, Hasbro Interactive, HoustonStreet.com, ICG
Commerce, I-many.com, iPhrase.com, PaperExchange.com, RedHat Software,
Send.com and traffic.com.


  About Elliott Associates, L.P.


  Elliott Associates, L.P., a New York hedge fund, and its offshore sister
fund, Westgate International Limited, represent one of the oldest and most
stable hedge fund groups. Elliott was formed in 1977 with $1 million of
capital, and Westgate was formed in late 1994 with $80 million of capital. The
two funds now have more than $1 billion of capital.


  About Omega Advisors, Inc.


  Omega Advisors, Inc. is an equity-oriented investment manager with more than
$2.5 billion in assets under management. In operation since 1992, Omega seeks
to invest in fundamentally attractive companies with superior financial and
business characteristics at attractive valuation levels.


  This press release contains forward-looking statements. There are a number
of important factors that could cause these forward-looking statements to be
materially inaccurate. These factors include, without limitation, that (i)
energy traders may be unwilling or unable to use Internet-based energy trading
systems, including HoustonStreet.com, (ii) HoustonStreet.com may not be able
to operate profitably, (iii) technological or systems outages could occur,
(iv) competitors with greater financial, marketing or other resources could
emerge, (v) performance is contingent upon successful completion of design and
implementation of the crude and refined products site, and (vi) market
acceptance of HoustonStreet.com cannot be predicted. HoustonStreet.com is a
registered service mark of HoustonStreet Exchange.

CONTACT: Beaupre & Co. Public Relations Inc.
             Christa Branscombe
             (603) 559-5804
             cbranscombe@beaupre.com
                  or
             HoustonStreet Exchange
             Kim Salem
             (603) 766-8703
             ksalem@houstonstreet.com

13:17 EST   MARCH 23, 2000



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