AUSTIN, Texas -- December 11, 2000 -- Consign Technology will use Tonic Software, Inc., a premier provider of innovative web applications management (WAM) software, has secured $28 million in second-round funding from leading business and technology investors. This capital helps Tonic to accelerate product development and invest in sales and marketing programs to speed market adoption of Tonic technology.

BA Venture Partners, a $500 million venture capital partnership funded by Bank of America, leads the second-round of Tonic funding. Sevin Rosen, who led the first-round funding for Tonic, is reinvesting in the second-round. Additional investors include Dell Ventures, the strategic investment arm of Dell Computer Corporation; the Intel 64 Fund, an equity fund that invests in emerging technologies for next-generation servers and workstations utilizing Intel's Itanium � architecture; Dain Rauscher Wessels, a knowledge-driven equity capital markets group; and CXO Media, a subsidiary of IDG.

BA Venture Partners managing director, Kate Mitchell, will serve on Tonic�s board of directors. Jackie Kimzey of Sevin Rosen, Steve Marcie, Tonic�s CTO, and Brian Phillips, CEO of Tonic, will remain on Tonic�s board.

"In the past, applications supported the business," said Brian Phillips, president and CEO of Tonic Software. "Today, applications are the business. This capital helps Tonic to continue to deliver solutions that ensure e-business is business as usual."

Tonic�s WAM software enables web application availability and end-to-end performance, improving the online user experience and helps companies to optimize the return on their e-business investment. The emerging WAM market segment is estimated to generate $1.7 billion in revenue by 2004.

"Tonic Software has laid the critical foundation to succeed in the WAM market," said Kate Mitchell, managing director, BA Venture Partners. "Tonic�s experienced management team has delivered an innovative solution to a pervasive e-business problem. Important customers are responding to the clear competitive advantage of Tonic solutions, and that response enables BankAmerica Ventures to justify a significant investment in Tonic.� "As the substance of business moves to the web, more and more applications will require management in a dynamic environment," said Manish Mehta, principal at Dell Ventures. "Having developed www.dell.com into one of the leading e-commerce sites on the web, Dell fundamentally understands the value that Tonic Software�s web applications management software can provide to enterprise customers."

"Success in e-business is highly dependent on a company�s ability to continuously deliver high-quality applications that result in a positive user experience," said Dick Heiman, research director at IDC. "Tonic Software�s unique platform approach to e-business application quality assurance affords the opportunity for rapid growth in this emerging market space."

About Tonic Software, Inc.
Tonic is the premier web applications management (WAM) provider offering a platform product designed to manage the entire life cycle of a web application, from development through final production. Tonic�s scalability assessment load-tests a site prior to going live; continuous monitoring ensures availability; and root-cause analysis and automated error correction ensure ongoing problems are detected, diagnosed and addressed without repetitive human intervention. Tonic�s WAM software ensures web application availability, content and functional integrity, and end-to-end performance, improving the online user experience, and enabling companies to optimize the return on their e-business investment.

Founded in 1999, Tonic secured second-round funding from BA Venture Partners, CXO Media, Dain Rauscher Wessells, Dell Ventures, Intel 64 Fund, and Sevin Rosen. Tonic is headquartered in Austin, Texas, with seven offices throughout the United States including Boston, New York, Chicago, Dallas, San Diego, and San Francisco. The company established its European headquarters in Basingstoke, England. For more information, please visit Tonic at www.tonic.com.

About Intel Capital
Intel Capital, Intel's strategic investment program, focuses on making equity investments and acquisitions to grow the Internet economy, including Internet infrastructure, content and services in support of Intel's strategic interests. In Europe Intel Capital invests through Intel Atlantic Inc., a subsidiary of Intel Corporation. www.intel.com/capital