( BW)(NY-VENTUREWIRE)(DJ) VentureWire Announces Investors' Choice Award Recipients At Its Annual MicroVentures Conference

Business Editors

NEW YORK--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Dec. 18, 2003--

Award Recognizes Ten Technology Start-Ups with the Most Potential for Success

VentureWire, published by Dow Jones Newsletters, announced the recipients of its Investors' Choice awards at its annual MicroVentures Private Equity conference held here on December 9 and 10.

The award recognizes start-up technology companies that are best positioned for long-term success in the semiconductor and nanoelectronics industries.

Nearly 300 business leaders, venture capitalists, entrepreneurs and industry analysts attended the conference and judged the competition. They selected the 10 award winners out of 65 closely held companies that were invited to present their business plans at the conference.

"The Investors' Choice awards are presented to 10 start-up companies for their potential to succeed in the semiconductor industry," said Richard A. Shaffer, editor-in-chief of VentureWire. "These companies are best poised to capitalize on the improving market for chips and related technologies."

One of the 10 recipients of Investors' Choice, is:
Enpirion, Bloomsbury, NJ, which is developing a power supply on a chip (www.enpirion.com).

Now in its second year, the MicroVentures conference examines the markets and strategies where capital-efficient start-ups can succeed in semiconductors and related technologies. Topics at this year's conference included opportunities in the wireless, consumer, and Chinese sectors, the future of nanoelectronics, and a debate on the fundamental assumptions of the fabless business model.

Keynote speakers at this year's event included David Bell, president of Linear Technology; Jen-Hsun Huang, president & CEO of NVIDIA; Walden Rhines, chairman & CEO of Mentor Graphics; and Padmasree Warrior, senior vice president & CTO at Motorola.

About Dow Jones Newsletters

Dow Jones Newsletters (www.djnewsletters.com, www.venturewire.com) produces focused, sector-specific online newsletters and industry events. The group is a part of Dow Jones Newswires (www.djnewswires.com), which provides real-time news for financial professionals in the equities, fixed-income, foreign exchange and energy markets, and also offers news for financial firms' Web sites. In addition to Dow Jones Newswires, Dow Jones & Company (NYSE: DJ; www.dowjones.com) publishes The Wall Street Journal and its international and online editions, Barron's and the Far Eastern Economic Review, Dow Jones Indexes and the Ottaway group of community newspapers. Dow Jones is co-owner with Reuters Group of Factiva, with Hearst of SmartMoney and with NBC of CNBC television operations in Asia and Europe. Dow Jones also provides news content to CNBC and radio stations in the U.S.

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