The Cobalt Group Acquires Dealix Corporation

Combined Company Provides Integrated, Seamless Retailing Solution to Benefit Dealers, OEMs and Lead Suppliers

Cobalt Secures $38 Million in Additional Financing from Warburg Pincus, ABS Capital Partners, Oak Investment Partners and Silicon Valley Bank

SEATTLE and REDWOOD CITY, Calif., Nov. 22 -- The Cobalt Group, a leading provider of retailing solutions for the automotive market, today announced that it has acquired Dealix Corporation, a leading provider of sales leads and technology to automotive dealerships, large dealer groups and automobile manufacturers. Terms of the transaction were not disclosed. Dealix, based in Redwood City, Calif., will operate as an autonomous business unit within Cobalt and its management team, led by Jon Christensen and Greg Baszucki, will continue running the company.

Cobalt's acquisition of Dealix is a significant milestone toward Cobalt's long-term goal of providing a comprehensive platform to power automotive retailing. As a result of the transaction, auto dealers can now turn to a single vendor for applications and services that span the entire customer lifecycle.

The integrated company will also enable OEMs to work with a vendor that provides a more complete view of their brands' sales activity throughout the entire sales process, from lead generation to contract. Third party lead generators will benefit from enhanced access to Cobalt's substantial customer base, which includes more than half of the franchised new car dealers in the U.S.

"With the addition of Dealix, Cobalt is in a unique position to provide dealers with a consolidated source of dealer, OEM and third party leads. By using Cobalt's industry-leading suite of CRM applications, dealers can close deals and maintain strong relationships with owners until they're ready to buy again," said John Holt, President and Chief Executive Officer of The Cobalt Group. "The Dealix team has done an outstanding job establishing Dealix as the leading provider of high quality Internet sales leads and technology, and I am delighted to welcome them to Cobalt."

The newly combined company is well positioned to capitalize on a number of favorable trends in the online retail automotive business. According to Jupiter Research, 22% of all new car sales in the U.S. will be Internet- generated in 2004. Forrester reports that dealers currently spend as much as $700 monthly for Web site hosting and $10,000 per month for third party Internet leads for every franchise in the dealership, and that consumer use of third party Web sites to request a dealer price quote will increase from 27% in 2003 to 40% or more in 2005 (Trends 2005: Automotive Retail Technology, Forrester Research, November 2004).

"Working with Cobalt, we will build a revolutionary and much-needed suite of auto retailing services, providing dealers with a powerful retailing platform that will increase sales of vehicles and related services," said Jon Christensen, Chief Executive Officer of Dealix. "We will give OEM customers broad and deep information about their buyers and offer our respected lead generating partners the most extensive coverage in the industry. The Dealix team is pleased to join Cobalt and we look forward to operating with our principles of decency, focus and relentless competitive drive in a larger, stronger and more powerful setting."

In conjunction with the transaction, Cobalt also announced today that it has secured $38 million in new financing from Warburg Pincus, ABS Capital Partners, Oak Investment Partners and Silicon Valley Bank. This follows a $54 million June financing from the same four investors.

"With the continued support of our investors we are making great strides towards providing a comprehensive integrated technology solution for the entire automotive industry," said John Holt. "We are excited about the value we can provide dealers and manufacturers. During the next few years we will work vigorously to produce retailing applications and services that will significantly improve industry profitability and customer satisfaction with car buying and ownership."

About The Cobalt Group

The Cobalt Group provides automobile manufacturers and dealers with a comprehensive integrated retailing platform by leveraging its industry-leading technology, broad range of services and deep domain knowledge. Cobalt operates a dealer network larger than that of any other retail platform provider in the automotive industry. Cobalt's products and services have been developed specifically for facilitating consumer buying decisions within the automotive marketplace, including enterprise software for manufacturers and dealers; customer relationship management (CRM) software applications; online automotive retailing applications; and the industry's largest OEM parts locating and marketing service. Cobalt is endorsed by 27 automobile manufacturers and is the only technology company ever to receive an endorsement from the National Automobile Dealers Association (NADA(R)). More information about Cobalt can be found on the company's Web site at http://www.cobaltgroup.com/.

About Dealix Corporation

Dealix Corporation is the industry leader in automotive Internet marketing services. Through the Dealix Lead Trading Platform(SM) (LTP), a suite of proprietary technology products and business services, the company connects thousands of serious vehicle buyers with automobile dealerships, large dealer groups and manufacturers every day. The Dealix LTP processes over 2.5 million vehicle shoppers monthly from the Dealix Lead Acquisition Network(SM), a collection of preeminent lead generating partners. Dealix also provides market intelligence through its data analysis division, Dealix Business Intelligence(SM) (DBI). DBI's concise reports, derived from broad scale market data, provide insight into what's working in the online automotive industry, giving Dealix partners a distinct competitive advantage. More information about Dealix can be found on the unit's Web site at http://www.dealix.com/.