With an eye toward building a leadership position in an online loan market expected to reach $100 billion by 2001 (source: Tower Group), LendingTree today announced it has signed an agreement with Yahoo! to expand visibility for its loan offerings within targeted areas of Yahoo!'s highly trafficked Finance, Real Estate and Classifieds areas. Beginning January 1, individuals will be able to easily access The LendingTree Network from loan-related areas within Yahoo! and have banks bid for their business.

"By working with Yahoo!, LendingTree has the opportunity to reach millions of daily users and gain mindshare from a targeted audience for our wide variety of loan services," said Doug Lebda, CEO and founder of LendingTree. "Now Yahoo! users can easily empower themselves and take advantage of our unique approach to lending."

Under the terms of the agreement, LendingTree is a major advertiser on Yahoo!'s loan areas within Yahoo! Finance (http://quote.yahoo.com), Yahoo! Real Estate (http://realestate.yahoo.com) and Yahoo! Classifieds (http://classifieds.yahoo.com) sections. Graphical links for LendingTree appear in these areas and take users directly to LendingTree's Web site (www.lendingtree.com). A co-branded Yahoo! and LendingTree quarterly promotion will give-away $10,000 to a consumer who uses LendingTree to secure a loan. In addition, LendingTree will be accessible from banners throughout the Financing and Real Estate pages within Yahoo! Yellow Pages (http://yp.yahoo.com) and on loan-related categories.

Since LendingTree's launch in July '98, its network of lenders has increased by more than 100 percent to 21 national lenders. Recent additions to the network include Citibank, Advanta and BankOne.