FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:

September 12, 2006

Contact
Natasha Volyanskaya, Principal (415) 591-0120
Douglas Bodel, Vice President (415) 591-0120
Brian Maney, Director, Corporate Communications (301) 951-6122

American Capital Invests $20 Million in Leading Provider of Contact Center Solutions

Bethesda, MD – September 12, 2006 – American Capital Strategies Ltd. (Nasdaq: ACAS) announced today it has invested $20 million in the recapitalization of Aspect Software Inc., the leading provider of contact center software solutions for businesses worldwide.  American Capital’s investment takes the form of a second lien term loan.  A syndicate led by JPMorgan Chase & Co. is providing a revolving credit facility and investing in senior term loans.  Golden Gate Capital and Oak Investment Partners are majority owners of Aspect Software.

“We are delighted to be supporting the recapitalization of Aspect Software and to be working again with Golden Gate Capital.  We are also very pleased to be embarking on a new relationship with Oak Investment Partners,” said American Capital Regional Managing Director Darin Winn.  “We look forward to further expanding our relationship with Golden Gate Capital, which brings critical expertise, including extensive experience with software companies and companies in change intensive environments.  In addition, Oak Investment Partners, brings invaluable experience in working with industry leading companies, particularly in information technology, at critical junctures in their development.”

American Capital has invested $5 billion in the last twelve months, approximately $3.5 billion year to date and $1 billion quarter to date.  These amounts do not include American Capital's unfunded equity commitment and debt funded to its portfolio company European Capital.  For more information about American Capital’s portfolio, click here.

“Aspect Software holds significant market shares in all the core technologies of the contact center solutions industry,” said American Capital Principal Natasha Volyanskaya.  “Future growth in the industry is being propelled by the ongoing trend towards call center outsourcing and offshoring, robust economic growth in Asia, growth in small and medium-sized call centers and IP-enabled telephony services.”

“With its best-of-breed workforce management software, Aspect Software is a leader in providing solutions to optimize call center productivity,” said American Capital Vice President Douglas Bodel.  “Aspect Software’s strength will also be driven by its unified IP suite which appeals to new customers, including the rapidly growing small to medium-sized enterprise call center market for which Aspect’s unified IP suite is the optimal solution.”

Aspect Software offers the broadest product range in contact center solutions, which enable businesses to manage and optimize customer interactions.  The Company has a portfolio of best-in-class solutions for every major contact center need from one of the most feature-rich automatic call distributor solutions to a packaged call center solution for small to medium contact centers.  Aspect Software provides both software and hardware that enables efficient management of call volume.  Aspect Software is based in Westford, MA and has operations across the Americas, Europe and Asia Pacific.

“We are extremely pleased to be working again with American Capital,” said Golden Gate Capital Principal Rajeev Amara.  “American Capital again brings invaluable expertise in providing junior financing for recapitalizations and unparalleled professionalism to this deal.”

ABOUT AMERICAN CAPITAL

American Capital is a publicly traded buyout and mezzanine fund with capital resources of $8.9 billion. American Capital invests in and sponsors management and employee buyouts, invests in private equity buyouts, provides capital directly to early stage and mature private and small public companies and through its asset management business is a manager of debt and equity investments in private companies. American Capital provides senior debt, mezzanine debt and equity to fund growth, acquisitions, recapitalizations and securitizations. American Capital invests up to $400 million per company.

As of August 31, 2006, American Capital shareholders have enjoyed a total return of 476% since the Company's IPO - an annualized return of 21%, assuming reinvestment of dividends.  American Capital has paid a total of $1.2 billion in dividends and paid or declared $21.56 dividends per share since its August 1997 IPO at $15 per share.

Companies interested in learning more about American Capital's flexible financing should contact Mark Opel, Senior Vice President, Business Development, at (800) 248-9340, or visit www.AmericanCapital.com.

ABOUT GOLDEN GATE CAPITAL

Golden Gate Capital is a San Francisco-based private equity investment firm with approximately $2.6 billion of capital under management.  In addition to Aspect Software, Golden Gate’s software and IT services portfolio investments include Ecometry Corporation, a leading provider of enterprise software solutions to the multi-channel retail market; Infor, the largest global software provider focused on delivering world-class enterprise applications to select verticals in the manufacturing and distribution industries; and Inovis International Inc., a leading provider of business-to-business (B2B) software and services.  American Capital supported Golden Gate’s December 2005 acquisition of Inovis.  In addition, American Capital supported Golden Gate’s debt refinancing of Appleseed’s Inc., a leading direct marketer of women's apparel, in February 2006.  

ABOUT OAK INVESTMENT PARTNERS

Oak Investment Partners is a multi-stage venture capital firm with a total of $8.4 billion in committed capital.  The primary investment focus is on high growth opportunities in communications, information technology, internet new media, financial services information technology, healthcare services and consumer retail.  Over a 28-year history, Oak has funded more than 435 companies.  Oak has been involved in the formation of companies, funded spinouts of operating divisions and technology assets, and provided growth equity to mid- and late-stage private businesses and to public companies through PIPE investments.  Oak’s portfolio of enterprise application software and services investments include Leapstone Systems Inc.,a telecommunications software company that designs converged service management and control solutions for service providers; Pivotal Corporation, a provider of customer relationship management (CRM) software for mid-sized enterprises; and Talisma Corporation, a provider of customer service and support solutions.

Performance data quoted above represents past performance of American Capital.   Past performance does not guarantee future results and the investment return and principal value of an investment in American Capital will likely fluctuate.   Consequently, an investor's shares, when sold, may be worth more or less than their original cost.   Additionally, American Capital's current performance may be lower or higher than the performance data quoted above.

This press release contains forward-looking statements.   The statements regarding expected results of American Capital Strategies are subject to various factors and uncertainties, including the uncertainties associated with the timing of transaction closings, changes in interest rates, availability of transactions, changes in regional, national or international economic conditions, or changes in the conditions of the industries in which American Capital has made investments.