FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:
March 28, 2007

Contact
Virginia M. Turezyn, Managing Director, Technology Group (650) 289-4561
Nathan Horvath, Vice President, Technology Group (650) 289-4569
Brian Maney, Director, Corporate Communications (301) 951-6122

AMERICAN CAPITAL INVESTS $74.5 MILLION IN HOMEAWAY

Bethesda, MD – March 28, 2007 - American Capital Strategies Ltd. (Nasdaq: ACAS) announced today that it and an affiliate have invested $74.5 million in HomeAway Inc., the world leader in online “for-rent-by-owner” vacation home rentals.  American Capital’s one stop financing solution supported HomeAway’s acquisition of VRBO.com, also an online vacation rental marketplace with more than 65,000 paid property listings, and Abritel.fr, the leading French online vacation rental site, which represented nearly 30,000 paid property listings in 2006.  American Capital’s investment took the form of a senior term A unirate loan, convertible preferred equity and common equity.  American Capital Equity Fund I LLC (“ACE”), a fund managed by American Capital, provided 30% of the American Capital equity investment. HomeAway’s original investors, Austin Ventures and Redpoint Ventures, joined new investors Trident Capital and Institutional Venture Partners in investing in convertible preferred equity.

“We are very pleased to be providing a one stop financing solution to support HomeAway and its management team and also to be partnering with a group of top-tier venture firms,” said Gordon O’Brien, American Capital Managing Director. “HomeAway perfectly matches the profile of high performing companies with robust growth rates that comprise the Technology Group’s growing portfolio.”

American Capital has invested directly and through its funds under management $7.2 billion in the last twelve months and approximately $1.3 billion in 2007 year to date.  Not including funds under management, American Capital has invested $5.6 billion in the last twelve months and approximately $1 billion in 2007 year to date.  For more information about American Capital’s portfolio, click here.

“With the acquisition of VRBO.com and Abritel.fr, the HomeAway sites now list more than 160,000 properties across 100 countries on six continents.  It holds distant leads in revenues, website traffic and numbers of paid listings,” said Virginia M. Turezyn, American Capital Managing Director, Technology Group.  “HomeAway stands out for its superior service, ease of use, multiple website listing option, breadth and depth of property listings, four-language versions of its websites and special features, including advanced search functionality, a property owner community and renter reviews.  The Company commands exceptional customer retention rates and was recognized in the 2006 Forbes Best of the Web Directory.”

“As the leading online vacation rental marketplace, HomeAway’s continued growth is driven by increases in second home ownership coupled with the rising use of the internet as a marketing and renter acquisition tool by property owners.  On the demand side, vacation rentals are becoming increasingly popular with leisure travelers, with HomeAway drawing more than 50 million travelers to its websites each year,” said Nathan Horvath, American Capital Vice President, Technology Group.  “HomeAway’s value proposition is compelling to both property owners, who gain access to the broadest possible audience of potential property renters, and also to travelers, who can easily search through the largest number of high quality vacation rentals available worldwide.”

HomeAway’s portfolio of vacation rental websites includes HomeAway.com, CyberRentals.com, A1Vacations.com, GreatRentals.com, TripHomes.com, HolidayRentals.co.uk, HolidayRentals.fr and FeWo-direkt.de, as well as VRBO.com and Abritel.fr.  With the acquisition of VRBO, HomeAway’s largest competitor, HomeAway becomes the largest online vacation rental marketplace in the world.  HomeAway enables property owners and managers to list properties available for rental on any or all of its websites by submitting online descriptions, photos, pricing, availability, contact and other information.  Formed in 2005, HomeAway is headquartered in Austin, TX and maintains a call center in Hardy, VA, European headquarters in Acton, U.K., and offices in Kassel, Germany and Marseilles, France.

“We are delighted to again be working with American Capital,” said Ken DeAngelis, Austin Ventures General Partner.  “American Capital’s one stop debt financing solution provides invaluable support for this highly experienced management team and pacesetting company.”

“This is our first time working with American Capital and we were extremely impressed with their quick ability to arrange a one stop debt financing package with attractive terms,” said Jeff Brody, Redpoint Ventures Partner.  

“The team at American Capital was quick to recognize the unique position that HomeAway has in the vacation rental industry,” said Brian Sharples, CEO of HomeAway. “The commitment the team made to truly understand our industry segment and the strength of our business model resulted in terms that are not only competitive, but structured in a way to help our company grow even more quickly.”

ABOUT AMERICAN CAPITAL TECHNOLOGY GROUP

The American Capital Technology Group invests in early, middle and late stage technology companies. With the flexibility to invest senior debt, subordinated debt and equity from $5 million to $800 million, the American Capital Technology Group can provide its capital base and domain expertise to build category-leading, technology companies.

American Capital and its affiliate American Capital Equity Fund I LLC have approximately $2 billion in technology investments in their existing portfolio. These companies generally are mature, high performing, cash flowing companies with excellent growth rates. They operate across many industry sectors and are driven by a broad range of technologies. The Technology Group extends American Capital's existing technology investment business by investing in earlier stage technology companies.

ABOUT AMERICAN CAPITAL

American Capital is the second largest U.S. publicly traded alternative asset manager with approximately $11 billion in assets under management (second to Fortress (NYSE: FIG)).  American Capital, both directly and through its global asset management business, is an investor in management and employee buyouts, private equity buyouts, and early stage and mature private and public companies.  American Capital provides senior debt, mezzanine debt and equity to fund growth, acquisitions, recapitalizations and securitizations.  American Capital and its affiliates invest from $5 million to $800 million per company in North America and €5 million to €400 million per company in Europe.

As of February 28, 2007, American Capital shareholders have enjoyed a total return of 594% since the Company's IPO - an annualized return of 23%, assuming reinvestment of dividends.  American Capital has paid a total of $1.4 billion in dividends and paid or declared $23.33 dividends per share since going public in August 1997 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 or www.EuropeanCapital.com.

ABOUT AUSTIN VENTURES

Austin Ventures has been working with talented entrepreneurs to build valuable companies since 1979. With $3 billion under management, Austin Ventures is the most active venture capital firm in Texas, and one of the most established in the nation. With a focus on business services, information services, computer and communications hardware, and enterprise software, Austin Ventures invests at all stages of company development, from $100,000 "planned experiments" to $50+ million investments in management buyouts.

ABOUT INSTITUTIONAL VENTURE PARTNERS

With more than $1.6 billion of cumulative committed capital, Institutional Venture Partners (IVP) is one of the premier venture capital firms in the United States. Founded in 1980, IVP has invested in over 200 privately-held companies, and more than 80 of these companies have gone public. The firm's General Partners have more than 100 years of combined venture capital experience.  IVP is currently investing IVP XI, a $300 million fund focused on expansion-stage investments in rapidly-growing information technology companies.

ABOUT REDPOINT VENTURES

Redpoint Ventures was founded in 1999 by top partners each from Brentwood Venture Capital and Institutional Venture Partners, two leading venture firms. With more than a combined 100 years of operational industry and venture capital experience, Redpoint looks at technology investing from the perspective of supporting the entire process of early-stage company development.  Redpoint's investments focus primarily in four areas: mobile wireless platforms and applications, consumer Internet services and platforms, enabling technologies for the digital home, and systems and software for the enterprise infrastructure.

ABOUT TRIDENT CAPITAL

Trident Capital is a leading venture capital and private equity firm with over $1.5 billion of capital under management, including $400 million raised in a recently closed Fund VI.  Trident's core investment focus has remained consistent since inception in 1993, focusing on investments in the business services, information services and software sectors across a variety of industries. Within the sector focus, the firm invests across multiple stages, including traditional venture capital investing as well as investments in micro-cap public companies, buyouts and consolidation platforms. Trident has made 120 investments since inception.

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 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.

This announcement is neither an offer to sell nor a solicitation to buy securities.
This announcement appears as a matter of record only.