AOL AND PURCHASEPRO ACCELERATE NEW B2B
AND E-COMMERCE EFFORT
Companies Announce 10 Marketplace Agreements, Including HP, Homestore.com and Spherion Corp., To Expand Netscape Netbusiness Marketplace
Marketplace Links Hundreds of Online Communities, Letting Small, Medium and
Large Businesses Easily Buy and Sell Online
Netbusiness Initiative Supported by Joint Marketplace
Sales, Marketing and Development Efforts
Dulles, VA and Las Vegas, NV (March 28, 2001)- America Online, Inc. and PurchasePro (Nasdaq: PPRO), a leading enabler of business-to-business, e-commerce solutions for companies of all sizes, today announced 10 new strategic agreements, including deals with Hewlett-Packard Company, Homestore.com and Spherion Corporation, to accelerate their B2B and e-commerce efforts, and jointly-develop the Netscape Netbusiness Marketplace. The Netbusiness Marketplace is a one-stop, global e-commerce network of hundreds of communities and marketplaces that allows small, medium and large businesses to buy, sell and interact online.
AOL and PurchasePro also announced a joint sales, marketing and product development operation in support of the Marketplace. The joint sales team will include both the PurchasePro sales force and the AOL Interactive Marketing Group.
Leveraging PurchasePro's industry-leading e-commerce technology, and AOL's expertise in developing user-friendly services, tools and technology to support commerce online, the Netbusiness Marketplace provides business users with advanced features in a familiar and convenient environment. Moreover, the initiative builds on PurchasePro's extensive network of private-label marketplaces that encompass more than 140,000 businesses -- all of which will be connected to the Netbusiness Marketplace.
Netscape Netbusiness is also driving small business membership on the Marketplace through its popular Netbusiness Card, which provides detailed information about each member's products, services, location and industry classification to millions of potential customers online. All current and new Netbusiness Card members are automatically registered in the Marketplace and, starting today, are eligible to win one million AOL/AAdvantage Reward miles as part of a major three month promotional campaign.
Barry Schuler, chairman and chief executive officer of America Online, Inc. said, "The small business revolution on the Internet has begun, and small businesses everywhere are finding new ways to communicate with their customers and suppliers. PurchasePro's platform and expertise in building business-to-business marketplaces will be a key part of this new revolution, and we're pleased and excited to be making them such a significant part of AOL's and Netscape's business services."
Charles E. Johnson Jr., chairman and chief executive officer of PurchasePro said, "One of the keys to building a successful business-to-business network is interoperability. PurchasePro's capacity to power businesses of all sizes, and its ability to link hundreds of marketplaces - and millions of business users - in a complete buyside/sellside application, provides partners and members with a broader reach to a wider range of audiences. This 'network effect' is a driving force in the success of the Marketplace, and an important catalyst in our expanding relationship with AOL."
Fred Singer, senior vice president and general manager of Netbusiness said, "With the Netbusiness Marketplace we're building on our combined base of PurchasePro's marketplaces and Netbusiness Card users to create a unique opportunity for small business owners to buy and sell products in a whole new way. We're taking cutting-edge technologies and content applications and making them simple for businesses to use. At the same time, we're delivering the right mix of community, content and commerce, providing small businesses with a comfortable environment in which to learn about, and then take advantage of, more advanced forms of buying and selling online."
HP is committing to work with AOL and PurchasePro to deliver the benefits of the Netscape Netbusiness Marketplace specifically to small and medium businesses. HP's e-commerce site, the HP Business Store (www.bstore.hp.com), currently serves the small and medium business customer with offerings including the company's latest business PCs, PC servers, networking and mobile devices, printers, digital imaging, handheld PCs, workstations, servers, software and more.
"AOL's Netscape Netbusiness Marketplace would allow us to offer products and services specifically tailored to meet the needs of U.S. small and medium business customers via one of the most heavily trafficked Web sites in the world," said Michael Weir, general manager of HP's Small and Medium Business Organization. "HP is always looking for innovative ways to deliver information technology and solutions to small and medium businesses."
AOL and PurchasePro have also joined with a broad range of industry leaders to create unique vertical marketplaces. Announced agreements include BroadVision, Inc. (www.broadvision.com), a leading supplier of personalized e-business applications; TheThread (www.thethread.com), a leading provider of collaborative supply chain management and e-purchasing solutions for the fashion industry; Plant America (www.plantamerica.com), a key resource for the lawn and landscape industry; Viva Magnetics Limited (www.viva.com.hk), the world's largest CD-Rom replicator, also offering specialty CD packaging services; eFruit (www.efruitinternational.com), the global electronic marketplace for buyers and sellers of agricultural commodities; and ProfitScape (www.profitscape.com), a major provider of an automated payment solution -- eNET30(tm) -- which facilitates business-to-business online transactions through financial institutions such as GMAC B2B Credit.
By joining with leaders in their respective vertical fields, the Netbusiness Marketplace provides the opportunity for small to medium sized companies to create specialized industry-specific marketplaces, providing a convenient one-stop location for buyers and sellers to conduct business online.
In addition, AOL and PurchasePro announced today that current Netbusiness partner Bigstep.com (www.bigstep.com), an online service center providing small businesses easy-to-use tools and services to grow and succeed on the Web, signed a separate Marketplace agreement to provide increased functionality to the Netbusiness Marketplace.
The Netbusiness Marketplace initiative will be supported by a joint sales, marketing and advanced product development effort to rapidly grow the Marketplace and make it the leading destination for business-to-business e-commerce. The joint sales force will offer prospective partners a turnkey marketplace solution that provides businesses with a powerful new distribution channel and complete procurement process. The Netbusiness Marketplace will enable businesses to build significant online presence and stimulate brand loyalty.
Partners also will have the opportunity to create their own marketplaces and use their influence to quickly aggregate their member base and further expand the Netbusiness site into new industry-specific and broad-based markets. The joint AOL-PurchasePro product development team will leverage AOL's technologies to add enhanced features and services to the Marketplace.
Today's announcement builds on PurchasePro's expanded offline promotion and marketing efforts, announced January 31. These efforts began with the launch of a Netbusiness television advertising campaign that began on CNN properties earlier this month and will also include promotions in Fortune Small Business and e-Company Now .
About Netscape Netbusiness
Launched by AOL and Netscape in September, Netscape Netbusiness (http://netbusiness.netscape.com/) provides a free, one-stop home on the Internet to enable owners of small businesses to better manage both their operations and everyday lives. Netbusiness offers easy-to-use and fully customizable information resources, productivity and communications tools including message boards and custom Netbusiness version of Netscape Instant Messenger, and a free online presence with the innovative "Netbusiness Card", which enables registered users to create an "online storefront" for free.
About America Online, Inc.
America Online, Inc. is a wholly owned subsidiary of AOL Time Warner, Inc. Based in Dulles, Virginia, America Online is the world's leader in interactive services, Web brands, Internet technologies and e-commerce services.
About PurchasePro
PurchasePro (Nasdaq: PPRO), a leader in business-to-business e-commerce, operates the PurchasePro global marketplace, encompassing more than 140,000 businesses and powering hundreds of private-label marketplaces with its highly scalable, browser-based e-commerce engine.
PurchasePro's solutions enable businesses of all sizes to easily buy and sell products and services, and compete more effectively by enhancing sales opportunities, reducing procurement costs and greatly increasing employee productivity. PurchasePro responds to the most common corporate needs: e-Procurement for corporate procurement, v-Distributor for online distributors, and e-MarketMaker for Internet market makers.
PurchasePro has developed strategic sales and marketing relationships with industry leaders including America Online, Computer Associates, Gateway, Hilton, Office Depot, and Sprint. The company provides extensive support and training programs. For information, call toll free at (888) 830-4600 or in Las Vegas at (702) 316-7000 or visit www.purchasepro.com.
This press release includes forward-looking statements, which are subject to the ``Safe Harbor'' created by Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933, as amended, and Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended. These forward-looking statements (which involve the company's plans, beliefs and goals, refer to estimates or use similar terms) involve certain risks and uncertainties, including the risks and uncertainties associated with rapidly changing technologies such as the Internet, the risks of technology development and the risks of competition that can cause actual results to differ materially from those in the forward-looking statements. These forward-looking statements represent only the views of certain members of management and do not necessarily represent a consensus of all employees and managers within the company. Moreover, those forward-looking statements are based on limited information available to us now, which is subject to change. It should be clearly understood that the factors and perceptions on which these forward-looking statements are based are highly likely to change over time and that we have no current plan to update these statements. Actual results may differ substantially from what we say today and no one should assume at a later date that the forward-looking statements provided herein are still valid. They speak only as of today. For more information about these risks and uncertainties, see the SEC filings of PurchasePro Inc., including the section titled ``Factors That May Affect Results'' in its 10-K filing for the period ended December 31, 1999, and its 10-Q for the quarter ended September 30, 2000, which is available from the company on request and on the Internet at the SEC's Web site, www.sec.gov.
Note to Editors: PurchasePro is a servicemark of PurchasePro.com Inc. All other trademarks or registered trademarks are the property of their respective owners.
