Telefonica to Build Ariba-Powered B2B Digital Exchange in Europe And Latin America - Company Business and Marketing

Cambridge Telcom Report, Dec 20, 1999

Ariba, Inc., the leader in business-to-business eCommerce and Telefonica SA, one of the world's largest telecommunications companies, Thursday jointly announced a preliminary agreement in which Telefonica would build a series of business-to-business (B2B) corporate exchanges in Europe and Latin America. Using the Ariba B2B eCommerce platform, Telefonica would deploy a series of localized corporate exchanges for business buyers and suppliers in Latin America, all made interoperable through the Ariba Network services.

Thursday's announcement is the latest in a series of moves by Telefonica, a global communications provider based in Madrid, Spain, to aggressively become the leader in eCommerce for Latin America and Spain. In November, Telefonica's wholly-owned subsidiary Terra Networks (Nasdaq: TRRA) went public and is currently the largest Internet company listed in European markets. Terra Networks provides a wide range of Internet services to residential and business users.

"We intend to be the leading provider of B2B eCommerce services for businesses in the Spanish and Portuguese speaking world, so we will partner with the clear leader in B2B eCommerce-Ariba," said Guillermo Fernandez-Vidal, CEO at Telefonica Data. "We assessed carefully who could best partner with us to deliver on our goal, and Ariba has the solution and expertise. Ariba understands both the importance of being first in the market and the potential for this part of the world, and they can quickly get us started."

Telefonica will create a series of corporate exchanges leveraging Telefonica's leading presence throughout Portuguese and Spanish speaking countries, beginning with Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Peru, Mexico and Spain. The company intends on working with Ariba to create localized value-added network commerce services to be delivered to corporate exchange participants through Ariba Network.

Also as part of the intended multi-faceted agreement, Telefonica would resell Ariba buyer enablement solutions, including the Ariba ORMS solution and hosted Ariba ORMX service. These solutions work with the Ariba Network to enable midsize and large companies to dramatically lower costs and increase market efficiencies by using the Internet to extend their purchasing and supplier integration processes. Telefonica would also provide suppliers throughout Europe and Latin America with sell-side solutions conduct eCommerce via the Ariba Network. In addition, the company would provide localization services for supplier catalog content.

Telefonica would also use the Ariba Network and Ariba ORMS solution to manage its own purchasing and trading.

"Telefonica is an ideal global partner for Ariba," said Keith Krach, president and CEO at Ariba. "Telefonica's strength and passion for leadership matches well with our desire to partner with leading companies to provide the benefits of B2B eCommerce to all companies. This relationship will accelerate the creation of corporate exchanges and global market efficiencies throughout Europe and Latin America while adding significant new global reach for Ariba Network services."

Telefonica SA is Spain's foremost private-sector company and the leading telecommunications services operator in the Spanish- and Portuguese-speaking world. With revenues totaling 2.9 trillion pesetas in 1998 (US $20 billion), Telefonica ranks among the world's ten largest telecom companies. Telefonica is also Spain's biggest company in terms of profits (217.5 billion pesetas in 1998), volume of assets (about 6 trillion pesetas) and market capitalization.

Telefonica is present in 17 countries with a potential market of more than 530 million customers. Currently Telefonica manages more than 39 million fixed lines, 17 million mobile clients and 2.4 million TV subscribers. Telefonica can be contacted in Spain at 34-91-584-0844 or at prensa@telefonica.es.

Ariba, Inc. is a leading provider of business-to-business eCommerce services and solutions. The company delivers an open, end-to-end, best-of-breed platform of interoperable solutions to manage corporate purchasing on the Internet, build Net Markets and provide suppliers with buyer access and integration. Together, Ariba's software and services leverage the Internet-based Ariba Network to integrate the internal and external commerce processes of buyers, suppliers, Net Markets and commerce service providers. The result is a global eCommerce infrastructure that provides cost saving and revenue opportunities for businesses of all sizes. Ariba can be contacted in the U.S. at 650-930-6200 or at www.ariba.com.