Cheryl & Co., Inc. Purchases Netscape Merchant System for Online Internet Shopping Mall

Business Wire, Oct 15, 1996

HOUSTON--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Oct. 15, 1996

"The Great InterMall of the Americas" is Scheduled to Open January 1, 1997.

Cheryl & Co., Inc. ("CCI"), a privately held Nevada corporation based in Houston, today announced that it has purchased Netscape Merchant System(TM) software from Netscape Communications Corporation (NASDAQ:NSCP) for use as a high performance vehicle for creating and managing its online Internet shopping mall, The Great InterMall of the Americas, scheduled for launch on January 1, 1997. Utilizing HTML and development tools such as Java-based programming with Truespace 2 graphic designs, CCI intends to offer a state of the art interactive shopping experience to web visitors. Through the use of Netscape Merchant System software, The Great InterMall of the Americas will provide a stimulating and encrypted environment to shoppers purchasing through credit card transactions. It will also permit foreign currency exchange and be capable of effectively managing, tracking and processing tens of thousands of world wide purchase and sales transactions daily for its storefront merchants.

"We are tremendously excited to demonstrate the full capabilities of Netscape Merchant System in the operational environment of an online Internet shopping mall," said Cheryl D. Austin, President of CCI. "We chose the Merchant System understanding that the future of the Internet marketplace is highly dependent upon the ability of merchants to offer the utmost in security for financial transactions consummated by credit card and Netscape has provided the answer," she said.

"Netscape is pleased to work with companies such as Cheryl & Co. which support open industry standards for the Internet," said Mike Homer, senior vice president, at Netscape. "The Netscape Merchant system is Cheryl & Co.'s key to tapping into and playing a leading role in the expansion of Internet commerce."

The Netscape Merchant System provides CCI with the capability of providing multiple merchants and consumers with product loading and updates, shopping basket and single checkout services, extended search capabilities, secure order processing, electronic mail order services and accurate monitoring of shopping and sales activities. It also provides mall merchants with a more informative and extensive interactive data base which will give them more control and decisive power over their marketing strategies.

"Our programmers and graphic designers have been working with merchants to integrate Netscape's powerful Merchant System with our ideal of a visually based shopping experience, as opposed to the text based catalogue sales offered by our competitors," said Austin. For the last eight months, CCI has been planning, developing, and designing the mall and its storefronts, assembling its highly qualified team of programmers, technicians, artists and support personnel and creating alternative service packages in order to assure access levels for all merchants, from the smallest specialty shop to the largest department store.

Merchants interested in receiving information regarding acquisition of a storefront in The Great InterMall of the Americas or those individuals with inquiries may contact CCI by sending email to "cci@ghgcorp.com" or by calling Cheryl D. Austin at (713) 335-4651 or by fax at (713) 335-9083 or by mailing requests for information to Cheryl & Co., Inc., PO Box 1019, Friendswood, TX., 77549.

Netscape Communications Corporation is a leading provider of open industry standard software for linking people and information over enterprise networks and the Internet. The company offers a full line of clients, servers, development tools and commercial applications to create a complete platform for next-generation, live online applications and can assist its customers by providing architecture, design, implementation and deployment consulting. Traded on NASDAQ under the symbol "NCSP," Netscape is based in Mountain View, California.

Additional information on Netscape is available on the Internet at http://home.netscape.com, by sending email to info@netscape.com or by calling 415-937-2555 (corporations) or 415-937-3777 (individuals).

Netscape, the Netscape Communications Corporation logo and Netscape Merchant System are trademarks of Netscape Communications Corporation. All other product names are trademarks of their respective companies.

CONTACT: Cheryl & Co. Inc.

Cheryl D. Austin, 713/335-4651