Backtoschoolnow.com Teams Up with theglobe.com To Provide Students With Access to Back to School Information and School Supplies

Business Wire, August 25, 1999

FREDERICK, Md.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Aug. 25, 1999--

Getting ready for the school year just got a little easier.

Backtoschoolnow.com and theglobe.com (NASDAQ: TGLO) announced today that they are teaming up to provide theglobe.com's online community with a less expensive and quicker way to purchase school supplies as well as offer backtoschoolnow.com shoppers access to an informative and fun online community.

"theglobe.com is a wonderful online community that makes back to school a huge part of their Web site by creating an online area for students of all ages to get useful back to school information, school supplies and computer equipment," said Paula Jagemann, CEO of Online Office Supplies Company, creators of backtoschoolnow.com. "We think that students are looking for a more cost effective way to buy school supplies and working with a well-known company like theglobe.com is a great way to get in touch with our target audience."

theglobe.com's users will enjoy a special back to school area which will feature a shopping venue where students can purchase discounted school supplies. Additionally, there will be a link from backtoschoolnow.com for students and parents to connect to theglobe.com.

"theglobe.com has already achieved brand recognition among students of all ages," said Will Margiloff, Director of Advertising Sales for theglobe.com. "This partnership allows us to offer special discounts on useful products to this popular demographic at a time when they need them the most."

The Backtoschoolnow.com site is easy to navigate because it provides a separate list of supplies for students in elementary, middle, and high school as well as students at the university level. Students can just point and click to purchase their school supplies ranging from pens, pencils, colored pencils, paper, spirals, ruler, scissors, a box of tissues, glue, markers, folders, composition notebook and book covers. The site will also allow shoppers to switch over to the OnlineOfficeSupplies.com site to continue shopping without changing shopping carts.

Backtoschoolnow.com's parent company, OnlineOfficeSupplies.com, also runs another program aimed at helping schools. After a school administrator signs up their school with OnlineOfficeSupplies.com, OOSC.com will create a distinct Web page for that school to help make office supply shopping easy, quick and efficient while providing a unique way for schools to earn revenue. The distinct Web page is linked off of the main OOSC Web site. OOSC calculates the amount of money that the school spends on office supply orders through this Web page. A percentage of the quarterly sales will be given back to them providing much-needed revenues, or businesses can choose to receive their earned amount in discounted office supply products from OOSC. At the bottom of the Web site there will be a total on how much money the school has spent. The Affinity Program is also available to non-profits and charity organizations.

About Online Office Supplies Company

Online Office Supplies Company is a Web-based office supply superstore offering the lowest nationwide prices for over 30,000 products. OOSC was co-founded by CEO Paula Jagemann. The board of directors include John Sidgmore, Vice Chairman, MCI WorldCom and Chairman, UUNET (NASD: WCOM); Mory Ejabat, CEO, Ascend Communications (NASD: ASND); Daniel Rosen, General Manager New Technology, Microsoft Research (NASD: MSFT); Sky Dayton, Chairman & Founder, EarthLink Network (NASD: ELNK); Don Clarke, CFO, Net2000; and Chris Scatliff, CEO, UUNET Canada. Primary Technical Advisor is Michael O'Dell, Chief Scientist, UUNET. OOSC was named the number one privately held company to watch in 1999 by Digital South Magazine. Online Office Supplies Company's executive offices are located in Frederick, Md. and can be contacted at 301-874-3320 or via email at info@OnlineOfficeSupplies.com.

About theglobe.com ( http://www.theglobe.com )

theglobe.com is the trusted network of communities that supplies the best of breed services for people to interact with others around similar interests and passions. The intuitive design has been constructed to foster a user's creative and interactive experience, and is setting a standard for online networks by providing members with a wealth of services and content. As their online home, theglobe.com offers users a full service department store ( shop.theglobe.com ), person-to-person auctions, popular games, the latest news, stock quotes, free e-mail, chat, events, discussion groups, and the ability to read or create personalized member pages. The site is based around content, commerce and user interaction within 14 themes of interest including Art, Auto, Business, Careers, Entertainment, Games, Health, Life, Metro, News, Romance, Sports, Technology & Travel.

Forward-Looking Statements:

This announcement may contain forward-looking statements, which are based on current expectations and involve a number of risks and uncertainties. There are a number of important factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those expressed in any forward-looking statements made by theglobe.com. These factors include, but are not limited to, our limited operating history; in the anticipation of continued loss, the anticipation of continued losses; fluctuations in operating results and seasonality; risks and uncertainties involved in acquisitions and joint ventures; our substantial reliance on advertising revenues; the ability to maintain and increase user traffic on our web site; the lack of widely accepted standards to measure users or user activity of web sites; the continued growth and commercial viability of the Web; risks of technological and system failures, including security breaches; intense competition; and the general risks and stock price volatility associated with Internet businesses. Investors are also directed to consider other risks and uncertainties discussed in documents filed by the company with the Securities and Exchange Commission including, without limitation, under "Risks Factors" set forth in theglobe.com's Annual Report on Form 10-K and registration statement on Form S-1. We undertake no obligation to publicly release the result of any revisions to these forward-looking statements, which may be made to reflect events or circumstances after the date hereof or to reflect the occurrence of unanticipated events.