Beyond.com Enhances Digital Delivery of Software for Microsoft's Internet Explorer Browser

Business Wire, Jan 22, 1999

SUNNYVALE, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Jan. 22, 1999--

Company Plans Similar Digital Download Enhancements

for Netscape Navigator in Coming Months

Internet software superstore Beyond.com(tm) (Nasdaq:BYND) today unveiled a quick and painless proprietary process that lets people download digitized software from the Internet to a computer desktop with a few simple clicks.

The company said that its Beyond.com Download Manager enables people to download software digitally from the popular browser, Microsoft's Internet Explorer, more easily than ever before, rather than ordering software in a box whose disks or CD-ROMs must then be manually loaded onto a computer.

Until now, the process of digitizing software so that its intellectual property could be downloaded in bits and bytes to a computer involved more mouseclicks and more steps. The revolutionary Beyond.com Download Manager refines and simplifies earlier renditions of its software download.

"With the Beyond.com Download Manager, all software automatically downloads directly to the desktop, creating a new icon on the user screen," said Mark Breier, president and chief executive officer of Beyond.com. "Downloading software is now a matter of following a few, easy prompts. Once software has been downloaded to a desktop, activating that software is simply another mouseclick."

Beyond.com expects to unveil a comparable Download Manager for Netscape's Navigator browser in coming months.

The new Beyond.com Download Manager so advances the ability to digitize intellectual property that Breier predicted the new technology would most likely transform the way many people buy software.

"Software that is digitized, and therefore can be downloaded from the Internet in bits and bytes, accounts for a growing percentage of the software we sell," said Beyond.com Chief Technology Officer John Pettitt. "Before today, the digital download of software was a challenge even for experienced, Internet-savvy customers. Beyond.com's Download Manager changes all that, making the digital delivery of software so easy just about anyone can do it."

Pettitt characterized today's announcement as the first in a series of technological advances the company plans to announce in coming months. Over the next six months, Pettitt said the company plans continuous improvements to the ease and simplicity of digitally downloading software from Beyond.com's Web site at http://www.beyond.com.

About Beyond.com

Beyond.com sells commercial, off-the-shelf software to the government enterprise, corporate and consumer markets, offering its customers a better place to buy software. Visitors to the company's online store http://www.beyond.com enjoy a comprehensive selection of software backed by customer service and competitive pricing.

Approximately 39,000 software stock-keeping units (SKUs) are available for online purchase with 5,600 SKUs available for immediate, electronic delivery, including software from such major publishers as Adobe, Lotus, Microsoft, Sun Microsystems and Symantec. The company has established strategic marketing alliances with America Online, Inc., Excite, Inc., Netscape Communications Corp. and Network Associates.

Additionally, Beyond.com offers publishers transaction processing, physical and electronic order fulfillment, customer support, site design consultation, marketing support and reporting. The company has applied for federal registration of the marks BEYOND.COM and BEYOND DOT COM. Beyond.com Corp. trades on the Nasdaq National Market under the symbol ("BYND").

More information on the company can be found in the company's filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission ("SEC").

To the extent that this news release discusses expectations about Beyond.com's plans to grow the company's revenue or customers based on the digital delivery of software, or subsequent enhancements to the technology thereof, these statements are forward-looking within the meaning of Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933, as amended, and Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended, and are subject to substantial risks and uncertainties. Actual results for the first quarter of 1999 and subsequent quarters could differ materially from any future performance suggested above. Among the factors that could affect subsequent periods include: Reductions in or cancellations of customer orders, changes in relationships with software suppliers, changes in relationships with strategic partners, changes in the product mix sold by the company, competition from other online software resellers or publishers, inability to raise sufficient capital on satisfactory terms, or at all, and other factors described in the company's filings with the SEC. Beyond.com news and product/service information is available at the company's World Wide Web site located at http://www.beyond.com.