EarthLink Chooses Cardservice International's Payment Gateway to Transport Secure Transactions Over the Internet

Business Wire, Oct 5, 1999

NEW YORK--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Oct. 4, 1999--

Cardservice International Inc., today announced at Fall Internet World '99 that its LinkPoint Secure Payment Gateway will be EarthLink's (NASDAQ:ELNK) new payment engine for transporting secure electronic commerce transactions over the World Wide Web.

Cardservice International has provided the merchant account function for EarthLink's TotalCommerce services since they were introduced. By combining that function with the LinkPoint Secure Payment Gateway, EarthLink will be able to offer e-commerce merchants an all-in-one credit card acceptance process that is easier, less expensive, more secure and better streamlined.

"Cardservice is delighted that EarthLink has chosen to expand our existing relationship by integrating the LinkPoint API feature into its TotalCommerce solution suite," said Chuck Burtzloff, Cardservice International president and chief executive officer. "EarthLink's choice of Cardservice's LinkPoint Secure Payment Gateway underscores our mutual commitment to providing the most efficient, secure and robust e-commerce solutions in the industry."

Announced at the start of this year, TotalCommerce is EarthLink's answer for the small business that wants to expand its operations onto the Internet. It includes an online store builder, one-stop merchant account setup, full-featured site maintenance tools and detailed click-through tracing capability at an affordable price.

"We intended our TotalCommerce offerings to be the easiest and most empowering small business e-commerce solution in the industry," said Barry Friedman, director of business product management at EarthLink. "Our goal is to let merchants devote their attention toward growing their businesses, not concentrating on the technology behind it. With the LinkPoint Secure Payment Gateway, we've taken steps closer to that goal. Now our TotalCommerce merchants will be able to process credit cards on their sites through a single vendor."

The LinkPoint Secure Payment Gateway offers online merchants three unique and user-friendly payment solutions -- Virtual LinkPoint, LinkPoint HTML and LinkPoint API.

Virtual LinkPoint allows merchants to manually enter credit card transactions on a PC through a secure connection to the Internet. It is the Internet equivalent of a point-of-sale terminal or PC-based transaction software, without the hardware or maintenance expenses. Sales, authorizations and real-time reports are all provided by Virtual LinkPoint.

LinkPoint HTML is a simple yet sophisticated payment interface that wraps around a merchant's existing Web site, allowing shoppers to select and order products and securely pay for them with a credit card. All the same services provided by Virtual LinkPoint are available with LinkPoint HTML.

LinkPoint API is the most sophisticated payment solution Cardservice offers and is directed at software companies, commerce service providers, Internet service providers or cyber-wise merchants, enabling them to process sales, returns, authorizations and real-time reports in Secure Sockets Layer environment. LinkPoint API includes additional features, such as tax and shipping calculations and the ability to download electronic soft goods.

Merchants using the LinkPoint Secure Payment Gateway also receive fraud screening of each transaction submitted.

About EarthLink: EarthLink is one of the world's leading Internet service providers. Through its unified EarthLink Sprint Internet service, the company makes the Internet relevant and productive to more than 1.5 million individuals and businesses every day. Headquartered in Pasadena, California, EarthLink provides a full range of innovative access, hosting and e-commerce solutions to thousands of communities internationally from more than 2,300 points of presence. For more information, call (800) 395-8425 or visit www.earthlink.net.

About Cardservice International: Cardservice International is a technology-driven, customer-focused company that provides merchant account services and secure transport of financial transactions for businesses in both the physical and virtual worlds. Serving nearly 200,000 businesses, including more than 40,000 Internet merchants, Cardservice provides a complete range of online consumer payment options and offers merchants a comprehensive e-commerce product suite. For additional information, visit www.cardservice.com.