Kawama.com Forms Strategic Alliance With Ingram Micro's Partnership America Program

Business Wire, April 24, 2000

Business Editors

IRVINE, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--April 24, 2000

First-to-Market eCommerce B2B Start-Up Adds Major Supplier and

Reseller Network to Help Schools Buy and Implement Technology

Solutions

Kawama.com(TM) has announced its signing a letter of intent to form an alliance with Ingram Micro Inc., the world's largest wholesale provider of technology products and services.

Kawama.com(TM), the Irvine business-to-business (B2B) company, which closed its "A" round of funding in January, now adds the strength of Ingram Micro, the operations engine behind leading global e-businesses. The alliance will provide the opportunity to offer Kawama.com services to all 1,200 of Ingram Micro's education reseller customers.

Ingram Micro's Partnership America program, the leading network of Government- and Education-focused computer resellers, will provide educational resellers the opportunity to partner with Kawama.com's solutions.

Kawama.com(TM) is a vertically integrated, Internet portal focused on the Education community that features age-appropriate, guided educational and edu-tainment content for students, parents and teachers, along with gateways to specialized sites for KawamaCommerce.com(TM), the B2B procurement site, and Learning For Success(TM), a provider of online K-12 educational content and classroom management solutions.

Director of business development Matt Forget described KawamaCommerce.com(TM) as "...different from the other players in this field, in that we are buyer centric, supplier neutral." Forget added, "We offer a proven, proprietary technology that includes not only an eCatalog solution, but also an eRFP/RFQ model. This will be followed up shortly with additional solutions that make us a one-stop shop for procurement officers." "We're excited to provide another value-added service to our Partnership America reseller customers through this alliance with Kawama.com," said Pam Smith, senior director, business development, Ingram Micro Inc. "This will increase our customers' opportunities in the education marketplace as the progression toward electronic procurement continues."

With assistance from Ingram Micro's Partnership America, along with their hundreds of other major suppliers, KawamaCommerce.com(TM) gives schools and districts the best buys on anything from consulting services to maintenance supplies, all the things it takes to keep a school in operation. And it does it all in an easy-to-use way that actually makes the purchaser's life easier while stretching scarce taxpayer dollars. For more information on KawamaCommerce.com(TM), call toll-free 888/234-LEARN (5327) or send email to commerce@kawama.com.