Pitney Bowes and Poste Italiane Form Strategic Alliance to Introduce Internet Postage in Italy; Partnership Launches the First Internet Postage Program in Europe

Business Wire, April 27, 2000

Business Editors

STAMFORD, Conn.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--April 27, 2000

Pitney Bowes Inc. (NYSE: PBI), the world's leading developer of mailing technologies, and inventor of PC postage technology, and Poste Italiane, one of the world's largest post offices, today announced the signing of a strategic alliance to bring Internet postage to Italy. This marks the first Internet postage program to be introduced in Europe. Under the multi-year arrangement, Poste Italiane will be co-branding its Internet postage program in Italy with Pitney Bowes through its wholly-owned subsidiary, Postecom. Phase one of the program will start in the summer, with a planned nationwide rollout by the end of this year. Internet postage service and offerings will cost the same as stamps, with no additional user fees, providing added convenience to businesses and consumers.

"Pitney Bowes is proud to partner with Poste Italiane to pioneer the first European Internet postage program, bringing this convenience and advanced technology to Italy's population of 56 million," said Murray Martin, president, Pitney Bowes International. "With over 20 years of experience in securely managing postal funds online with our innovative Postage-by-Phone network, Pitney Bowes has a proven track record for providing secure Internet postage transactions."

Established in 1979, Pitney Bowes' Postage-by-Phone(R) system was one of the world's first and largest e-commerce applications, providing customers with convenient, 24-hour/seven-days a week access to postal funds via remote downloading. Last year, over $13 billion in postal payments were securely managed over the Postage-by-Phone(R) network on behalf of more than 27 postal authorities around the world.

The agreement between Pitney Bowes and Poste Italiane includes the creation of a customized Internet postage system designed to complement existing Poste Italiane infrastructure. The system will also have the ability to exchange information with "intelligent" meters for added customer convenience.

"We conducted a review of all potential partners to help us implement Internet postage in Italy. We selected Pitney Bowes, because they understand the end-to-end mail and messaging process and have the broadest array of products and services," said Corrado Passera, Managing Director of Poste Italiane. "This is an important step in positioning our postal system for maximum efficiency - as stated in our Enterprise Plan - within year 2001."

"We recently organized for Internet business by developing a fully-owned Internet company, Postecom s.p.a., with the aim of launching a complete array of Internet services. At our website "www.poste.it," it's already possible for customers to find all the information needed about the postal services, access a search engine for post office addresses, zip codes, and track and trace parcels sent through our Postacelere express service. Recently, an innovative Hybrid Mail service called InterPosta has been introduced to give Internet users the opportunity to send a letter, to a physical address, through the web. New Internet services will be launched in the coming weeks to offer a complete virtual post office at the "www.poste.it" site."

Headquartered in the United States, Pitney Bowes Inc. is a $4.4. billion global provider of informed mail and messaging management. It serves 118 countries through dealer and direct operations. Pitney Bowes Italia, SRL, a subsidiary of Pitney Bowes Inc., was founded in 1992 and is headquartered in Milan. For more information about Pitney Bowes Italia, visit www.pitneybowes.it. For more information about Pitney Bowes Inc., visit www.pitneybowes.com.

Poste Italiane, the Italian Post Office, offers postal and banking services also through a network of over14,000 retail outlets. In 1999, Poste Italiane had $6 billion of revenues. The Poste Italiane group includes SDA Express Courier, Postel (offering hybrid electronic mail services), Poste Vita (life insurance company) and PosteCom (Internet services).