BuyerZone.com Announces Strategic Alliance With America Online

Business Wire, Feb 22, 2000

Business/Technology Editors

CAMBRIDGE, Mass.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Feb. 22, 2000

BuyerZone.com to Deliver Expert Advice and Intelligent eCommerce

Tools to Millions of Small Businesses through Several AOL Brands

BuyerZone.com, the premier online marketplace for small to mid-sized businesses, today announced an agreement with America Online, Inc. (NYSE:AOL), the world's leading interactive services company, to provide decision and purchasing management solutions across several AOL brands.

Under the agreement, AOL will offer small businesses access to BuyerZone.com's comprehensive marketplace for technology, office equipment, supplies and business services through a co-branded site available across AOL, AOL.COM, CompuServe and Netscape Netcenter. In addition, BuyerZone.com will incorporate and distribute a co-branded version of AOL's Instant Messaging software (AIM) on www.buyerzone.com.

Small business users of these AOL brands will have access to BuyerZone.com's intelligent decision-making tools, which include industry-leading comparison shopping tools, multi-vendor catalog, buying guides, product and industry news, user-generated product ratings, and price quotation and online purchasing capabilities. BuyerZone.com will build a web-based buying directory for AOL to provide a link to these services.

"Together, America Online and BuyerZone.com can help deliver the tools to help small businesses succeed," noted Brenda Chin Hsu, chief executive officer of BuyerZone.com. "By integrating BuyerZone.com's best-of-breed eCommerce tools and expert advice with AOL's small business areas, BuyerZone.com is one click closer to our small business customers."

"With BuyerZone.com, we can make it even easier for small businesses to buy the products and services they need," said Jim Martin, senior vice president and general manager of Netcenter. "BuyerZone.com's easy-to-use services are a great match with our goal of offering more convenient ways to handle the things that are important in our registered users' everyday lives."

Since the launch of its Web site in 1997, BuyerZone.com has influenced the buying decisions of over 2 million small and mid-sized business customers, and in the past twelve months, the company has assisted the purchase of more than $2.5 billion in goods and services. Today, BuyerZone.com represents the Internet's largest and most dynamic, independent business-to-business marketplace for technology, office equipment, supplies, and business services, connecting millions of buyers with the industry's broadest and highest-quality supplier network.

About BuyerZone.com

BuyerZone.com is a premier online purchasing hub for small to mid-sized companies. The company delivers a guided buying experience that empowers customers to easily evaluate and quickly make the right purchases for all their business needs.

As the Internet's largest business-to-business marketplace, BuyerZone.com's vast network of 8,100 suppliers provide customers with access to the broadest range of technologies, office equipment, supplies, and business services across the widest range of price points. BuyerZone.com is accessible for free at www.buyerzone.com and through leading small business portals on the Internet.

Company, product and service names may be trademarks or service marks of others.

BuyerZone.com Fact Sheet

Founded

1992

Ownership

Privately held. Raised $6.5 million in venture capital funding from BancBoston Ventures, Commonwealth Capital Ventures, OneLiberty Ventures and Women's Growth Capital Fund.

Mission

To provide small and mid-sized companies with the ultimate online buying experience that empowers them to efficiently make the right purchases for all their business needs.

Overview

BuyerZone.com is the premier Internet purchasing hub for small to mid-sized companies. We provide customers with access to the Web's largest and most dynamic business-to-business marketplace for technology, office equipment, supplies and business services, connecting millions of buyers with the industry's broadest and highest-quality supplier network. BuyerZone.com's vast network of suppliers provides customers with the freedom to choose between multiple vendors, product models and price points -- covering more than 175 types of critical business purchases and over 70% of a company's typical expenditures.

BuyerZone.com offers customers the most comprehensive set of research, decision-making and online purchasing tools to give business shoppers vendor-neutral guidance, as well as a personalized, company-wide purchasing management system that includes an integrated platform for online and offline purchases. Business shoppers access these tools for free at www.buyerzone.com, as well as a growing network of the most popular Internet portals and business sites.

In the past 12 months, BuyerZone.com has assisted the purchase of over $2.5 billion of goods and services.

Key Features

BuyerZone.com provides the most comprehensive set of online purchasing management tools available to small and mid-sized businesses today, including: