ENGLEWOOD, Colo., March 29, 2000 — TransPoint LLC today announced that as part of its campaign to increase consumer awareness and adoption of online bill payment, it will be featured on the cable TV program
“The Balancing Act”
and on Sky TV’s in-flight video presentation,
“Bunting’s Window.”
The programs will reach more than 100 million households in April and will be viewed by the 1.5 million airline passengers of United Airlines, TWA and US Airways.
The
“Balancing Act”
and
“Bunting’s Window”
discuss the convenience and ease of use that TransPoint TM online bill payment service offers consumers who use the online bill payment service.
“E-billing is an extremely valuable option for consumers because it can save them time and money. But awareness of e-billing is still quite low,”
said Ruthann Lorentzen, director of marketing at TransPoint.
“Very early on, we realized that it would take considerable effort to educate the public and build awareness of e-billing to successfully launch this service. In addition to our advertising strategy, we feel ‘The Balancing Act’ and ‘Bunting’s Window’ are excellent venues to jump-start consumer awareness.”
“The Balancing Act,”
independently produced by Emmy Award-winning Five Star Productions, is a nationally syndicated cable television series. It is dedicated to addressing the issues facing today’s professional woman and explores the
“balancing act”
of being an executive by day and a mother by night. Hosted by Suzanne Somers, actress and entrepreneur, the show airs on the USA and Bravo networks. Ten days after its air date, the segment can be viewed by visiting the Five Star Productions Web site, at http://www.vstar.com/ or at the TransPoint Web site, at http://www.transpoint.com/ .
“Bunting’s Window”
is an in-flight video produced by Sky TV and hosted by Mark Bunting, an Emmy Award-winning journalist. The 11,000 airings in April will be shown on United Airlines, TWA and US Airways and will be seen by 1.5 million passengers. TransPoint will also be featured in United’s in-flight magazine, Hemispheres. In addition, the segment will be featured on the Sky TV video Web site, at http://www.skytv.net/ , and will be linked to the TransPoint Web site.
To further increase consumer awareness of online bill payment services TransPoint launched a multimillion-dollar national advertising campaign in February. Advertisements began appearing in national and regional print publications including the Wall Street Journal, USA Today and the New York Times, in online destinations and on radio stations in major metropolitan areas.
TransPoint’s online payment service allows subscribers to view and pay bills that arrive electronically through TransPoint, pay bills that arrive through the U.S. Postal Service, and pay nearly anyone else to whom they would normally write a check.
Currently, the TransPoint e-bills service is available to consumers through the MSN MoneyCentral online personal finance service, at http://www.moneycentral.msn.com/ , the TransPoint Web site, at http://www.transpoint.com/ , the Compass Bank Web site, at http://www.compassweb.com/ , and the InterWest Bank Web site, at http://www.interwestbank.com/ . Several other popular Internet destination sites and consumer service providers have committed to go live with TransPoint in the next few months.
About TransPoint
TransPoint, established in June 1997, is a joint venture of Microsoft Corp. (Nasdaq
“MSFT”
) and First Data Corp., with Citibank as a minority equity investor. Englewood, Colo.-based TransPoint is a leader in the emerging electronic bill presentment and payment (EBPP) industry with a seamless e-bills service built from the ground up. The TransPoint system uses innovative technology and integrates easily with billers and banks’ existing payment systems. The TransPoint service is designed to be the fast, easy way for consumers with Internet access to make all their payments online from a single, secure Web site. Consumers can pay their bills at multiple Internet locations, including the MSN MoneyCentral online personal finance service, the TransPoint Web site, and the Web sites of participating financial institutions.
On Feb. 15, 2000, TransPoint entered into a definitive merger agreement with CheckFree Corp., a leader in electronic billing and payment. The combined technologies and relationships of the two entities are expected to accelerate the billing and payment process from paper to the Internet and to advance the rate at which consumers sign up for electronic billing. The transaction will be accounted for as a purchase by CheckFree and is expected to be final in four to six months. More information about TransPoint is available at http://www.transpoint.com/ .
This announcement contains forward-looking statements that involve risks and uncertainties, including those relating to the company’s ability to grow its user and advertiser base. Actual results may differ materially from the results predicted, and reported results should not be considered as an indication of future performance. The potential risks and uncertainties include, among others, the company’s limited operating history, the competitive environment in which the company competes, the early stage of the Web as an advertising and electronic-commerce medium, the company’s dependence on advertising, sponsorship and commerce revenues, the company’s dependence on strategic relationships to drive traffic to its Web sites, consumer acceptance of the company’s new products and services, the company’s ability to develop and integrate new technologies and services into its existing services and into new platforms, such as broadband, and the increased use of the Web for commerce. More information about the potential factors that could affect the company’s business and financial results is included in the company’s Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended Sept. 30, 1999, which is on file with the Securities and Exchange Commission.
TransPoint is an exclusive U.S. trademark of TransPoint LLC.
The names of actual companies and products mentioned herein may be the trademarks of their respective owners.
Note to editors: If you are interested in viewing additional information on Microsoft, please visit the Microsoft Web page at http://www.microsoft.com/presspass/ on Microsoft’s corporate information pages. If you are interested in viewing additional information on First Data, please visit the First Data Web page at http://www.firstdatacorp.com/ . If you are interested in viewing additional information on Citibank, please visit the Citibank Web page at http://www.citibank.com/ .