FreeMarkets Selects Intel and Microsoft to Power Global B2B eMarketplace

SANTA CLARA, Calif., Sept. 11, 2000 — FreeMarkets, Inc., Intel Corp., and Microsoft Corp. today announced that FreeMarkets has selected Intel-based servers running Windows 2000 and Microsoft .NET Enterprise Servers to power its global B2B eMarketplace.

The combination of Intel-based servers and Microsoft .NET Enterprise Servers software delivers the scalability and reliability FreeMarkets requires to create global auctions for the millions of dollars’ worth of business that flow through its eMarketplace daily.

FreeMarkets is the world’s largest B2B eMarketplace, bringing together buyers from Global 1000 companies with suppliers from around the globe to deliver results in the form of savings and reductions in process time. FreeMarkets has conducted 5,000 online auctions for more than $7.6 billion worth of goods and services to date, creating an estimated savings of nearly $1.5 billion for its customers. To continue its track record of delivering results, FreeMarkets requires an extremely reliable platform that can scale to meet tremendous growth in both the number of users and the volume of business conducted through its eMarketplace.

“Hundreds of millions of dollars in business are at stake every day in the FreeMarkets B2B eMarketplace and real-time information sharing is critical,” said John Benzinger, FreeMarkets director of Technical Operations. “We require a reliable platform with the ability to scale to meet our growth. By implementing best-of-breed products such as Intel-based servers and Microsoft’s .NET Enterprise servers, we can address this need in a cost-effective manner, while maintaining high-quality performance.”

As part of its strategy to incorporate best-of-breed technologies throughout its operations, FreeMarkets is utilizing the enterprise-ready platform featuring Intel-based Compaq Proliant ML 370 2-way and 8500 servers with 4-, and 8-way Pentium III Xeon processors, and the Microsoft Windows® 2000 operating system. In addition, the company has implemented Microsoft .NET Enterprise Servers, an integrated Web solution platform incorporating Microsoft Windows 2000 Datacenter Server, SQL Server 2000, COM+, ASP, and the Visual Studio development tools to meet the performance and availability demands of its expanding B2B eMarketplace.

“The collaboration between Intel and Microsoft offers our customers a flexible e-business architecture to accelerate their time to deployment with new Internet services,” said Mike Fister, vice president and general manager of the Enterprise Platforms Group at Intel. “FreeMarkets is a great example of a company that has benefited from the modular ‘scale-out’ methodology that makes Intel-based servers a scalable and reliable platform for today’s fast-growing Internet economy.”

“When experiencing ‘hyper’ growth, our customers rightly demand that Intel and Microsoft provide business solutions that are scalable, reliable, and that give a growing e-business the agility it needs to succeed in the next phase of the Internet,” said Peter Boit, vice president of e-commerce solutions for Microsoft. “We are excited to work closely with Intel to deliver the e-business platform that can lead to growth today, and prepare for the .NET software services that are on the way.”

FreeMarkets is the latest customer to adopt the Intel/Microsoft e-business platform under a recently announced e-business alliance between the two companies last month at Microsoft’s Financial Analyst Meeting in Redmond. The two companies are working together to deliver joint customers best-of-class, end-to-end e-business solutions as well as offering integration and service to e-businesses such as FreeMarkets, Lycos.com, and many others.

About FreeMarkets

FreeMarkets is the leading B2B eMarketplace. FreeMarkets combines its industry-leading technology platform with unparalleled sourcing information and world-class services to deliver huge savings to customers. FreeMarkets has executed over 5,000 online auctions for more than $7.6 billion worth of goods and services to date, and created estimated savings of nearly $1.5 billion for its customers. The FreeMarkets B2B eMarketplace enables buying organizations to source products from more than 130 supply verticals. More than 5,600 suppliers from over 50 countries have participated in the FreeMarkets B2B eMarketplace. The Company also operates FreeMarkets Asset Exchange, the world’s leading B2B eMarketplace for surplus assets and inventory. FreeMarkets can be found on the Web at www.freemarkets.com . FreeMarkets is a registered trademark of FreeMarkets, Inc.

About Intel

Intel, the world’s largest chip maker, is also a leading manufacturer of computer, networking and communications products. Additional information is available at http://www.intel.com/pressroom .

About Microsoft

Founded in 1975, Microsoft (Nasdaq “MSFT”) is the worldwide leader in software, services and Internet technologies for personal and business computing. The company offers a wide range of products and services designed to empower people through great software — any time, any place and on any device.

Note to editors: For more information on how Freemarkets and many other companies are building their e-Business infrastructures on Intel-based solutions, please visit http://www.intel.com/eBusiness/ . If you are interested in viewing additional information on Microsoft, please visit the Microsoft Web page at http://www.microsoft.com/ecommerce/ on Microsoft’s corporate information pages.

* Third party marks and brands are property of their respective holders.

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