AMAZON.COM LAUNCHES AMAZON.COM ANYWHERE, PROVIDING SHOPPING WITH WIRELESS DEVICES SUCH AS THE PALM VII ORGANIZER
Amazon.com Acquires Convergence Corporation and Announces Ventures with Motorola and AvantGo
SEATTLE, Oct. 4 / -- Leading online retailer Amazon.com (NASDAQ:AMZN) today
launched Amazon.com Anywhere, wireless e-commerce that allows customers to
securely shop and check the status of auction items at Amazon.com when they
are away from their desktop computers. With the national launch of the new
Palm VII organizer today, Amazon.com�s vast selection of merchandise is now
accessible to customers anywhere, at anytime.
By untying customers from their desktops, we�re empowering them to get
things done and off their to-do lists--not just at anytime--but from
anywhere, said Jeff Bezos, founder and CEO of Amazon.com
To expand its wireless capabilities, Amazon.com has acquired Convergence
Corporation in exchange for equity having an aggregate value of
approximately $20 million. The privately held firm is known for creating
software that provides Internet access for a variety of information
appliances. The employees from the Atlanta firm will relocate to Seattle
and support Amazon.com Anywhere.
Amazon.com Anywhere brings the convenience of secure 1-Click purchasing and
product-searching capabilities to wireless appliances. The Palm VII
organizer from Palm Computing, a 3Com company (NASDQ:COMS), is the first
all-in-one, wireless, hand-held device to offer remote access to the
Internet, allowing users to conveniently shop at Amazon.com from any
location. Amazon.com customers can simply download a free application from
Amazon.com at www.amazon.com/anywhere or from Palm at www.Palm.Net.
Amazon.com Anywhere illustrates the Palm VII�s power to provide e-commerce
capabilities simply and instantly for people on the move, said Alan
Kessler, president of Palm Computing. We�re thrilled to offer our users
the option to shop at Amazon.com as we introduce our highly anticipated Palm
VII organizer nationwide.
Amazon.com is committed to providing its customers the largest possible
product selection across a broad spectrum of wireless platforms. To serve
the emerging two-way Internet capability of a number of devices, Amazon.com
Anywhere has entered into agreements with hand-set manufacturer Motorola and
AvantGo.
To support global standards and promote the long-term growth of the wireless
Internet industry, Amazon.com also announces today that is the first
e-commerce retailer to join the Wireless Application Protocol Forum (WAPF).
The role of the WAPF is to develop and maintain a global standard for
wireless data and e-commerce transactions on the Internet.
About Amazon.com, Inc.
Amazon.com, Inc. (NASDAQ: AMZN), the Internet�s No. 1 music, No. 1 video,
and No. 1 book retailer, opened its virtual doors on the World Wide Web in
July 1995 and today offers Earth�s Biggest Selection with online auctions,
toys, electronics, free electronic greeting cards, and more than 4.7 million
book, music-CD, video, DVD, and computer-game titles. Amazon.com seeks to be
the world�s most customer-centric company, where people can find and
discover anything they may want to buy online. As part of its efforts to
provide the best shopping experience for customers, Amazon.com provides
secure credit-card payment, personalized recommendations, streamlined
ordering through 1-Click technology, and hassle-free auction bidding with
Bid-Click.
Amazon.com operates two international Web sites: www.amazon.co.uk in the
United Kingdom and www.amazon.de in Germany. Amazon.com also operates
PlanetAll (www.planetall.com), a Web-based address book, calendar, and
reminder service. It also operates the Internet Movie Database
(www.imdb.com), the Web�s comprehensive and authoritative source of
information on more than 150,000 movies and entertainment programs and
500,000 cast and crew members dating from the birth of film in 1892 to the
present. Amazon.com also operates LiveBid.com (www.livebid.com), the sole
provider of live-event auctions on the Internet.
In addition, Amazon.com has invested in leading Internet retailers that are
improving the lives of customers by making shopping easier and more
convenient: drugstore.com, an online retail and information source for
health, beauty, wellness, personal care and pharmacy, at www.drugstore.com;
Pets.com, the online leader for pet products, expert information, and
services, at www.pets.com; HomeGrocer.com, the first fully integrated
Internet grocery-shopping and home-delivery service, with operations in
Seattle and Portland, Oregon, at www.homegrocer.com; and Gear.com, which
offers brand-name sporting goods at prices from 20% to 90% off retail, at
www.gear.com.
About 3Com
3Com and Palm Computing are registered trademarks. Palm VII is a trademark
and Palm.Net is a service mark of 3Com Corporation or its subsidiaries.
This announcement contains forward-looking statements that involve risks and
uncertainties that include, among others, Amazon.com�s limited operating
history, anticipated losses, unpredictability of future revenues, potential
fluctuations in quarterly operating results, seasonality, consumer trends,
competition, risks of system interruption, management of potential growth,
risks related to auction services, and risks of new business areas,
international expansion, business combinations, and strategic alliances.
More information about factors that potentially could affect Amazon.com's
financial results is included in Amazon.com's filings with the Securities
and Exchange Commission, including its Annual Report on Form 10-K for the
year ended December 31, 1998 and Quarterly Reports on Form 10-Q for the
quarters ended March 31, 1999 and June 30, 1999.
Rochelle L. Adams
JLM Partners
1111 Third Ave., Suite 1880
Seattle, WA 98101
[email protected]
PH: 206.381.3600
FX: 206.381.3607