OFFICEDEPOT.COM SELECTS STAMPS.COM AS PREMIER
INTERNET POSTAGE PROVIDER

Upon USPS Approval, Stamps.com Internet Service to be Available to Office Depot
Customers Nationwide

 

San Francisco, July 19, 1999 – Office Depot (NYSE:ODP), the world’s largest seller of office products, today announced it has selected Stamps.com (NASDAQ: STMP) as its preferred provider for the delivery of postage over the Internet. Under the partnership agreement, OfficeDepot.com will offer the Stamps.com Internet Postage service from its Web site, offering millions of Office Depot customers the ability to purchase and print postage directly over the Internet.

“Buying postage through an Internet service like Stamps.com is a natural extension of the services we provide small businesses,” said Keith Butler, Vice President of OfficeDepot Online. “We chose Stamps.com because their easy to use, convenient service best matches our vision to offer access to office products and services 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.”

Office Depot will market the Stamps.com service from its web site allowing customers who are purchasing office products such as envelopes, labels, and shipping materials to quickly and conveniently purchase postage online. In addition, OfficeDepot.com will offer its customers special cost-saving Stamps.com promotions.

“Our partnership with Office Depot allows us to provide small businesses with added value and is an exceptional way for Stamps.com service to reach our target small business market,” said John Payne, president and CEO of Stamps.com. “As the preferred online postage service for small business professionals nationwide, we are pleased to offer our unique solution to the small business professionals served by Office Depot.”

The Internet Postage service developed by Stamps.com requires no set-up fees or additional hardware and has been approved by the U.S. Postal Service (USPS) for the final phase of Beta and market testing before commercial release. The integration with OfficeDepot.com will be available upon final USPS approval.

About Office Depot

Office Depot, Inc. (NYSE:ODP) currently operates 761 stores in the United States, Canada, France and Japan, as well as a national business-to-business delivery network that includes more than 60 local sales offices, 30 delivery centers and seven national Call Centers. In addition, the Company’s award-winning U.S. public Web site (www.officedepot.com) is open for business 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. Office Depot and its wholly owned subsidiary, Viking Office Products, currently have operations in 19 countries: Australia, Austria, Belgium, Canada, Colombia, France, Germany, Hungary, Ireland, Israel, Italy, Japan, Luxembourg, Mexico, the Netherlands, Poland, Thailand, the United Kingdom and the United States.

Office Depot’s sales for 1998 were $9.0 billion, an 11% increase over the $8.1 billion in sales during 1997. For the 1st quarter of 1999, the Company reported sales of $2.6 billion, while sales from Office Depot’s public and business-to-business Web sites were $50.35 million, a 759% increase from the $5.86 million in Internet sales in the first quarter of 1998.

About Stamps.com

Stamps.com (NASDAQ: STMP) is a leading provider of highly secure transaction-oriented Internet services for small business, consumer and corporate users. Stamps.com partners include America Online, Inc. (AOL), Avery Dennison, Office Depot, Intuit’s Quicken.com, Intel Corporation, MySoftware, Peachtree Software, Westvaco, and other leading Internet, office supply and technology companies.

Stamps.com is located at 3420 Ocean Park Blvd. Suite 1040, Santa Monica, CA 90405, tel (310) 581-7200, fax (310) 581-7500 and at http://sdcmainprod.wpengine.com.

“Safe Harbor” Statement under the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995: This release may contain forward-looking statements that involve risks and uncertainties. Important factors which could cause actual results to differ materially from those in the forward-looking statements are detailed in filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission made from time to time by Office Depot and Stamps.com, including Office Depot’s Annual Report on Form 10-K and Stamps.com’s prospectus related to its initial public offering that was filed with the SEC on June 25, 1999.

Stamps.com and Postage Server are trademarks of Stamps.com, Inc.