STAMPS.COM ANNOUNCES $30 MILLION PRIVATE FIANANCING FOR ENCRYPTIX UNIT BY VULCAN VENTURES AND STRATEGIC PARTNERS

Premier Strategic Investors Include American Express, Galileo, GetThere.com,
Loews Cineplex, Mail Boxes Etc., Mitsubishi, Sabre, SunAmerica and Tickets.com

 

SANTA MONICA, CALIF. – February 17, 2000 – Stamps.com™ (NASDAQ: STMP) announced today that its EncrypTix, Inc. unit, until now a wholly owned subsidiary, has secured a $30 million private financing led by Paul Allen’s Vulcan Ventures and a premier list of nine strategic partners in the events, movie, travel and financial service industries. Investors include American Express Travel Related Services Company, Inc., Galileo International, GetThere.com, Inc., Loews Cineplex Entertainment Corporation, Mail Boxes Etc. USA, Inc., Mitsubishi International Corporation, Sabre, Inc., SunAmerica Investment Inc. and Tickets.com, Inc. The financing is subject to necessary Hart-Scott-Rodino regulatory filings and review, which should be completed within 30 days.

EncrypTix was formed by Stamps.com in the 4th quarter of 1999 for the purpose of rapidly exploiting applications of its Internet security and authenticated print delivery technologies in markets outside of its core Internet mailing and shipping business. As a result, Stamps granted EncrypTix an exclusive license to its secure, FIPS 140-1 compliant technologies for three specialized fields of use– online event ticketing, travel and financial services.

Strategic investors in this round gain immediate access to the highly-secure EncrypTix Web Delivery™ technologies for delivering instruments with bearer value such as tickets, vouchers, certificates, checks and coupons over the Internet to ordinary laser and inkjet printers.

“We are proud of the tremendous progress EncrypTix has made in the short time since its inception and give great credit to the growing management team there, under the leadership of CEO Jim Rowan,” said John Payne, Chairman/CEO of Stamps.com . “As an independent company, EncrypTix will focus on its opportunities in the tickets, travel and financial service industries, enter into its own strategic alliances and recruit from the pool of world-class talent who prefer to work in pre-public early stage companies.”

On a basis of issued and outstanding shares, Stamps.com currently owns approximately two-thirds of EncrypTix and is the company’s largest shareholder. It will name two seats to EncrypTix’ board of directors, including John Payne, Stamps.com CEO, who will serve as Chairman of the Board of Directors of EncrypTix.

About Stamps.com

Founded in 1996, Santa Monica-based Stamps.com is the leading provider of Internet-based mailing and shipping services. It’s highly secure Internet Postage service was approved by the US Postal Service in August of 1999 after an exhaustive 2-year regulatory evaluation and field beta test. The company’s innovative technology eliminates the need for specialized postage metering hardware by giving customers the flexibility to print postage over the Internet – securely, accurately and fast. Through partnerships with major companies like America Online, Hewlett-Packard, IBM, Microsoft, Office Depot, Intuit and 3M, Stamps.com has tremendous reach into the small office/home office and consumer markets. More information about the company can be found at sdcmainprod.wpengine.com.

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“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, including Stamps.com’s ability to expand its product and service offerings, could cause actual results to differ materially from those in the forward-looking statement and, are detailed in filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission made from time to time by Stamps.com, including its Form 10-Q for the quarter ended September 30, 1999 and its registration statement on Form S-4, as amended, that was declared effective by the SEC on February 14, 2000. Stamps.com undertakes no obligation to release publicly any revisions to any forward-looking statements to reflect events or circumstances after the date hereof or to reflect the occurrence of unanticipated events.

Internet Postage, Stamps.com and the Stamps.com logo are trademarks of Stamps.com Inc. All other brands and names are property of their respective owners.