ATLANTA, Oct. 7 /PRNewswire/ -- Harbinger Corporation (Nasdaq: HRBC), a
worldwide supplier of electronic commerce software, services and solutions and
the Sun-Netscape Alliance (Alliance), a premier provider of e-commerce
applications and infrastructure software solutions, today jointly announced
that they are in discussions to create an open, full-service electronic
procurement and digital marketplace solution servicing the petroleum industry.
The companies would leverage their extensive penetration within the
$1 trillion-plus petroleum industry to develop a digital marketplace
leveraging multi-vendor goods and services representing 80 to 90 percent of
the industry's tier one suppliers.
This new vertical marketplace portal will fulfill the industry's vision
for a full-service procurement solution, where a comprehensive procurement
application drives the digital marketplace, linking buyers and suppliers to a
centralized multi-vendor catalog, and a complete suite of value-added
e-commerce transaction services.
Confirming the need for strong independent marketplaces as the next wave
of business-to-business e-commerce, AMR Research Analyst Scott Latham states
in an October 1999 Frontline Report, "Independent Transaction Exchanges (ITEs)
drastically increase an organization's scope to distribute product. Trading
exchanges can expose companies to new customers, help break traditional
supplier-buyer networks, and overcome time and geographic hurdles." While
many large producers are already engaged in an effort to standardize their MRO
purchasing, most are heading in different directions. An open marketplace
solution would allow buying companies to immediately gain centralized control
over their purchasing processes, drive down supply chain costs, expedite
e-commerce transaction exchange, and extend their existing procurement
technologies.
Key to the procurement marketplace's success is quickly reaching critical
mass, and both organizations have formidable capabilities and experience to
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TO BUSINESS AND TECHNOLOGY EDITORS:
Sun-Netscape Alliance and Harbinger in Discussions to Create Open Petroleum
Industry Procurement and Digital Marketplace Solution
ATLANTA, Oct. 7 /PRNewswire/ -- Harbinger Corporation (Nasdaq: HRBC), a
worldwide supplier of electronic commerce software, services and solutions and
the Sun-Netscape Alliance (Alliance), a premier provider of e-commerce
applications and infrastructure software solutions, today jointly announced
that they are in discussions to create an open, full-service electronic
procurement and digital marketplace solution servicing the petroleum industry.
The companies would leverage their extensive penetration within the
$1 trillion-plus petroleum industry to develop a digital marketplace
leveraging multi-vendor goods and services representing 80 to 90 percent of
the industry's tier one suppliers.
This new vertical marketplace portal will fulfill the industry's vision
for a full-service procurement solution, where a comprehensive procurement
application drives the digital marketplace, linking buyers and suppliers to a
centralized multi-vendor catalog, and a complete suite of value-added
e-commerce transaction services.
Confirming the need for strong independent marketplaces as the next wave
of business-to-business e-commerce, AMR Research Analyst Scott Latham states
in an October 1999 Frontline Report, "Independent Transaction Exchanges (ITEs)
drastically increase an organization's scope to distribute product. Trading
exchanges can expose companies to new customers, help break traditional
supplier-buyer networks, and overcome time and geographic hurdles." While
many large producers are already engaged in an effort to standardize their MRO
purchasing, most are heading in different directions. An open marketplace
solution would allow buying companies to immediately gain centralized control
over their purchasing processes, drive down supply chain costs, expedite
e-commerce transaction exchange, and extend their existing procurement
technologies.
Key to the procurement marketplace's success is quickly reaching critical
mass, and both organizations have formidable capabilities and experience to
expedite the development process. The Sun-Netscape Alliance and Harbinger
already provide open standards-based e-commerce products and services to all
of the major petroleum refiners and more than half of the worldwide petroleum
industry suppliers who spend approximately 30 percent of their annual revenue
to procure MRO goods and services. The Alliance and Harbinger additionally
would expect to collaborate with petroleum industry leaders to help ensure the
resulting full-service procurement solution and marketplace meets industry
needs.
"We are seeing a convergence of electronic procurement software and the
emerging digital marketplace," said Steve Savignano, senior vice president and
general manager of the e-commerce applications division within the
Sun-Netscape Alliance. "We are in discussions with Harbinger, because
together we can potentially provide the petroleum industry with the best
full-service procurement solution and digital marketplace available. The
solution would give the industry's leading energy producers access to the
comprehensive petroleum supplier community, while enabling them to maintain
centralized control over their supplier relationships with the ability to
model unique business processes and leverage tighter integration with all
business-critical enterprise information systems."
The full-service procurement marketplace is expected to include electronic
procurement capabilities, a comprehensive industry supplier catalog, along
with integrated e-commerce transaction and trading community management
services. The Alliance provides a comprehensive packaged suite of e-commerce
applications including strategic Internet procurement applications to the
industry's principal producers. The procurement solution and marketplace
would facilitate the creation and exchange of transactions through an
established e-commerce portal, harbinger.net(SM), and would help ensure open
linkages with other established portals and applications.
"We can help give electronic commerce in the petroleum industry a jump
start," said C. Tycho Howle, chairman and chief executive officer of
Harbinger. "By teaming with the Sun-Netscape Alliance, we can more rapidly
expand the breadth of products and services we're already delivering to
thousands of petroleum industry companies. This new portal will provide our
petroleum customers and prospects unprecedented facilities for buying and
selling products and services electronically, including auctions, surplus
sales and industry news that allow e-commerce enabled companies within the
petroleum industry to get the most from their e-commerce investments."
About The Sun-Netscape Alliance
America Online, Inc. and Sun Microsystems, Inc. formed the Sun-Netscape
Alliance to provide easy to deploy, comprehensive enterprise and e-commerce
solutions to business partners and other companies competing in today's Net
Economy. The Alliance product portfolio provides customers with the
industry's most scalable, integrated infrastructure software and a family of
production ready e-commerce applications. The products are offered on the
industry's most widely available product platforms, including DEC, HP, IBM,
Linux, SGI, Microsoft Windows and Sun. The Alliance software product
portfolio includes: messaging and calendar, collaboration, web, application,
directory, and certificate servers. The Alliance also offers a family of
production-ready applications for e-commerce, including commerce exchange,
procurement, selling, and billing. For more information, visit
http://www.iplanet.com.
About America Online, Inc.
Founded in 1985, America Online, Inc. (NYSE: AOL), based in Dulles,
Virginia, is the world's leader in interactive services, Web brands, Internet
technologies and e-commerce services. America Online, Inc. operates: two
worldwide Internet services, America Online, with more than 17 million
members, and CompuServe, with approximately 2 million members; several leading
Internet brands including ICQ and Digital City, Inc.; the Netscape Netcenter
and AOL.COM portals; and the Netscape Navigator and Communicator browsers.
Through its strategic alliance with Sun Microsystems, the Company develops and
offers easy-to-deploy, end-to-end e-commerce and enterprise solutions for
companies operating in the Net Economy.
About Sun Microsystems, Inc.
Since its inception in 1982, a singular vision, The Network is The
Computer, has propelled Sun Microsystems, Inc. (Nasdaq: SUNW) to its position
as a leading provider of high quality hardware, software and services for
establishing enterprise-wide intranets and expanding the power of the
Internet. With more than $11 billion in annual revenues, Sun can be found in
more than 150 countries and on the World Wide Web at http://sun.com.
About Harbinger
Harbinger Corporation is a leading worldwide provider of
business-to-business Electronic Commerce software, services and solutions.
The company maximizes its customers' business potential with comprehensive,
scalable E-Commerce solutions that help streamline operations, increase
profitability and build electronic trading communities. Harbinger's objective
is to serve more customers using Internet Protocols (IP) than any other
provider and to establish harbinger.net(SM) as the preferred transaction
portal for E-Commerce information and mission-critical, business-to-business
E-Commerce transactions. Headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia, Harbinger
provides worldwide support to its customer community from multiple
International operations facilities. For more corporate information, go to
http://www.harbinger.com. Access Harbinger's online EC Resource Center and other
network services at http://www.harbinger.net.
This press release contains statements which may constitute
"forward-looking statements" within the meaning of the Securities Act of 1933
and the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended by the Private Securities
Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Those statements include statements regarding
the intent, belief or current expectations of Harbinger Corporation and
members of its management as well as the assumptions on which such statements
are based. Prospective investors are cautioned that any such forward-looking
statements are not guarantees of future performance and involve risks and
uncertainties, and that actual results may differ materially from those
contemplated by such forward-looking statements. Important factors currently
known to management that could cause actual results to differ materially from
those in forward-looking statements include fluctuation of our operating
results, the ability to compete successfully and the ability to integrate
acquired companies. Additional factors are set forth in the Safe Harbor
Compliance Statement for Forward-looking Statements included as Exhibit 99.1
to the Company's Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31,
1998. The Company undertakes no obligation to update or revise
forward-looking statements to reflect changed assumptions, the occurrence of
unanticipated events or changes to future operating results.
NOTE: Harbinger and the Harbinger logo are registered trademarks and
harbinger.net is a service mark of Harbinger Corporation or its subsidiaries.
All other company and product names referenced herein are registered
trademarks or trademarks of their respective owners.
Netscape and the Netscape N logo are registered trademarks in the United
States and other countries of Netscape Communications, a subsidiary of America
Online, Inc. Sun, Sun Microsystems, the Sun Logo and iPlanet are trademarks
of Sun Microsystems, Inc. in the United States and other countries.
SOURCE Netscape Communications Corporation
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Related links:
http://www.harbinger.net
Company News On-Call:
http://www.prnewswire.com/comp/585525.html or fax,
800-758-5804, ext. 585525
CONTACT:
Wendy Gold of Harbinger Corporation,
404-467-3343, or wendy.gold@harbinger.com; or Jeff Cox of
Sun-Netscape Alliance, 650-937-7183, or kristenh@netscape.com
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