WILLIAMSTOWN, Mass., Aug. 21, 2001 -- Multi Service Corp., the nation's
sixth-largest processor of private-label credit cards, will run the
backend transaction-processing services of Clickshare Service Corp.,
including inbound customer-care management, the two companies said today.
Multi Service will offer to its card-issuing customers Clickshare's
platform for multi-site, privacy-protected digital-content purchasing and
will use the service on its own consumer websites. Clickshare will offer
Multi Service's transaction-processing services to content providers and
other partners.
"Over two decades, Multi Service has rapidly expanded its core
customer-care and transaction processing leadership in the trucking and
aviation industries," said Nell Fields, Clickshare's CEO. "Now, as our
primary processing partner, Multi Service will be offering card users a
new form of privacy and mobility with the ability to purchase digital
content anywhere on any device at any time."
Since 1994, Multi Service, with over $1.5 billion in annual billings, has
also developed specialized Internet database and user management
technologies and operates a group of specialized websites reached from
http://www.multiservice.com/websites/.
"Our alliance with Clickshare results from our conviction that the sale of
digital content -- music, text, multi-media entertainment, games, software
and services-- represents a multi-billion dollar emerging business
opportunity -- the next big frontier for online processing," said Mark
O'Connell, Multi Service president. "Clickshare's unique
distributed-customer management technology is designed to scale to the
opportunity, protecting consumer privacy and the sanctity of consumer
relationships with their most-trusted providers such as banks, telcos,
ISPs and associations."
The Clickshare Service allows a consumer to have one account at a
most-trusted "infomediary", and purchase information from across the web
without having to repeatedly enter credit-card information, register
repeatedly or surrender personal information. The result is one account,
one ID, one-bill simplicity.
About Multi Service
Multi Service Corp. was established in 1978 to provide specialized
credit-card services to the trucking industry, expanding to the aviation
industry in 1980. The Multi Service Card is the most widely used corporate
aviation card in the world. Headquartered in Overland Park, Kan., a suburb
of Kansas City, the company and also has offices in Australia and The
Netherlands.
Multi Service's core business is high-volume transaction-processing
programs and specialized web software. The private company also provides
processing services for toll road and tunnel authorities in Europe, and
consolidated billing and tracking services for the auto-parts industry.
Since 1994, Multi Service has developed specialized web software for a
wide variety of web sites and online applications, including product sales
and large active communities based on gaming and nostalgia. E-commerce has
been extensively employed on these sites, including retail transactions
and various methods of paying for online memberships, such as subscription
services and pay-by-the-hour.
About Clickshare
The Clickshare Service is an Internet transaction infrastructure for
privacy-protected purchasing of text, music, video, software, and other
products and services.
Consumers have one account at a website of their choice, and purchase
digital content from other websites without having to pass around a
credit-card number, repeatedly register or give out personal information.
Banks, ISPs, associations, retailers, wireless and other
telecommunications carriers use it to enhance, extend and share customer
relationships with publishers and entertainment providers.
Clickshare's clients include A. H. Belo & Co., Knight Ridder/Tribune
Business News, Comtex News Network Inc., China Online Inc., HomeTips.com,
uclick.com (Andrews McMeel/Universal Press), the Corpus Christi [Texas]
Caller Times, Foster's Daily Democrat [Dover, N.H.], the Concord [N.H.]
Monitor, the Sioux City [Iowa] Journal, the Lawrence [Ks.] Journal-World,
and others.
Clickshare is based in Williamstown, Mass. Its investors include Sawgrass
Seacoast Investors LLC and private individuals, including founding
executives of PeopleSoft Inc., and the former publisher of the
Philadelphia Inquirer and Chicago Sun-Times. Its executives, board and
advisors include veterans of the publishing and credit-card industries.
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CONTACTS:
For Multi Service Corp.:
Michele Urness, 913-663-9456
[murness@multiservice.com]
For Clickshare Service Corp.:
Edward Bride, 413-442-7718
[edbride@clickshare.com]
or:
Bill Densmore 877-340-0436
[Densmore@clickshare.com]