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Exhibit 99
CHECKFREE I-SOLUTIONS AND BILLSERV.COM EXTEND PARTNERSHIP TO BRING COMPANIES
GREATER CHOICE OF ELECTRONIC BILLING APPROACHES
CHECKFREE MAKES EQUITY INVESTMENT AND BILLSERV.COM BECOMES PREFERRED, OUTSOURCED
PROVIDER OF CHECKFREE I-SOLUTIONS SERVICES
ATLANTA and SAN ANTONIO, June 6 -- CheckFree (Nasdaq: CKFR), the leading
provider of electronic billing and payment (EBP) services, and billserv.com
(Nasdaq: BLLS), a leading electronic bill presentment and payment application
services provider (ASP), today announced an extension of their existing biller
service provider (BSP) agreement. Under the extended agreement, billserv.com
will play a key role in CheckFree's i-Solutions electronic billing and payment
solutions offering.
Under the agreement, CheckFree will make a $10 million equity investment in
billserv.com to assist the company in developing enhanced electronic billing
systems as well as implementation training to manage biller customer demand. In
addition, CheckFree will receive performance-based warrants entitling the
company to purchase 5 million billserv.com common shares as certain business
milestones are met.
CheckFree i-Solutions, the newest business within CheckFree's Software Division,
offers end-to-end electronic billing services, comprised of three major product
offerings:
* i-Series Software, formerly BlueGill Technologies, is an Internet billing
software suite that includes a core server component that supports
everything needed to launch an electronic billing and payment system
tailored for specific industries.
* i-Hosting services is an outsourced solution for bill detail hosting.
* i-Processing services provides billers with connections to CheckFree's
electronic billing and payment services and distribution network.
billserv.com will become the preferred provider of Checkfree's i-Hosting
services as part of this expanded relationship. As a leading billing service
provider with technology architecture based upon the i-Series Software line,
billserv.com can enable large billers to leverage CheckFree i-Hosting to roll
out quickly by outsourcing to billserv.com. Later, should they prefer to bring
electronic billing process management in-house, billserv.com can assist with
migration to an in-house solution built on CheckFree i-Series software.
"This relationship is made possible because billserv.com has built its
electronic billing and payment services around the CheckFree i-Solutions
software product," said Tom Stampiglia, president of CheckFree's Software
Division. "Large billers can now have the flexibility of using CheckFree
i-Series software as the technology platform in an outsourced environment
through billserv.com. This approach gives billers the added option of bringing
the electronic billing and payment function in-house on that same software
platform in the future."
"Through this expanded partnership, CheckFree and billserv.com are uniquely
positioned to provide billers with the greatest number of options when deploying
an EBPP system," said Michael Long, chairman and CEO of billserv.com. "This
relationship combines the strength and experience of two market leading
companies, which will protect and enhance any EBPP strategy a biller chooses,
while also providing the greatest reach to their consumers. Additionally, we
foresee this partnership to dramatically add to our current base of contracted
customers which represent more than 500 million paper bills per year."
"We are pleased that billserv.com is the company CheckFree has chosen for such a
direct investment," said Long. "These funds will be used to rapidly build
infrastructure in anticipation of the increased number of billers this
relationship will provide. We believe this investment will continue to support
our position as a market leader in the EBPP ASP arena."
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"This investment is a clear statement of CheckFree's belief in the ASP business
as a viable model for serving the growing number of billers that view electronic
billing and payment as a strategic aspect of their business," added Stampiglia.
"CheckFree is dedicated to accelerating biller adoption of electronic billing
and payment. Providing billers with flexible technology and building strong BSP
partner relationships are important aspects of that strategy."
Today, CheckFree works with 18 billing solutions providers including Derivion,
YourAccounts.com, Pitney Bowes and DocuCorp to increase the number of electronic
bills available to consumers at their choice of Web sites. CheckFree will
continue to work with all current and future BSP partners to drive biller
adoption of electronic billing and payment services across all biller segments.
For a complete list of CheckFree Biller Service Provider partners, visit the
company's Web site at www.checkfree.com.
About billserv.com, Inc.
billserv.com, Inc. is the leading electronic bill presentment and payment
application services provider that provides billers with a turnkey outsourcing
solution for presenting bills to consumers for payment on the Internet.
billserv.com serves an intermediary role between billers and bill aggregators by
consolidating customer billing information from multiple billers, and then
securely delivering it to aggregators. billserv.com has four product offerings:
eServ(SM), Internet billing clearinghouse services for EBPP; ePublishing(SM),
electronic publishing services for online statement delivery; eCare(SM), an
interactive customer care center operation; and eConsulting(SM), professional
consulting services for billing organizations offering in-house bill
presentment. billserv.com also owns and develops bills.com, the first Internet
portal dedicated to EBPP, where consumers can pay all their bills
electronically. For additional information, visit http://www.billserv.com or
call 210/402-5000.
About CheckFree
CheckFree (www.checkfree.com) is the leading provider of financial electronic
commerce services and products. Founded as an electronic payments processor in
1981, CheckFree launched the first fully integrated electronic billing and
payment solution, CheckFree E-Bill, in March of 1997. Today, CheckFree services
enable 3.3 million consumers to receive and pay bills over the Internet or
electronically. The Company has multi-year contracts with 121 of the nation's
top billers to provide online billing and payment through its network of
partnerships with more than 150 consumer service providers (CSPs), including
banks, brokerage firms, Internet portals and content sites, and personal
financial management (PFM) software.
CheckFree's Investment Services division provides a range of investment
management services to help more than 255 institutions provide portfolio
management and reporting services to their clients. CheckFree clients manage
over 820,000 portfolios totaling more than $480 billion in assets. Software and
services provided by CheckFree's Compliance and Financial Service division are
used to process more than two-thirds of the nation's six billion Automated
Clearing House (ACH) payments. In addition, nearly 400 banks and businesses use
reconciliation products and services the division provides.
Certain of the Company's statements in this press release are not purely
historical, and as such are "forward-looking statements" within the meaning of
the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. These include statements
regarding management's intentions, plans, beliefs, expectations or projections
of the future. Forward-looking statements involve risks and uncertainties,
including without limitation, the various risks inherent in the Company's
business, and other risks and uncertainties detailed from time to time in the
Company's periodic reports filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission,
including Form 10-K for the year ended June 30, 1999 (filed September 24, 1999),
Form 10-Q for the quarter ended March 31, 2000 (filed May 15, 2000), and Form
S-3 Registration Statement (filed January 14, 2000). One or more of these
factors have affected, and could in the future affect, the Company's business
and financial results in future periods, and could cause actual results to
differ materially from plans and projections. There can be no assurance that the
forward-looking statements made in this document will prove to be accurate, and
issuance of such forward-looking statements should not be regarded as a
representation by the Company, or any other person, that the objectives and
plans of the Company will be achieved. All forward-looking statements made in
this press release are based on information presently available to management,
and the Company assumes no obligation to update any forward-looking statements.