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Press
Releases
Wells
Fargo Invests In Digital Trade Exchange Technology Provider Bizbots
San Francisco - April 25, 2000
Aiming to
speed the development and adoption of e-commerce for businesses and consumers,
Wells Fargo & Company (NYSE: WFC) has closed the first stage of a multi-phase
investment in Bizbots (BusinessBots, Inc) a leading provider of advanced
digital exchanges for net marketplaces. This unique partnership will facilitate
the expansion of Bizbots' real-time, multi-buyer, multi-seller trading
engine into many vertical industry sectors.
"Wells Fargo strategic investments are targeted at Internet and e-commerce
companies with the potential to produce key innovations that meet Wells
Fargo's business objectives, while also being smart financial ventures,"
said Martin Gates, manager, Wells Fargo Strategic Investments.
This announcement represents the latest in a series of investments made
by Wells Fargo in Internet and e-commerce technology companies. Previous
investments include minority interests in the following companies:
- Billpoint,
a joint venture between Wells Fargo and eBay, which enables online person-to-person
payments for the world's largest personal online trading community;
- Netsales,
Inc., which provides advanced e-commerce capabilities to mid-size businesses
and is a core addition to the Wells Fargo eStore Business Solutions
product offering;
- Just In
Time Solutions, offering online bill payment and presentment services
to a variety of e-marketplaces and trade exchanges;
- 7/24 Solutions,
which provides wireless interface technologies and customizable content
for Web sites in various industries;
- Netstock
Direct offers individual investors access to and information about direct
stock plans and mutual funds, as well as online enrollment and transactions
in regular, dollar-based amounts.
"We are partnering with leading platform providers, marketplaces and technology
leaders to establish our Internet Payments Solutions across a wide spectrum
of e-marketplaces and trade exchanges," said Steve Ellis, executive vice
president, Wholesale Internet Solutions. "Our strength in financial services,
coupled with our expertise across a broad range of leading industries,
will be key to positioning us in diverse markets."
As the first major financial services company in the U.S. to launch Internet
banking services in 1995 (www.wellsfargo.com), Wells Fargo has blazed
the trail for interactive tools and features for customers. Wells Fargo
started online services in 1989, and over the last decade has introduced
a wide range of easy-to-use online services for customers. Both Gomez
Advisors and Nielsen/Net Ratings recently named Wells Fargo the top Internet
bank in terms of market share (14.4%) and total monthly visitor count.
"Building on our leadership offering financial services on the Internet
to consumers, Wells Fargo is now poised to play a leading role in kick-starting
trade exchanges and in helping companies to win big in business e-commerce,"
said Ellis. The company plans to make further investments in e-commerce
technologies in the future.
"Wells Fargo is a sophisticated technology investor and this exciting
development further validates Bizbots as the exchange technology of choice
for business-to-business net market makers," said Moses Ma, founder and
CEO of Bizbots. "We believe this partnership will accelerate both Bizbots'
and Wells Fargo's expansion into net marketplaces with access to critical
mass liquidity."
About Bizbots
Bizbots was founded in 1997 through a National Institute of Standards and
Technology (NIST) grant to design and deploy next generation standards for
electronic commerce. The successful completion of this work led to the creation
of Bizbots' advanced digital exchange engine. Bizbots' 100% Java agent-enabled
marktplace allows companies to create powerful, real-time, dynamic, multi-buyer/multi-seller
digital exchanges. The Bizbots e-commerce solution is massively scalable,
fault tolerant, and supports advanced features such as multiple trading
qualities, aggregation, haggling, risk determination, reputation management,
real-time access to trading history and transaction fulfillment. For additional
information about the Bizbots agent-enabled exchange engine visit www.bizbots.com
or call 1-877-414-BOTS (2687).
About
Wells Fargo
Wells Fargo & Company (NYSE: WFC) is a $222 billion diversified financial
services company providing banking, insurance, investments, mortgage and
consumer finance services through 5,300 stores, its Internet site (www.wellsfargo.com)
and other distribution channels across North America as well as internationally.
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