Accompany, Inc. and Visa International Announce New Strategic Relationship
Companies Form Multi-Year, Global Electronic Commerce Partnership

SAN FRANCISCO, CA - MARCH 16, 2000 - Accompany, Inc., (http://www.accompany.com) a pioneer in group buying on the Web, and Visa International, the world's leading payment brand and the largest payment system worldwide, today announced a new three-year strategic alliance in which the two companies will work together on several electronic commerce initiatives. These initiatives include cooperative marketing and brand promotion, technology sharing, and international market development.

"Accompany's charter is to empower the world's consumers to work together to get value," said Jim Rose, co-founder & CEO of Accompany. "Visa's brand power, technology strength and international reach will help us deliver a richer group buying experience for customers worldwide."

Accompany pools consumer purchasing power across its network of Web community partners (such as About.com and Quicken.com) to obtain volume pricing through its various supplier partners. Accompany transparently groups Web consumers into Buy-Cycles^SM to purchase products ranging from consumer electronics to sporting goods.

"Visa has been very selective in formulating strategic partnerships, choosing to work with companies who lead their categories, like Accompany, Yahoo! and Ariba," said Sarah Perry, senior vice president of Visa International. "Accompany has an exceptional transaction network, which both mirrors and complements our own model."

Visa International was an important investor in Accompany's recently announced series C round of funding, underscoring Visa's confidence in Accompany's group buying model. In addition, as part of the relationship announced today, Accompany's Get It Together Network will position Visa as its preferred credit card and default payment method.

The new alliance between Accompany and Visa International includes the following elements:

Cooperative Marketing & Brand Promotion
Accompany and Visa International will work together to identify and promote B2B and B2C group buying opportunities.

Transaction Processing Support & Efficiency
Accompany will work closely with Visa International to evaluate and incorporate Visa's payment technology research and development into Accompany's patent pending transaction processing technology. Technologies to be evaluated include: security, fraud detection, encryption, digital certificates, wallets, micro payments and smart cards.

Preferred Positioning
Accompany will designate Visa as its "preferred card" and will promote Visa throughout its Get It Together Network.

International Expansion Initiatives
Accompany and Visa International will work together to bring Accompany's model to international markets and will evaluate joint development of product and services to meet the unique needs of different regions.

About Accompany, Inc.
Founded in 1998, Accompany, Inc. created the Get It Together Network, the Web's first group buying network that aggregates demand for products and services in real-time. Using its unique patent-pending Demand Coordination^SM technology to empower communities and suppliers with private-branded group buying, the Get It Together Network pools buyers from across the Web into real-time Buy-Cycles, in which prices drop as more people join. The Get It Together Network revolutionizes dynamic trade by affording consumers and small businesses alike the purchasing advantage traditionally reserved for large organizations who buy in volume. Accompany, Inc. is headquartered in San Francisco, with its development center in Toronto, Canada.

About Visa International
As the "World's Best Way to Pay," Visa is the world's leading payment brand and the largest payment system worldwide with more volume than all other major payment cards combined. Visa plays a pivotal role in advancing new payment products and technologies to benefit its 21,000 member financial institutions and their cardholders. Visa has more than 80 smart card programs in 35 countries and on the Internet, with 23 million Visa chip cards, including 8 million Visa Cash cards. Visa is pioneering SET Secure Electronic TransactionTM programs to enable and advance Internet commerce. There are over 960 million Visa, Visa Electron, Interlink, PLUS and Visa Cash cards, which generate more than US$1.5 trillion in annual volume. Visa-branded cards are accepted at over 18 million worldwide locations, including at more than 550,000 ATMs in the Visa Global ATM Network. Visa's Internet address is http://www.visa.com/.

MobShop, MobShop Network, Demand Coordination, and Buy-Cycle are service marks of MobShop, Inc. Other names mentioned may be trademarks or service marks of their respective owners.

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