CNN Custom News logo [LINK] Home World U.S. Weather Sports Business Sci-Tech Showbiz Lifestyle alt On Target Customize Profile Help Feedback Switch User [ISMAP] InfoSeek [INLINE] October 4, 1997 10:23 pm GMT [INLINE] Sci-Tech Title [INLINE] Ad Space ________________________ ___Word ___Theme ______________ Options [INLINE] The story below was selected from CNN Custom News - a new personalized service that delivers only the news that's important to YOU. Sign up now to receive your personal news stories, weather, sports scores, and stock quotes from over 100 different sources - all for FREE. If you're already a user, please login. Custom News E-STAMP RECEIVES BIG BACKING FOR NET-BASED POSTAGE SALES InfoWorld 04-OCT-97 Buying stamps for use on "snail mail" soon may be possible over the Internet, and one company pioneering the technology to do so has caught the attention of both Microsoft and AT&T. E-Stamp has created a system that will enable users to purchase postage over the Internet and then print viable U.S. Postal Service stamps onto envelopes. Recently, both Microsoft and AT&T Ventures announced that they have taken an equity stake in E-Stamp. Both companies will receive a 10 percent stake in the postage sales system's creator, and both will hold a seat on its board of directors. Financial details of the investment were not disclosed. "One of the things we're trying to do now is build the industry infrastructure by forming strategic partnerships with software, hardware, and Internet companies, and we see our relationship with Microsoft and AT&T as the first step in this process," said Nicole Ward, vice president of marketing for E-Stamp. The potential for both Microsoft and AT&T to incorporate E-Stamp technology into their product lines in the future could be intriguing, according to analysts. "Microsoft could certainly be incorporating the generating technology into Office," according to Vernon Keenan, senior analyst for Zona Research, in Redwood City, Calif. "I could see clicking a button in Word, and when you print out your envelope, you'd get a stamp on it." "It's certainly conceivable; that's not a scenario that we've ignored," said Greg Stanger, director of business development and investments for Microsoft, in Redmond, Wash. "The Office team picking it up and incorporating it into whatever they're doing is not out of the question." E-Stamp is preparing to beta test the system in San Francisco and Washington by the end of the year. Once postage is purchased from the U.S. Postal Service over the Internet, the value of the "stamps" will be held in an "electronic vault" attached to a PC and printer, according to the company. The Postal Service will monitor the amounts as it currently does with postage machines, but Internet postage is a new innovation, according to Roy Gordon, program manager of process and product development for meter technology management for the U.S. Postal Service, based in Washington. "This is the first new form of postage potentially introduced by the postal service in 77 years," Gordon said. E-Stamp estimates that the complete system will cost less than $300 per year. The irony of using the Internet to facilitate the delivery of "snail mail" was not lost on analysts. "It is definitely ironic," said Ray Boggs, director of small-business research for IDC/Link, a market research company in New York. "But what could be more appropriate than leveraging one technology to benefit another?" E-Stamp Corp., in Palo Alto, Calif., can be reached at (650) 843-8000 or http://www.estamp.com. Article Dated 03-OCT-97 COPYRIGHT 1997 InfoWorld Publishing Company Search the net: InfoSeek ___________________ ____ [Help] [INLINE] Ad Space Top Copyright © 1997 Cable News Network, Inc. A Time Warner Company ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. Terms under which this information is provided to you. [INLINE]