This is a shock to me...
CheckFree President and Chief Operating Officer Set to Depart
to Seek CEO Position
-- Resignation effective January 31, 2003; Division General Managers to
Report Directly to Chairman and CEO, Pete Kight --
ATLANTA (December 9, 2002) - Today CheckFree Corporation
(Nasdaq:CKFR) announced that its president and chief operating officer,
Peter F. Sinisgalli, will resign from his position effective January 31,
2003 to seek a chief executive officer position. The Company does not plan
to replace Mr. Sinisgalli's position, and will instead adopt a management
structure in which the heads of each of the Company's divisions report
directly to Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, Pete Kight.
"Pete Sinisgalli joined CheckFree in 1996, at a time when his
exceptional skills in designing organizational structures, recruiting and
creating effective management teams and leading operational changes were
integral to our ability to advance as a company," said Kight. "Pete's
leadership was instrumental in our ability to effectively absorb into our
operations the assets of numerous acquisitions, which has resulted in the
operating division structure we have today. His ability to recruit and
mentor the strong general managers we now have in place at each of these
divisions puts me in a position to be able to manage these divisions
directly, and frees him to pursue the next stage in his career, which is to
be the chief executive officer of a company," Kight continued.
"I am both fully appreciative of all of Pete's contributions to
CheckFree's success, and fully supportive of his desire to do even more as
the chief leader of a company," Kight added. "We mutually agreed on a plan
that would put the right divisional management team in place to enable his
departure to seek this opportunity. We both believe we have that team
engaged and operating effectively, and that our leadership position in each
of the markets in which we compete is very solid - which is why we believe
now is the right time for Pete to take the next step in his career," Kight
concluded.
"I have enjoyed my years at CheckFree, and the accomplishments our
management team has been able to deliver across the financial electronic
commerce market," Sinisgalli said. "I am grateful to Pete Kight for his
support and understanding of my desire to further extend my career -- and
my personal goals -- through a chief executive officer role, and we have
worked together to create a management team at CheckFree that now makes it
possible for me to leave to pursue that opportunity," Sinisgalli concluded.
About CheckFree (www.checkfreecorp.com)
CheckFree (NASDAQ: CKFR) is the leading provider of financial electronic
commerce services and products. Founded in 1981 and celebrating its 22nd
year in e-commerce, CheckFree is comprised of three divisions: Electronic
Commerce, Software, and Investment Services. CheckFree launched the first
fully integrated electronic billing and payment solution in 1997. In the
quarter ended September 30, 2002, more than seven million consumers
initiated online payments through services offered by CheckFree's
Electronic Commerce division. The company has multi-year contracts with 265
of the nation's top billers to provide online billing and payment through
657 financial services organizations, including banks, brokerage firms,
Internet portals and content sites and personal financial management (PFM)
software. CheckFree Investment Services provides a broad range of
investment management services to thousands of financial institutions
nationwide. The division's clients manage about 1.2 million portfolios
totaling more than $500 billion in assets.
CheckFree's Software division provides solutions through three operating
units: CheckFree ACH Solutions, CheckFree Financial and Compliance
Solutions (CFACS), and CheckFree i-Solutions. CheckFree ACH Solutions
provides software and services that are used to process
more than two-thirds of the nation's eight billion Automated Clearing House
payments, while CFACS provides reconciliation and compliance software and
services to more than 400 organizations in the banking, brokerage, utility,
retail, insurance and credit card industries, among others. CheckFree
i-Solutions is the leading provider of e-billing and e-statement software
and services for both business-to-consumer and business-to-business
applications, with more billers as clients than all of its competitors have
combined.
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 the Company's Form 10-K for the year
ended June 30, 2002 (filed September 26, 2002) and Form 10-Q for the
quarter ended September 30, 2002 (filed November 15, 2002). 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.
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