here's the PR.
eConnect Retains Prominent Lawyer and
Public Relations Firm; Implements Disclosure Policy; Provides More
Detail About Pilot Publishing and Empire Financial Agreements
SAN PEDRO, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--March 20, 2000--eConnect, Inc.
(OTCBB:ECNC) today announced that it has retained a former SEC
enforcement division attorney and a nationally renowned public
relations and investor relations firm. The company also provided
additional information on its agreements with Pilot Island Publishing
and Empire Financial Holdings Inc.
eConnect said it has retained Stanley C. Morris, of the law firm
Corrigan & Morris (www.successave.com/corrigan), to provide legal and
corporate governance counsel, as well as the public relations and
investor relations firm of Sitrick And Company (www.Sitrick.com), to
provide public relations and investor relations counsel. eConnect said
that, under the guidance of those firms, it has implemented a detailed
corporate disclosure policy.
The company said its new disclosure policy provides guidelines and
added safeguards to help ensure the completeness and accuracy of all
public releases containing corporate information. eConnect said that
the new guidelines and procedures include the employment of Corrigan &
Morris and Sitrick And Company to oversee such activities as the
preparation of press releases, the designation of spokespersons, the
review of analyst reports and estimates, procedures for quarterly
earnings releases and other announcements, the publication of
financial projections, and quiet periods.
"Going forward, our releases will be written, reviewed and
approved by Sitrick And Company," said Tom Hughes, chief executive of
eConnect. "This should help to ensure that the company's releases are
clear and accurate."
On March 3, 2000, eConnect issued a press release headlined,
"eConnect and Pilot Island Establish Unique PalmPilot(TM) Licensing
Arrangement to Use Palm VII(TM) Platform in a First-Ever Wireless
Internet Terminal Link to PalmPilot." That press release stated that
eConnect and Pilot Island Publishing "have structured a licensing
arrangement with PalmPilot to enable first-ever wireless hand-held
Internet terminal transactions." While that arrangement is a standard
license agreement downloaded from the Internet off of Palm Inc.'s
site, it is unique in that the software would be the first system
known to eConnect that would use Palm Inc.'s popular Palm VII to
upload transactional information to the Internet. The net result will
be to provide same-as-cash transactions over virtual private networks.
Hughes explained that the system, when developed, would work as
follows: the user would swipe an ATM card through a reader attached to
the Palm VII or a wireless PDA that licenses Palm software. The signal
would then be encrypted at the same Palm Computing Centers that
already process signals for the Palm VII. That signal would, in turn,
be forwarded to a Linux-based transaction server that would re-encrypt
the signal before routing it to the host merchant or funds system.
In the same way, PocketPay would securely transmit credit card
numbers exclusively to the authorizing financial institution. "As more
and more web sites get rifled by cyber-crooks, people are going to
have to stop giving their credit card numbers out over the Web,"
Hughes added. "The only solution for truly secure Internet commerce is
for the bank and the bank only to see that information."
eConnect has entered into a joint venture agreement with Pilot
Island to develop the software that will control the system. Pilot
Island has over the last several years successfully produced other
software products for the Palm Pilot.
Under the joint venture agreement between eConnect and Pilot
Island, Pilot Island Publishing will, among other things, provide an
existing working relationship with Palm Inc., the current industry
leader. The agreement, which is dated March 1, 2000 and signed by the
CEO of eConnect and the president of Pilot Island Publishing, states,
among other things, that, "The project will be a joint venture between
the parties... Ownership of intellectual property rights to the name,
brand and trademark, the product's design, pattern, copyrights, etc.
related to the project shall be shared equally. Profits from sales
will be equally distributed between both parties."
Now posted at the Web address 209.170.26.65 is a redated
copy of the agreement between eConnect and Pilot Island, and the
January 21, 2000, signed nonbinding exclusive letter of intent between
eConnect2Trade.com -- an entity with which it has a joint venture
relationship -- and Empire Financial Holdings, for the Beta testing of
"same as cash" ATM transactions via Internet brokerage accounts. "This
should eliminate, once and for all, any debate about whether the
agreements are or were real," Hughes said. Empire Financial has
decided not to proceed with the agreement. eConnect is presently
exploring other relationships within the Internet brokerage community.
"eConnect has some very exciting projects in the pipeline," Hughes
stated. "We are confident that with the assistance of our new legal
counsel and public relations advisors, we will be able to more
effectively communicate the relevance of what we are doing with all of
the company's constituents." |
