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Technology Stocks : DRIV (DIGITAL RIVER). Get in on internet IPO. -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: M. Frank Greiffenstein who wrote (257)	11/8/1998 3:26:00 PM
From: C. McD	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 3198

International ESD competitors coming to US? The following two recent press releases show that ESD is growing rapidly, and may become a big international play. Neither of the two companies mentioned below seem to be real threats to DRIV for now, but there is alot of activity going on right now in the ESD realm: A news story (11/2/98) on Swedish ESD company "BUYONET" staking claim on US from its new US headquarters in Seattle: biz.yahoo.com Claim to have 120,000 titles from 150 publishers, support five languages and 22 currencies. I remember seeing somewhere that Finland is the most online country (per capita) in the world, Sweden was not far behind. Check out their website, not too impressive, seems Symantec (Norton Antivirus) and Lotus (Easysync) are their only two "name" clients. They're a member of SPA, and boast their "Loadware" patented technology: buyonet.com Also, Preview Systems, with a much more professional webpage released the following press release (11/2/98): previewsystems.com "Sony Marketing Inc. Links Japan To Preview's Global ESD Network: Preview Systems last week announced an exclusive agreement with Sony Marketing(Japan) Inc. that will target Japanese software buyers with electronic software distribution (ESD)." Preview boasts their patented "ZipLock ESD System 3.1", however, BUYONET also uses "Ziplock Download" on their webpage. Preview Systems boasts their solutions are supported by Beyond.com, BUYDIRECT.COM, and Netscape. Their software publishers using Preview's technology include Microsoft and Symantec. Preview is privately held, their investors include France Telecom Innovacom, Intel, and about ~10 other venture firms. The deal with Sony is to sell US and European titles in Japan through Sony's new ESD Marketing Division. You may also want to check out Preview's ESD Reference Site, its actually put together pretty well: previewsystems.com

To: M. Frank Greiffenstein who wrote (257)	11/8/1998 3:55:00 PM
From: C. McD	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 3198

SPA relationships: Ronning is a member of the SPA Board of Directors. The SPA internet section (comprised of 300 companies) board includes Karl Hirsch, founder and executive vice president, Preview Systems Inc., and Freddy Tengberg, Buyonet Inc. Hirsh is the ESD committee chair. Based on their standings among their peers, Ronning clearly has top billing, but Hirsch (Preview) and Tengberg (Buyonet) are players as well. Ronning is surely on top of his competitors actions abroad. I wonder when we'll here something about DRIV's London office? BTW, EC-Direct, another ESD vendor also uses Preview's Ziplock: ecdirect.com EC-direct seems to be aligned tightly to Preview, includes the following summary on the EC page: Preview Systems is the marketleader in developing ESD systems for the electronic sale andmarketing of software and othersoft goods. With its end-to-endsolutions for ESD commerce,Preview is changing the waysoftware is bought and sold. Preview Systems has worldwide ESD commerce servicepartners, and partnerships with key distributors around the globe. Preview Systems was established with the May, 1998 merger of Preview Software and Portland Software, two ESD technology pioneers. Preview is a privately held company with headquarters in Cupertino, California, and offices in Portland, Oregon.

To: M. Frank Greiffenstein who wrote (257)	11/9/1998 9:09:00 AM
From: .com	Respond to of 3198

U.S. Online shopping expected to surge for holidays 10:14 AM ET 11/08/98 (Embargoed for release at 0001 EST, Monday Nov. 9) ROUND ROCK, Texas (Reuters) - Online shopping is expected to surge this holiday season as more and more U.S. consumers choose the comfort of their own homes to do shod online. ''More and more Americans are buying online and they're happy with the results,'' Scott Eckert, director of Dell Online, said in a statement released Monday. ''It's a trend that's taking the country by storm because it's convenient, easy and secure.'' Seventy percent of the 1,943 adult survey respondents who use computers and the Internet said they enjoyed shopping online while 36 percent described a trip to the mall as part of their holiday fun. But even 61 percent of those consumers who liked mall shopping gave electronic commerce a thumbs-up. Respondents said the benefits of online shopping included that they could shop any time of day, the ease of shopping from the comfort of their homes and the fact that they could find anything they wanted through the Internet. Security of online transactions remained a concern, with 89 percent of the respondents citing security as a worry. But 76 percent of those who have not shopped online said they would be about as or more likely to shop online if companies offered security guarantees. The Dell/Harris survey showed that computer software was the most popular item holiday shoppers bought online, followed by books, music, computer hardware and airline tickets. ^REUTERS@