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Press Release |
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VeriSign and Worldwide Retail Exchange Partner
to Provide Point-of-Sale Data Services to the Retail Supply Chain
Collaboration Extends the Reach of Global Platform to Provide “Real-Time”
Information in the Retail Supply Chain
Alexandria, VA USA & Mountain View, CA USA – October 26, 2005 – VeriSign and the Worldwide Retail Exchange
(WWRE) today announced an agreement to offer point-of-sale (POS) data
services to WWRE members creating more timely access, exchange, and
management of information throughout the $8 trillion global retail supply
chain.
The agreement between the two organizations
adds POS data services to the WWRE platform providing global store-level
visibility to thousands of retailers and suppliers worldwide. VeriSign
also today announced the acquisition of Retail Solutions Incorporated,
(www.verisign.com/rsi)
a leading provider of POS data to the retail industry with more than
130 industry leading customers such as Unilever and GlaxoSmithKline.
Today’s retailers and suppliers are placing an increased emphasis on
combining “demand signals” such as POS data, with emerging sources of
real-time information such as product movement information provided
by RFID. The agreement between WWRE and VeriSign helps make available
a global, secure and scalable platform reaching a broad set of industry
leaders in the retail supply chain.
"POS data is one of the most confidential
pieces of data in our business," said John Gleeson, SVP, Corporate
Strategy and Treasurer, Walgreen Company. "WWRE is our trusted
industry platform and VeriSign has experience providing security and
scalability with high data volume. We think this partnership will provide
a great way for us to share POS data with our manufacturing partners."
The WWRE is a trusted agent of data exchange
for more than 30 global retailers with combined revenue of more than
$900 billion annually. Over 200 consumer products suppliers use
WWRE’s collaborative solutions and thousands of companies have conducted
business transactions totaling more than $12 billion using the WWRE
platform. WWRE was founded by leading global retail companies,
with investors that include Aeon, Albertsons, Auchan, Casino, CVS/pharmacy,
Delhaize/Food Lion, Kingfisher, Lotte, Royal Ahold, Safeway, Tesco and
Walgreen’s.
“The addition of POS data services to our existing
platform significantly improves our manufacturing customers’ ability
to serve their retail trading partners,” said Christopher Sellers, CEO
WWRE. “This is the solution that our members, and the market as
a whole, have been waiting for – enabling clear, measurable benefits
to trading partner relationships, without major capital investment or
significant business process change.”
VeriSign’s Intelligent Supply Chain Services
provide secure, scalable infrastructure services for critical supply
chain data – including POS - for global supply chain participants and
their vendors. These participants have for years been working
to garner additional data points to feed analytic and decision making
applications, with the ultimate goal of increasing sales and lowering
costs. VeriSign has taken a leadership role in providing the secure
infrastructure to enable the sharing of this data on a global basis,
via the WWRE, with a strong focus on store-level visibility in the retail
supply chain.
“The WWRE/VeriSign relationship extends the
reach of our supply chain infrastructure services to WWRE’s community
of global retailers and suppliers,” said Jeff Richards, vice president
of VeriSign’s Intelligent Supply Chain Services business. “WWRE
and VeriSign share a common vision for providing granular, global visibility
in the retail supply chain in a secure, scalable manner. We’ve
also both been able to establish trusted relationships with some of
the largest corporations in the world – a major component of this collaboration
and the role we’re playing as we expand the scope of information available
to supply chain participants.”
To learn more about
VeriSign Supply Chain Services and solutions for Retailers and Consumer
Products Manufacturers, visit http://www.verisign.com/supplychain.
About VeriSign
VeriSign, Inc. (Nasdaq: VRSN), operates intelligent infrastructure
services that enable and protect billions of interactions every day
across the world’s voice and data networks. Additional news and information
about the company is available at www.VeriSign.co.uk.
About WWRE
The WWRE is the premier Internet-based business-to-business platform
for retailers and suppliers. Designed to facilitate and simplify trading
between retailers, suppliers, partners and distributors, the WWRE currently
consists of over 230 members from Asia, Europe, North America and South
America. To date, the WWRE has saved its members over $2 billion on
more than $12 billion transacted through the use of its solutions. For
more information, visit the website at www.wwre.org
or www.worldwideretailexchange.org.
For more information,
contact:
VeriSign Media Relations: Patrick Burns, mailto:pburns@verisign.com,
703-948-4471
VeriSign Investor Relations: Tom McCallum, mailto:tmccallum@verisign.com,
650-426-3744
WWRE Media Relationship: Rebecca Filbey, mailto:sci@wwre.org,
202-223-4933
Statements in this
announcement other than historical data and information constitute forward-looking
statements within the meaning of Section 27A of the Securities Act of
1933 and Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934. These statements
involve risks and uncertainties that could cause VeriSign's actual results
to differ materially from those stated or implied by such forward-looking
statements. The potential risks and uncertainties include, among others,
the uncertainty of future revenue and profitability and potential fluctuations
in quarterly operating results due to such factors as the inability
of VeriSign to successfully market the combined companies' services
and customer acceptance of the combined companies' services; the risk
that the expected synergies resulting from the combination will not
materialize; the incurrence of unexpected costs integrating the businesses;
increased competition and pricing pressures; and the inability of VeriSign
to successfully develop and market new products and services and customer
acceptance of any new products or services. More information about
potential factors that could affect the company's business and financial
results is included in VeriSign's filings with the Securities and Exchange
Commission, including in the company's Annual Report on Form 10-K for
the year ended December 31, 2004 and quarterly reports on Form 10-Q.
VeriSign undertakes no obligation to update any of the forward-looking
statements after the date of this press release.
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