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Exhibit 99
CHECKFREE AND BANK OF AMERICA SEAL STRATEGIC ALLIANCE TO BRING ELECTRONIC
BILLING AND PAYMENT TO 30 MILLION U.S. HOUSEHOLDS
CHECKFREE ASSUMES CONTROL OF CERTAIN BANK OF AMERICA ELECTRONIC BILLING AND
PAYMENT ASSETS
BANK OF AMERICA RECEIVES 10 MILLION RESTRICTED SHARES AND UP TO 10 MILLION
PERFORMANCE-BASED WARRANTS TO PURCHASE ADDITIONAL SHARES OF CHECKFREE COMMON
STOCK
ATLANTA, Oct. 2 -- CheckFree Corporation (Nasdaq: CKFR), the leading provider of
electronic billing and payment software and services, today announced that its
strategic agreement with Bank of America (NYSE: BAC) has closed. CheckFree and
Bank of America announced their intention to forge the strategic alliance on
April 27, 2000 and began working together on plans to make electronic billing
and payment services available to the Bank of America customer base.
Bank of America, the nation's leading provider of online financial services, has
relationships with 30 million customers -- or nearly one out of every three
banking households in the United States. Through Genesis 2000, CheckFree's fully
integrated electronic billing and payment system, Bank of America households
will have convenient access to electronic bills that can be viewed and paid at
www.bankofamerica.com.
As leaders in their respective industries, Bank of America and CheckFree expect
to accelerate consumer adoption of electronic billing and payment and increase
national awareness of the benefits of receiving and paying bills online. Bank of
America plans to stimulate awareness of and enrollment in its electronic billing
and payment services with an aggressive national and regional marketing and
advertising campaign. In addition, the two companies are collaborating in
developing new electronic commerce initiatives, including a next generation
payments platform for online customers to "pay everyone for everything
electronically."
"For the first time, all Bank of America retail-banking customers will have the
opportunity to receive and pay their bills at the Web site of the nation's
largest bank in addition to managing other aspects of their financial lives,"
said Pete Kight, CheckFree chairman and chief executive officer. "This
opportunity is significant not only to CheckFree and Bank of America, but also
to the nearly 190 billers who have contracted to use CheckFree services to
distribute their bills. These billers can now offer their bills at a trusted
financial institution that has a relationship with one in three banking
households in the United States."
According to James D. Dixon, bankofamerica.com executive, Bank of America
customers increasingly are choosing to perform their financial transactions
online and are looking for new ways to use the Internet to simplify their lives.
"Together with CheckFree, we will be able to respond to the needs of our
customers by delivering a complete electronic billing and payment solution to
the market quickly and efficiently. This alliance creates a new industry
standard by combining CheckFree's market leadership with the financial
leadership of Bank of America, and marks a major milestone in accelerating
consumer adoption."
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CheckFree billers to reach Bank of America customers
To date, nearly 190 billers -- including leading telecommunications, utility,
mortgage, home loan, credit card, cable and wireless companies -- are contracted
to distribute their bills using CheckFree's electronic billing and payment
services. These billers will be able to deliver electronic bills to Bank of
America customers, including the 2.6 million who currently bank online.
"Southern Company shares service areas with Bank of America in several
Southeastern states, so the bank's alliance with CheckFree gives us a powerful
opportunity to get closer to our mutual customers monthly through an interactive
electronic bill," said Beth Ervin, e-Bill project manager, Southern Company, the
largest producer of electricity in the United States. "By distributing bills
through CheckFree's end-to-end processing platform, our company will be able to
deliver electronic bills to more of our customers."
"This reinforces Sears decision to partner with CheckFree for online bill
distribution and payment," said Andrew Crowe, director, e-commerce, Sears
Roebuck and Co. "This alliance of three world-class organizations improves the
value proposition for the customer and will advance consumer adoption. Sixty
million Americans have a Sears Card, and nearly a third of U.S. banking
customers have chosen Bank of America as their financial institution."
Terms of the Agreement
The agreement includes the following disclosed terms:
(1) CheckFree has been granted a 10-year contract for CheckFree to
provide electronic billing and payment services to Bank of
America customers nationwide.
(2) CheckFree has obtained certain Bank of America electronic
billing and payment assets, including intellectual property
and customer service operations in San Francisco and Houston.
(3) Bank of America has received 10 million restricted shares of
CheckFree Common Stock, as well as performance-based warrants
to purchase up to an additional 10 million common shares. The
10 million shares granted to Bank of America equate to roughly
12 percent ownership of CheckFree. To vest all of the
warrants, Bank of America customers using CheckFree services
must exceed 10 million, and Bank of America must be delivering
more than 10 million electronic bills per month.
(4) Bank of America will enter into a business partner
relationship with CheckFree, offering bill presentment
services to its commercial banking customers that want to
offer electronic billing and payment as an extension of their
commercial banking relationship.
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About Bank of America
Bank of America, with $680 billion in assets, is the largest bank in the United
States. It has full-service operations in 21 states and the District of Columbia
and provides financial products and services to 30 million households and two
million businesses, as well as providing international corporate financial
services for business transactions in 190 countries. The company's stock is
listed on the New York, Pacific and London stock exchanges and certain shares
are listed on the Tokyo Stock Exchange. Further information can be found at
www.bankofamerica.com.
About CheckFree
CheckFree (www.checkfree.com) is the leading provider of financial electronic
commerce services and products. Founded in 1981, CheckFree launched the first
fully integrated electronic billing and payment solution in 1997. Today,
CheckFree enables more than 3.5 million consumers to receive and pay bills
electronically. The company has multi-year contracts with nearly 190 of the
nation's top billers to provide online billing and payment through more than 200
consumer service providers (CSPs), including banks, brokerage firms, Internet
portals and content sites and personal financial management (PFM) software.
CheckFree's Software Services division provides solutions that are used to
process more than two-thirds of the nation's six billion Automated Clearing
House payments, and reconciliation products and services to 400 banks and
businesses. Also within the Software Services division is CheckFree i-Solutions,
which enables billers to create electronic billing and payment applications that
transform bills and statements into interactive conduits for customer
relationship management, marketing and customer self service. CheckFree's
Investment Services provides a broad range of investment management services to
thousands of financial institutions nationwide. The division's clients manage
more than 1,000,000 portfolios totaling more than $500 billion in assets.
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 Form 10-K for the year ended June 30, 2000 (filed September 26, 2000).
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.
