 Gemplus
and Valista™ launch Gem-eCash for prepaid market
Gem-eCash is a prepaid solution for online purchasing, already delivered
to Paynet Group in the Czech Republic
Luxembourg and Ireland, 5 May 2004, Gemplus International S.A. (Euronext:
LU0121706294 - GEM and NASDAQ: GEMP), the world's leading provider of smart card
solutions, and Valista (recently formed from the merger of Network365 and iPIN),
the leading provider of payments infrastructure for electronic and mobile
commerce, today announced the commercial launch of their Gem-eCash, an on-line
prepaid solution, to coincide with its first deployment with Paynet Group in the
Czech Republic.
Gem-eCash is a new solution for micro payment purchases over the Internet. By
combining a prepaid card with online purchasing power, users can make simple and
secure purchases for digital content, such as mp3 music files, videos, games,
newspaper articles and horoscopes, etc. Online buyers simply scratch off a panel
on the phone card to discover the secret code, which corresponds to their
prepaid credit.
"Gem-eCash will help prepaid operators generate revenue by capitalizing
on their existing products and distribution network to offer value-added
services to their customers" said Thierry Mesnard, Vice President, Prepaid
Cards, Gemplus, "Today we are delivering this solution to PayNet Group,
which supplies prepaid online content & services in the Czech
Republic".
"The Gem-eCash prepaid solution is ideal for web buyers who are
reluctant to use their credit cards for online purchasing or who wish to remain
anonymous. It also offers a means of online payment to people who may not have a
bank account or who do not wish to use it" said Jan Ander, CEO of PayNet
Group.
"Gemplus and Valista set out to make buying digital products and
services on-line more secure and convenient," said Raomal Perera, Chief
Executive Officer, Valista. "Our partnership with Gemplus continues to
bring innovative payment solutions to the telecoms market and we look forward to
leading the global marketplace into the next phase of payment
technologies."
About Gemplus
Gemplus International S.A. (Euronext: LU0121706294 - GEM and NASDAQ: GEMP) is
the world's leading player in the smart card industry in both revenue and total
shipments (Source : Gartner-Dataquest (2003); Frost & Sullivan, Datamonitor).
It has the largest R&D team, unrivalled experience, and an outstanding track
record of technological innovation.
Gemplus offers an exceptional range of portable, personalized solutions that
bring security and convenience to people's lives. These include Mobile
Telecommunications, Public Telephony, Banking, Retail, Transport, Identity,
WLAN, Pay-TV, e-government, access control, and a wealth of other applications.
Gemplus' revenue in 2003 was 749 million Euros.
www.gemplus.com
About Valista
Established in 2003 following the merger of Network365 and iPIN, Valista is a
global company with offices in the US, Europe, Asia, Japan and Latin America.
The combined subscriber base with access to the Valista product suite exceeds
150 million users with over 1000 merchants utilizing the company's merchant
integration technology. As a result, Valista has emerged as the leading provider
of payments infrastructure for electronic and mobile commerce.
Key customers include:
Vodafone, NTT DoCoMo, France Telecom's w-HA, Orange, Wanadoo, Tiscali and
T-Online (France), 3 (eight countries), General Motors and GTECH (USA), Hong
Kong CSL and O2.
Key partners include:
Accenture, Cap Gemini Ernst and Young, Ericsson, Gemplus, GTECH, HP and IBM.
Valista is also an active member of the Mobile Payment Forum, the GSM
Association, Paycircle and Liberty Alliance.
Products & Technology
Valista's technology has been proven in real world implementations by leading
service providers and corporations across four continents. Valista enables
wireless and fixed line operators, ISPs, financial services institutions and
enterprises to create new relationships with customers by facilitating the
purchase and delivery of digital content, goods and services in a secure and
convenient way. Enterprises benefit from higher revenue streams, increased
loyalty and reduced costs. Valista's products support the entire commerce
ecosystem and cover the end-to-end business processes including multi-channel
ordering, authentication, payment, settlement, service delivery, and
post-purchase care.
Valista's product portfolio includes multi-channel top-up, micro and macro
payments, service delivery, user profile management and cash replacement. All
Valista products support multiple access channels and payment models, allowing
consumers to transact wherever they are, however they pay.
About PayNet Group
Established in 2004. PayNet Group is a first company to offer the Gem-eCash
prepaid solution for micro payment purchases over the Internet in Czech
republic.
Contact:
Jane Strachey
Gemplus PR
Tel: +33 (0)442364661
e-mail: jane.strachey@gemplus.com
Evanna Kearins
Marketing Communications Manager, Valista
Tel: +353 1 2764511 / +353 87 2896579
e-mail: ekearins@valista.com
©2004 Gemplus. All rights reserved. Gemplus, the Gemplus logo, are
trademarks and service marks of Gemplus S.A. and are registered in certain
countries. All other trademarks and service marks, whether registered or not in
specific countries, are the property of their respective owners.
Some of the statements contained in this release constitute
forward-looking statements. These statements relate to future events or our
future financial performance and involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties,
and other factors that may cause our or our industry's actual results, levels of
activity, performance or achievements to be materially different from any future
results, levels of activities, performance, or achievements expressed or implied
by such forward-looking statements. Actual events or results may differ
materially. Although we believe that the expectations reflected in the
forward-looking statements are reasonable, we cannot guarantee future results,
levels of activity, performance or achievements. Factors that could cause actual
results to differ materially from those estimated by the forward-looking
statements contained in this release include, but are not limited to: trends in
wireless communication and mobile commerce markets; our ability to develop new
technology, and the effects of competing technologies developed and expected
intense competition generally in our main markets; profitability of our
expansion strategy; challenges to or loss of our intellectual property rights;
our ability to establish and maintain strategic relationships in our major
businesses; our ability to develop and take advantage of new software and
services; and the effect of future acquisitions and investments on our share
price. Moreover, neither we nor any other person assumes responsibility for the
accuracy and completeness of such forward-looking statements. The
forward-looking statements contained in this release speak only as of this
release. We are under no duty to update any of the forward-looking statements
after this date to conform such statements to actual results or to reflect the
occurrence of anticipated results.
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