IDEADOLLAR.COM AND IBM CREATE IDEA-BUYING AND DEVELOPMENT E-MARKET- 25 MAY 2000

UK Internet start-up company and IBM Net Generation deliver exchange that buys good ideas for business, society and pleasure

June 2, 2000

ideadollar.com, an Internet start-up based in the US and the UK that merges the concepts of communities and e-commerce with a form of sponsorship, is developing its new online idea exchange. The exchange, built and supported by IBM, purchases individuals' good ideas for business, fun and society. ideadollar.com has been set up so that people who have good ideas but are unable to act on them can sell them for up to 100 i$ - equivalent to $100 - and potentially earn 15% of any revenue the idea generates. i$ can be redeemed at a wide number of online e-retailers, such as amazon.com and art.com.

ideadollar.com has a specialist team of idea assessors using articifical intelligence techniques and software developed by IBM and in-house, to rate an idea's potential profitability. Contributors are then given i$ relative to how highly ideadollar.com rated their concept. The Internet start-up needed a state-of-the-art system which would reliably support the company's mission-critical web site, so they contacted IBM e-business services. IBM's strategic consulting professionals have not only helped define ideadollar.com's brand and marketing strategy, but also designed its web site, which is run on IBM technology including the powerful Lotus Domino web server solution. ideadollar.com approached IBM in January 2000, and within two months IBM's Net Generation SWAT team set up a pilot site, in advance of the full launch in September 2000.
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"As an online start-up company, having reliable, secure and dependable technology in place is absolutely critical to business success," said Andrew Wainwright, Chief Technology Officer, ideadollar.com. "We knew that if we wanted to turn online visitors into regular account holders we needed to have a state-of-the-art system that would cope with millions of site visitors and would help them to trust us. Working with IBM has now given us complete confidence in the technology backbone of ideadollar.com, but IBM's e-business services has also helped us define our brand and marketing strategy which will enable us to take people's good ideas from concept to market while giving customers real financial benefit."

"The majority of people who have a truly good idea that could make a difference to people's lives for business, fun or society, have limited understanding about how to develop the idea further," said John Lutz, VP IBM Net Generation Division, Europe. "ideadollar.com has now given people a way to not only make money by selling their ideas, but also get a large share of any revenue which the idea eventually generates. We are delighted to have helped ideadollar.com to provide this service in a pilot phase at the moment and we will be working with them to develop their site and business model until the site is officially launched in September."

ideadollar.com chose IBM as it is able to draw upon the combined resources of IBM and deliver not only industry-leading technology but in addition ongoing support and value-add services. The company runs its business on IBM software such as Lotus Domino server, IBM Websphere and IBM MQ Series, which will all run off IBM RS/6000 and IBM Netfinity servers hosted by IBM e-business Hosting Services on their Universal Server Farm in Portsmouth, UK.

About ideadollar.com
Founded in December 1999, ideadollar.com merges the concepts of communities and e-commerce with a form of sponsorship, by purchasing individuals' good ideas for business, fun and society. ideadollar.com purchases ideas by giving individuals the right to sell them in return for financial compensation, in the form of i$ (i$1 = $1). For very good ideas, ideadollar.com comes back and offers people what could be thousands of dollars for further development of the idea and it even provides services to help in the development. If ideas generate additional revenue, individuals will receive a percentage of whatever ideadollar.com earns -- revenue or stock value.

For more information about ideadollar.com, please visit www.ideadollar.com

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About IBM Net Generation
IBM's Net Generation division has been tasked with taking today's start-ups to market. Since June 1999, it has already helped more than 300 Net Generation companies onto the path of success. These companies chose IBM because they sought two things. First, an established e-business partner that could give instant credibility to their own innovations. Secondly, a partner that could provide the business infrastructure that would bring the Big Idea to the Big Time. IBM's recipe is straightforward - it provides the four fundamental services that Net Generation companies need to succeed: technology, strategic consulting, business innovation and e-hosting services and financing.

For more information about IBM, please visit www.ibm.com

Further information:

Martin Harvey
IBM
Tel: +33 141 88 6003
email: mharvey@fr.ibm.com

Mark Turrell
ideadollar.com
Tel: +44 20 7830 9658
email: mark.turrell@ideadollar.com

Dan Baxter
AxiCom
Tel: +44 181 600 4615
email: dan@axicom.com

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