For Immediate Release
Adobe Continues Building Partnerships to Grow eBooks Market
CyberTrust, Intertrust, Plug’nPay, PublishOne Inc., SheetMusicPlus.com and
SoftLock.com to Integrate Adobe PDF Merchant and Acrobat Reader with Web Buy
New York, NY (October 6, 1999) (Nasdaq: ADBE)-Adobe Systems Incorporated
today announced that CyberTrust, InterTrust, Plug’nPay, Publish One Inc.,
SheetMusicPlus.com and SoftLock.com will begin testing and product
integration of Adobe PDF Merchant software and Web Buy, a feature within
Acrobat Reader. Adobe has been at the forefront of the eBooks market,
assembling key publishing, retailing and technology partners to grow the
new market. The partners announced today join more than 12 others which
were announced in August.
“As a natural extension to our leadership in the publishing industry, we’ve
taken the opportunity to gather partners and develop new ebook’s
technologies that leverage the many years of content publishers have
archived in Adobe PostScript and Adobe PDF,” said Joe Eschbach, vice
president, ePaper Solutions Group, Adobe Systems Incorporated. “The success
of this market depends on a broad range of components such as, standards
and technologies that accommodate new business models, flexible
distribution channels and the ability to deliver high-quality content over
the Internet. We’re working with partners in the publishing industry to
help grow this market and drive the implementation of new eBooks
technologies that enable this industry to do business on the Web today.”
As a leader in the eBooks market, Adobe has been actively involved with a
number of initiatives, consortia and standards bodies that leverage our
leadership in the eBooks market. Of most relevance are standards that
enable publishers to properly tag data within documents, format content for
any device, provide a flexible distribution model that protects
intellectual property, and enable the viewing of highly complex graphics on
electronic devices. Adobe is a voting member of both the W3C working group
for the extensible Markup Language (XML) and the Open eBooks (OEB) working
group. Adobe has also been instrumental in the development of the
Electronic Book Exchange (EBX) and participates on the W3C working group
for Scalable Vector Graphics (SVG).
In addition to today’s announced partners, Adobe is working with Barnes &
Noble, Inc.; Everybook Inc.; Fatbrain.com; 1stBooks; Glassbook, Inc.;
Iomega Corporation; Octavo Corporation; Pearson PLC; R.R. Donnelley & Sons
Company; Salon.com; Seybold Publications; Simon & Schuster, Inc.; Xerox
Corporation. These represent the range of publishers, distributors,
retailers, device manufacturers, technology and service providers, each of
whom maintains a specialized and important link in the publishing and
delivery chain. The companies will begin testing and implementing Adobe PDF
Merchant technology to provide titles to be distributed and sold via the
Internet.
About PDF Merchant and Acrobat Reader with Web Buy Adobe PDF Merchant is a
server-based technology designed to be integrated into existing ecommerce
and transaction servers. It manages encryption of PDF files and the
distribution of keys to access them. To provide consumers with a mechanism
for purchasing and viewing electronic content produced using Adobe PDF
Merchant, Adobe is implementing a Web Buy feature within the free Acrobat
Reader. Together, the new technologies will give publishers, distributors,
retailers and consumers the capability to securely exchange electronic
content. Acrobat Reader with Web Buy will be available in Q4 1999 and Adobe
PDF Merchant in Q1 2000. The pre-release of the Acrobat Reader with Web Buy
and a demo of the buying experience including downloadable electronic
content is available today at www.adobe.com.
About Adobe
Founded in 1982, Adobe Systems builds award-winning software solutions for
Web and print publishing. Its graphic design, imaging, dynamic media, and
authoring tools enable customers to create, publish and deliver
visually-rich content for various types of media. The company’s products
are used by Web and graphic designers, professional publishers,
document-intensive organizations, business users, and consumers. Adobe is
the fourth largest U.S.-based personal software company, with annual
revenues approaching $1 billion. It employs over 2,400 employees worldwide
and has operations in North America, Europe, the Pacific Rim, Japan and
Latin America. Adobe’s worldwide headquarters are in San Jose, California
and its web site is located at www.adobe.com.