Stamps.com 2001 Annual Report Download - page 6

assets resulted in non-cash charge of $9.1 million in the second quarter of 2001. Additional legal costs associated with the sale of iShip of
approximately $300,000 were charged in the third quarter of 2001 resulting in a total charge of $9.4 million.
In October 2001, we received preliminary approval from the United States Postal Service to begin beta testing a technology that allows
customers to print sheets of generic postage on ordinary inkjet or laser printers that are not tied to a destination address and have no expiration
date. We launched a beta test for this technology in January 2002. If commercially approved, this product could have a positive effect on future
customer acquisition and customer retention, as the technology removes two major inconveniences of our current service, the fact that the
postage must be tied to the destination address, and the fact that the postage expires in 24 hours time. We believe that the generic postage
technology is important to our ability to grow our future revenue.
Corporate Information
Stamps.com was founded in September 1996 to investigate the feasibility of entering into the US Postal Service's Information Based Indicia
Program and initiate the certification process for our Internet Postage service. In January 1998, we were incorporated in Delaware as
StampMaster, Inc. and changed our name to Stamps.com Inc. in December 1998. We completed our initial public offering in June 1999 and our
common stock is listed on the Nasdaq National Market under the symbol "STMP."
Our principal executive offices are located at 3420 Ocean Park Boulevard, Suite 1040, Santa Monica, California 90405, and our telephone
number is [phone].
Stamps.com Internet Mailing and Shipping Services
Stamps.com Internet Postage(TM) Service. Our Internet Postage service is approved by the US Postal Service and enables users to print
information-based indicia, or electronic stamps, directly onto envelopes or labels using ordinary laser or inkjet printers. Our service requires no
additional hardware--the user's existing PC, printer and Internet setup are sufficient. Our free software can be downloaded from the Internet or
installed from a CD-ROM. After installing the software and completing a registration process, customers can purchase and print postage 24
hours a day, seven days a week from their PCs. When a customer purchases postage for use through our service, they pay face value, and the
funds are transferred directly from the customer to the US Postal Service. Beyond the cost of the postage, we charge the customers a monthly
convenience fee for use of the service. We have two separate pricing plans to address the needs of different customers. The Simple Plan targets
lower usage customers with a monthly convenience fee of 10% of the value of postage printed, with a monthly minimum fee of $4.49. The
Power Plan targets higher usage customers with a fixed monthly convenience fee that ranges between $15.99 and $18.99, regardless of volume
of postage printed with our service.
Our technology meets strict US government security standards, and our service incorporates address verification technology that validates each
addresses of the mail sent using our service against a database of all know addresses from the US Postal Service. In addition, our Internet
Postage service is designed to integrate well into common small business and productivity software applications such as word processing,
contact and address management, and accounting and financial applications.
On October 22, 1999, we commercially launched our Internet Postage service. As of March 21, 2002, our customer base consists of
approximately 280,000 customers who have downloaded our software and registered for one of our service plans.
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2002. EDGAR Online, Inc.