ESCALATE, INC. ANNOUNCES STRATEGIC ALLIANCE
WITH e-NITED AND RUSH ORDER

Partners to Provide Online Retailers with Logistics and Fulfillment Services

REDWOOD SHORES, Calif.— December 6, 1999 — Escalate, Inc., the 1st E-commerce Service Provider (ESP), today announced strategic alliances with e-NITED business solutions, a division of United Stationers, North America's largest wholesaler of business products, and Rush Order Inc., a full-service fulfillment company for e-commerce. As part of the agreement, both companies will join the Escalate Commerce Network to provide third-party logistics services to Escalate's merchant clients.

"At Escalate, we are committed to providing end-to-end e-commerce capabilities for our merchant clients. This includes seamless integration with partners such as e-NITED and Rush Order to provide third-party warehousing and fulfillment capabilities for merchants in our network that want to own and manage their own inventory," said Keng Lim, president and chief executive officer of Escalate. "Our merchants are not limited to drop-ship capable suppliers. The presence of proven logistics service providers such as e-NITED and Rush Order gives them the freedom to work with any supplier they want and the confidence that all the back-end warehousing and fulfillment issues will be handled with ease."

United Stationers created the e-NITED business solutions division to pursue the company's e-commerce initiatives. "United Stationers is moving aggressively to leverage its vast selection of business products, nationwide network of 66 warehouses and ten call centers, and proven logistics information systems in the e-commerce space. Joining the Escalate Commerce Network is a key part of our strategy to position ourselves to participate in the huge explosion in online sales of business products that we anticipate over the next few years. We are committed to providing the same high level of fulfillment and customer service to Escalate's merchant sites through e-NITED that we provide to thousands of our current resellers," said John D. Kennedy, president, e-NITED business solutions.

Rush Order's expertise covers a full range of warehousing and fulfillment capabilities. "Rush Order has provided logistics services to support some of the most successful products ever launched from Silicon Valley," said James Chapman, president, Rush Order. "We are excited about the opportunity to bring these capabilities to merchants in the Escalate Commerce Network."

Escalate eliminates the need for e-businesses to build e-commerce offerings from scratch. Instead, these merchants tap into the Escalate Commerce Network, a complete outsourced e-commerce service that includes access to a universal e-commerce network and the Escalate supplier and service provider networks. Through these networks, Escalate's merchant clients gain access to merchandise and third party service providers for capabilities such as fulfillment, customer service, and reverse logistics.

About Escalate

Escalate, Inc. will significantly change the way all e-businesses establish and innovate their ongoing e-commerce operations. As the first e-commerce service provider (ESP), Escalate radically changes the speed, accessibility, and economies of delivering high-impact e-commerce. Through its flagship e-commerce network, the Escalate Commerce Network, Escalate provides an end-to-end e-commerce management system with a vast product catalog, an integrated supplier network, and a high-quality service provider network all in a single integrated solution. By subscribing to the Escalate Commerce Network, companies that are looking to add e-commerce to their businesses—including high traffic Internet sites, retailers, cataloguers, and sites with existing e-commerce capabilities—will be able to deploy high-impact e-commerce faster and with less investment than was previously possible.

Representative Escalate customers include such high profile e-businesses as Egreetings and Quokka Sports. A privately held company with over 100 employees, Escalate has raised more than $30 million in working capital from leading venture capital firms including Accel Partners, Norwest Venture Partners, and the Barksdale Group. Headquartered in Redwood Shores, California, Escalate serves Europe and Asia via offices in Paris and Tokyo. For more information visit Escalate's website at http://www.escalate.com.

About United Stationers

United Stationers Inc. is North America's largest wholesaler of business products to resellers. Through its integrated computer-based distribution system, it makes more than 35,000 items available to 20,000 resellers within 24 hours of order placement through 40 regional distribution centers, 20 Lagasse distribution centers that serve the janitorial and sanitation industry and 6 Azerty distribution centers that serve computer supply resellers.

About Rush Order

Rush Order is a full-service fulfillment provider specializing in fulfillment for Silicon Valley's leading high tech firms. Based in Gilroy, California, Rush Order is a privately held company. Rush Order can be reached at (408) 848-3525 or visit the company on the Internet at http://www.rushorder.com.

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Escalate™ and Escalate to Market™ are trademarks of Escalate, Inc. Other names may be trademarks of their respective owners.

Lance Mercereau
Burson-Marsteller
415.591.4000
lance_mercereau@sfo.bm.com

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