Bell Canada Chooses BCE Emergis.

Business Editors

MONTREAL--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Dec. 21, 1999

(NYSE:BCE) (TSE:IFM.) (ME:IFM.) (NASDAQ:ARBA)

Creates Largest B2B E-Commerce Market Place in Canada

BCE today announced that Bell Canada, BCE Emergis (TSE: IFM) and Ariba, Inc. (NASDAQ: ARBA), have signed a long-term agreement in which BCE Emergis will provide Bell Canada and its subsidiaries with a fully-managed business-to-business corporate exchange marketplace and e-procurement solution.

Bell Canada, one of the largest buyers in Canada, will be the first enterprise to benefit from the buying and selling solution offered by BCE Emergis through its partnership with California-based Ariba. The agreement provides a fully-managed Internet-based market place, with Ariba(R) business-to-business e-commerce platforms, that will be initially used by Bell Canada and all its suppliers across Canada.

"Bell Canada alone makes more than $4 billion in purchases annually and that number increases considerably when you take into account the transactions made by our various subsidiaries," said Jean Monty, President and CEO of BCE Inc. and Chairman and CEO of Bell Canada. "This first agreement with Bell Canada will enable BCE Emergis to position itself at the forefront of the electronic marketplace and e-procurement business in Canada. Over time, Bell Canada will connect up to 7,000 suppliers to its marketplace with potential cost savings of 10 to 15 percent of the overall value of our purchases".

"The buying power of Bell Canada should give the Bell Canada electronic marketplace the critical mass and network effect needed to drive broad adoption of B2B e-commerce throughout Canada with Bell Canada at the epicenter," said Keith Krach, President and CEO at Ariba. "Because it is managed by Canada's leading expert in e-commerce and powered by the industry's only best-in-breed B2B e-commerce platform, participants in the Bell Canada marketplace will benefit from the most interoperable, robust e-commerce infrastructure available. We look forward to expanding these offerings with BCE Emergis on a global scale."

"Getting Bell Canada to participate is a great way to launch BCE Emergis in the rapidly growing B2B marketplaces and e-procurement solutions market," said Brian Edwards, President and Chief Executive Officer, BCE Emergis. "There is tremendous interest and activity in this area and we will enable additional e-procurement solutions and marketplaces for many other large corporations. BCE Emergis would expect that every major financial institution in Canada will be establishing electronic marketplaces for small and medium businesses and we believe that they will find this solution very attractive".

Electronic marketplaces, also called net markets or corporate exchanges, are sites on the public Internet that bring together groups of buyers and suppliers to create larger, more efficient markets with greater buying power. E-procurement is the adoption of Web-enabled processes which assist an organization and its employees in the procurement of goods and services. BCE Emergis will provide buyers and suppliers throughout North America with a fully-managed business-to-business corporate exchange marketplace and e-procurement solution powered by Ariba. The BCE Emergis solution can be fully integrated into ERP/CRM systems of buyers and sellers.

Bell Canada provides a full range of communications services to customers, including wired and wireless local and long distance telephone services, Internet access, high-speed data services and directories. Bell Canada, its telecom partners and subsidiaries provide services through 13.6 million access lines, including 11 million in Ontario and Quebec. Bell Canada also serves more than 2.3 million wireless customers through Bell Mobility. Bell Canada is 80% owned by BCE Inc. of Montreal and 20% owned by SBC Communications Inc. of San Antonio, Texas. Bell Canada's Internet Web site is located at http://www.bell.ca. News releases, speeches and background information are in the Newsroom. Our e-mail address is [e-mail].

Ariba, Inc. is a leading provider of business-to-business eCommerce services and solutions. The company delivers an open, end-to-end, best-of-breed platform of interoperable solutions to manage corporate purchasing on the Internet, build net markets, and provide suppliers with buyer access and integration. Together, Ariba's software and services leverage the Internet-based Ariba Network to integrate the internal and external commerce processes of buyers, suppliers, net markets and commerce service providers. The result is a global eCommerce infrastructure that provides cost saving and revenue opportunities for businesses of all sizes. Ariba can be contacted in the U.S. at 1 [phone] or at www.ariba.com.

BCE Emergis delivers network-centric e-commerce business solutions that improve customer processes through the exchange of secure transactions. Combining e-commerce services, network infrastructure, security services, and payment solutions through industry vertical applications, BCE Emergis offers a full suite of core technologies that are the essential building blocks for electronic commerce. BCE Emergis, is among the top electronic commerce providers in North America and is listed on the TSE 300 Composite Index. For more information, please refer to www.emergis.com.