Critical Path Expands Messaging Solutions for Carriers to Target Both Consumers and Enterprises.

Business Editors/High-Tech Writers

SAN FRANCISCO--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Dec. 12, 2002

Enhanced Critical Path Communications Platform Enables Carriers and

Service Providers to Leverage Integrated, Customizable Solution for

Multiple Markets

Critical Path, Inc. (Nasdaq:CPTH), whose digital communications software and services power messaging for over 190 telecommunications providers around the world, today announced new versions of the company's messaging solutions for carriers and service providers. Based on the newly enhanced Critical Path(TM) Communications Platform (see related announcement), the solutions enable telecommunications customers to rapidly deliver a full range of differentiated messaging services - using applications from Critical Path as well as 3rd parties - to both consumers and enterprise users. This opens up new revenue opportunities for carriers and helps them reduce their cost of operations.

Critical Path is now shipping fully integrated, customizable solutions for Mobile Messaging, Personal Information Management (PIM), and Multimedia Messaging Services (MMS) Enhancements. These solutions enable customers to bring new messaging services to market quickly in order to generate new revenues on their existing infrastructure. The Critical Path technology allows carriers to differentiate their offerings by dynamically tailoring classes of services to the evolving needs of their subscribers. This helps them attract new subscribers, drive additional voice and data traffic, increase average revenue per user, and reduce churn.

The flexibility and modularity of the Critical Path software also enables new messaging applications to be added later as business grows. These highly scalable solutions are designed to help customers save money by supporting more domains and subscribers per server, taking greater advantage of server hardware, using less storage, leveraging existing communications applications, and requiring less time from IT personnel.

"The Critical Path Communications Platform provides WIND with a vital foundation for our messaging applications and is crucial to our ability to effectively manage user identities," said Mario Cinguino, the Director of Fixed Portal Operations at WIND Telecommunicazioni SpA of Italy, which uses Critical Path's messaging and directory services to power email for more than 10 million users. "We are excited by the many new services Critical Path is offering as part of its updated platform."

Mobile Messaging

The company's new Mobile Messaging solution provides integrated desktop, Web, Wireless, and voice access to email, instant messaging and wireless SMS messaging. It builds upon the proven scalability of the Critical Path(TM) Messaging Server and Critical Path(TM) SMS Access Server by adding mobile access and dynamically-routed alerts for subscriber-customizable events.

The new Critical Path(TM) Instant Messaging Server enables subscribers to securely exchange instant messages from PCs, Web-based devices, SMS-capable phones, and new Wireless Village-compliant mobile devices. It provides encryption, connection blocking, and automatic checking of user availability (called "presence") using the latest industry standards.

The new Critical Path(TM) Notification Server works with the other Critical Path applications and with 3rd party applications - such as sports, stock, or traffic reports - to automatically generate alerts whenever subscriber-specified events occur. These alerts are dynamically routed to the subscriber via email, instant message (over AOL(R), Yahoo!(R), MSN(R), and Critical Path), or wireless SMS or WAP Push messages depending upon criteria such as time, date, subject, or type of event. This provides a valuable service to subscribers and helps carriers boost revenue-generating data and voice traffic.

The enhanced Critical Path(TM) SMS Access Gateway now supports the industry-standard WAP Push method of sending messages out to mobile handsets from Critical Path or 3rd party applications. It enables messages containing web-based content to be delivered to the subscriber and provides a way of offering Multimedia Messaging Service (MMS) notifications. A rich new XML interface enables 3rd party applications - such as gaming, advertising, weather reports, and interactive voting - to automatically send and receive high volumes of SMS messages.

Together, these new capabilities enable carriers and service providers to offer valuable, integrated email, instant messaging and wireless messaging environments for today's mobile consumers and business users that encourage greater usage and boost revenues.

Personal Information Management (PIM)

Critical Path's updated Personal Information Management solution offers a powerful set of applications that complement email and instant messaging, providing personal and group calendar scheduling, task management, extensible address book management, shared files and dynamically-routed alerts. They work together to share data, personalization and password information, intelligently process messages, and generate alerts for user-specified events (see Notification Server above).

The updated Critical Path(TM) Calendar Server now makes it possible for subscribers to easily exchange event and task information, schedule group meetings and dynamically check attendee availability. It also enables users to have multiple calendars (such as for family and work), allow different people to view or modify a calendar, and synchronize calendars with Microsoft(R) Outlook(R) and Palm(R) handheld devices.

The updated Critical Path(TM) Internet File Server provides a virtual hard drive on which subscribers can securely store pictures, audio, video, documents, presentations, and other files. These files can be accessed directly from most desktop computers as well as from any web browser or any web-capable device. Extensive access control and support for encrypted transmission makes collaboration over long distances easy and secure.

The enhanced Critical Path(TM) Personal Address Book Server now provides the ability to organize contact information into multiple address books that can be selectively - and securely - shared with other people. With these capabilities, a subscriber could have one set of personal addresses that could be viewed and updated by family members, another set of work-related addresses that could be viewed by coworkers, and a third set that no one but the subscriber could see. Contacts can be synchronized with Microsoft(R) Outlook(R) and Palm(R) handheld devices.

These and many other new features enable carriers and service providers to offer premium services to both consumers and business users that are an alternative to expensive, hard-to-maintain and disparate groupware. This helps attract and keep new subscribers, boosting voice and data usage as well as average revenue per user.

Multimedia Messaging Services (MMS) Enhancements

Critical Path's messaging platform enables wireless carriers to boost the competitiveness of their Multimedia Messaging Services (MMS) offerings. The Critical Path(TM) Messaging Server provides unparalleled scalability for storing and forwarding MMS messages. The new Critical Path(TM) Internet File Server enables photos, sound clips, and other large data to be stored centrally at the carrier where premium content can also be preloaded, encouraging greater use. It can also automatically reformat images to match different viewing devices and provides fun features such as image manipulation and photo sharing. When paired with the Critical Path(TM) Personal Address Book Server, such photos, images, and other files can be easily and securely shared with other people. Together, these capabilities make MMS much more attractive to subscribers, encouraging higher usage and revenue for the carrier.

See Related Announcement on New Version of Critical Path Communications Platform

Details on enhancements that have been made to the Critical Path Communications Platform are available in a separate release entitled "Critical Path Adds Enhanced Mobility, New Applications and Greater Integration to Communications Platform."

About Critical Path, Inc.

Critical Path, Inc. (Nasdaq:CPTH) is a global leader in digital communications software and services. The company provides messaging solutions -- from wireless, secure and unified messaging to basic email and personal information management -- as well as identity management solutions that simplify user profile management and strengthen information security. The standards-based Critical Path Communications Platform, built to perform reliably at the scale of public networks, delivers the industry's lowest total cost of ownership for messaging solutions and lays a solid foundation for next-generation communications services. Solutions are available on a hosted or licensed basis. Critical Path's customers include more than 700 enterprises, 190 carriers and service providers, eight national postal authorities and 35 government agencies. Critical Path is headquartered in San Francisco. More information can be found at www.criticalpath.net.

Forward-Looking Statements:

This press release contains forward-looking statements by the Company and its executives regarding the performance, security, scalability and interoperability of our product and service offerings, the ability of our customers to achieve cost savings in the provision of services, industry trends, market and customer requirements, the ability of our products and services to meet the business needs of our customers, the market for products and services like ours and the performance of our senior management in achieving strategic goals. The words and expressions "look forward to," "will," "expect," "plan," "believe," "seek," "strive for," "anticipate," hope," "estimate" and similar expressions are intended to identify the Company's forward-looking statements. These forward-looking statements involve a number of risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from those anticipated. These risks include, but are not limited to, our evolving business strategy and the emerging and changing nature of the market for our products and services, our ability to deliver on our sales objectives, the ability of our technology and our competitors' technologies to address customer demands, changes in economic and market conditions, unplanned system interruptions and capacity constraints, software and service design defects. These and other risks and uncertainties are described in more detail in the Company's filings with the U.S Securities and Exchange Commission (www.sec.gov) made from time to time, including Critical Path's Annual Report on Form 10-K for the fiscal year ended December 31, 2001, and the Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q for the quarters ended March 30, June 30, and September 30, 2002, all as may be amended from time to time.

Note to Editors: Critical Path and the Critical Path logo are the trademarks of Critical Path, Inc. All other trademarks are the property of their holders.