Critical Path Offers First Allsource Solution.

Business Editors/High-Tech Writers

SAN FRANCISCO--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Feb. 22, 2000

New Market Approach Creates First End-to-End Messaging Company;

Critical Path Simplifies Growing Complexity of Messaging and

Collaboration Technology

Critical Path Inc. (Nasdaq:CPTH), the dominant, global provider of advanced Internet messaging and collaboration solutions, today unveiled its Allsourcing business strategy, creating the world's first end-to-end messaging provider.

Critical Path is the only advanced messaging provider to offer businesses the flexibility to outsource, midsource or insource all or part of their messaging and collaboration applications. Critical Path's ability to deliver on its promise of allsourcing is a culmination of the company's aggressive corporate strategy through which the company has developed and acquired leading technology necessary to deliver complete end to end messaging solutions.

"Allsourcing allows Critical Path to effectively meet the varying messaging and collaboration needs of our customers and affords them the flexibility to keep pace with their rapidly changing business requirements," said Doug Hickey, CEO at Critical Path. "Our business strategy has enabled us to add best-of-breed technologies and expertise to further define the Internet messaging and collaboration market and offer the most comprehensive solutions available today."

The Benefits of Allsourcing

Allsourcing is the optimal delivery mechanism in that it allows customers to blend application delivery options based on their unique Internet messaging needs. Through allsourcing, Critical Path delivers three distinct solutions, outsourcing, midsourcing or insourcing, for the deployment of mission-critical messaging applications.

With allsourcing, customers are able to take advantage of Critical Path's value-added services, which provide increased functionality, reliability and scalability, and keep pace with the growing complexity of messaging and collaboration technology.

One of the most notable benefits provided by Critical Path's allsourcing strategy is that it creates a simple, seamless migration path from in-house managed messaging systems to full-service outsourced messaging services, thereby allowing companies to evolve their messaging infrastructures and keep pace with their business requirements.

"In order to maintain the flexibility and nimbleness in the new Web economy, businesses are looking for vendors to offer both breadth and depth in their services," said Mark Levitt, research director, IDC (www.idc.com). "Critical Path's allsourcing approach addresses the current and future messaging needs of different kinds of businesses."

Allsource Strategy

Critical Path's allsourcing strategy is made up of three distinct methods for delivering messaging applications. Built on best-of-breed technologies and Critical Path's recognized scalable and reliable messaging platform, these products and services can meet the current and future needs of any business in any industry.

Outsourcing -- Outsourcing enables customers to have their messaging applications hosted by Critical Path at one of its Mail Center locations throughout the U.S., Europe, and soon in Asia. This outsource solution provides Critical Path customers with the most advanced and scalable Internet messaging service.

Midsourcing -- Midsourcing offers customers the option to selectively decide which Critical Path value added messaging applications to outsource and which to keep in house.

Insourcing -- Insourcing enables customers to take advantage of their existing infrastructure and run their messaging applications in-house, while benefiting from Critical Path's advanced Internet messaging technology.

As messaging infrastructures grow more complex, features such as fax-over-IP, calendaring, guaranteed delivery, directory services, wireless messaging, secure online document management and threaded discussions for knowledge exchange have become more widely adopted making messaging one of the leading outsourced applications.

Furthermore, messaging systems are taking on additional roles with the rise of the knowledge worker and the increasingly dispersed mobile workforce, increased merger and acquisition activity in businesses and the compressed time-to-market delivery expectations that the Internet has created.

According to IDC, the number of mailboxes will increase from 351 million mailboxes worldwide this year to 531 million mailboxes worldwide in 2002, from 5 billion emails sent daily this year to 14.9 billion emails sent daily by 2002, and from 1.4 trillion emails sent annually to 4 trillion emails sent annually by 2002.

About Critical Path, Inc.

Critical Path, Inc. (Nasdaq:CPTH) is the dominant global provider of complete end-to-end Internet messaging and collaboration solutions for corporations, Internet service providers (ISPs), Web hosting companies and Web portals. Critical Path has built an industry-leading global infrastructure with data centers connected to key Internet exchange points and currently reaches more than 50 million end-users through its customer relationships.

Critical Path provides reliable, secure, and scalable e-mail and a flexible suite of enhanced messaging services to partners such as E*TRADE, CompuServe, Network Solutions, U S West, Sprint, France Telecom, British Telecommunications, and ICQ. Critical Path is headquartered in San Francisco, with offices in locations nationwide and in Germany, England, Ireland, France, Denmark, Italy, Switzerland, and Argentina. More information on Critical Path can be found at www.cp.net.

Note to Editors: Critical Path is a service mark and the Critical Path logo is a trademark of Critical Path, Inc. All other trademarks are the property of their respective holders.