LAS VEGAS, Aug. 8, 2001 (PRIMEZONE) -- PurchasePro (Nasdaq:PPRO), today announced that Accor Economy Lodging (AEL), the largest owner and operator of economy lodging in the United States, has signed a license agreement to implement PurchasePro's e-Procurement software throughout its 1,200 hotels based in the United States. Terms of the five-year license, hosting and maintenance agreement were not disclosed.
AEL is a multi-brand, strategic growth division of Accor which operates Motel 6, Studio 6 and Red Roof Inns in the U.S. and Canada and comprises nearly 10 percent of the entire economy lodging offered in North America. The AEL agreement followed the completion of a highly successful 90-day PurchasePro pilot program that demonstrated the benefits and rapid implementation of the PurchasePro e-Procurement software.
PurchasePro's buyer adoption tools and Supplier College provided AEL with instant access to one of the world's largest commerce networks and immediate supplier liquidity. During the 90-day pilot, Accor Economy Lodging added 35 of its hotels -- including Motel 6 and Red Roof Inn brands -- and 12 suppliers into its e-Procurement marketplace. In addition, Accor Economy Lodging identified 60 of the company's primary suppliers that were already members of PurchasePro's commerce network.
Allen Winder, executive vice president and chief operating officer of PurchasePro, said, "Our agreement with Accor Economy Lodging further confirms the efficiency, utility and return on investment of PurchasePro's software and its commerce network. Our deal with AEL is a major win for the company and widens the breadth and depth of hotel properties and brands using the PurchasePro commerce network."
About Accor
With 145,000 associates in 140 countries, Accor is the European leader and one of the world's largest groups in travel, tourism and corporate services, with two major International activities: hotels: 3,600 hotels (400,000 rooms) in 90 countries, travel agencies, restaurants and casinos; services to corporate clients and public institutions: each day, 12 million people in 31 countries use a broad range of services (food vouchers, people's care, expenses management, incentive/events) engineered and managed by Accor.
About PurchasePro
PurchasePro(r), www.purchasepro.com, is a business-to-business e-commerce leader with the stated goal of providing software to enable enterprises of all sizes to gain universal access to the world's largest commerce network. The PurchasePro commerce network comprises more than 251,000 businesses, authorized to buy and sell, and powers hundreds of private-label marketplaces. PurchasePro provides the following business-to-business e-commerce solutions: e-Procurement for corporate procurement; e-Source for strategic sourcing, v-Distributor for online distributors; and e-MarketMaker for Internet market makers.
This news release may include forward-looking statements, which are subject to the "Safe Harbor" created by Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933, as amended, and Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended. These forward-looking statements involve certain risks and uncertainties that can cause actual results to differ materially from those in the forward-looking statements. These forward-looking statements represent only the views of certain members of management and are based on limited information available to us now, which is subject to change. We have no current plan to update these statements. Actual results may differ substantially from what we say today and no one should assume at a later date that the forward-looking statements provided herein are still valid. They speak only as of today.
For more information about these risks and uncertainties, see the SEC filings of PurchasePro Inc., including the section titled "Factors That May Affect Results" in its 10-K filing for the period ended December 31, 2000, and its 10-Q for the quarter ended March 31, 2001, which are available from the company on request and on the Internet at the SEC's Website, www.sec.gov.
Note: PurchasePro is a servicemark of PurchasePro.com Inc. All other trademarks or registered trademarks are the property of their respective owners.