Tumbleweed and FaceTime Communications Form Alliance to Deliver Comprehensive Messaging Solution
Partnership Combines Tumbleweed’s E-mail Firewall with FaceTime’s Instant Messaging (IM) Security Solutions to Seamlessly Protect and Manage Multiple Channels of Online Corporate Communications
REDWOOD CITY, Calif., August 11, 2003 – Tumbleweed® Communications Corp. (NASDAQ:TMWD), a leading provider of mission-critical Internet communications software for businesses and government agencies, and FaceTime Communications, the premier provider of security and management solutions for instant messaging (IM) in the enterprise, today announced an alliance that enables customers to enforce and centrally manage corporate policies across both the e-mail and IM communication streams.
This partnership extends Tumbleweed’s e-mail firewall to capture and integrate IM traffic into a common management workflow, helping financial services and healthcare firms meet industry regulations and corporate policies, including SEC rules 17a-3 and 17a-4, NASD conduct rules 3110 and 3010, the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002, the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 (HIPAA), and FDA regulation 21 CRF Part 11 for surveillance, monitoring and archival. The combined solution has already been deployed and proven in the field by joint customers, including some of the world’s largest brokerage firms.
The National Association of Securities Dealers (NASD) recently recommended that brokerage firms supervise employees’ IM in order to ensure compliance with U.S. market regulations, as they do with e-mail and written correspondence. The NASD said companies should retain copies of all IM exchanges between brokers and customers for at least three years, bringing IM in line with other electronic communications guidelines.
The Tumbleweed e-mail firewall allows organizations to protect their networks, comply with e-mail regulations and policies, and securely communicate with customers, partners and suppliers. FaceTime’s enterprise IM management suite of security, management and control solutions provides customers with the added value of enforcing messaging policies traffic across the IM communication channel. This combination enables customers to capture, analyze and categorize message flow and then archive both e-mail and IM messages in a centralized repository, searchable through a common user interface.
“Many of the same concerns that drive enterprises to implement our comprehensive e-mail firewall, such as maximizing productivity, minimizing liability and ensuring compliance, also apply to Instant Messaging,” said Dave Jevans, Tumbleweed’s Senior Vice President of Marketing. “The fact that customers have already integrated our solution with FaceTime’s demonstrates the value of the combination.”
FaceTime’s enterprise IM management suite of security, management and control solutions help detect, control and administer the use of Instant Messaging and Internet chat, without requiring a change in existing client or server software. FaceTime’s solutions support all the leading public IM networks including AOL, Microsoft, and Yahoo!, as well as the leading private and enterprise IM networks such as IBM Lotus, Microsoft, Reuters and Communicator Inc.
“FaceTime’s partnership with Tumbleweed allows us to help our joint customers manage the risk associated with the variety of communication options available to employees,” said Christopher S. Dean, senior vice president of marketing and business development for FaceTime. “We are happy to work with Tumbleweed in offering a combined solution for the security, management and control of both e-mail and IM communications in the enterprise.”
About Tumbleweed Communications Corp.
Tumbleweed is a leading provider of mission-critical Internet communications software products for enterprise and government. By making Internet communications secure, reliable and automated, Tumbleweed’s email firewall, secure file transfer, secure email, and identity validation solutions help customers significantly reduce the cost of doing business. Tumbleweed products are used millions of end-users and tens of thousands of corporations. Tumbleweed customers include ABN Amro, Catholic Healthcare West, Bank of America Securities, JP Morgan Chase & Co., The Regence Group (Blue Cross/Blue Shield), Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunication (SWIFT), St. Luke’s Episcopal Healthcare System, the US Food and Drug Administration, and the US Navy and Marine Corps. Tumbleweed Communications was founded in 1993 and is headquartered in Redwood City, California. For additional information about Tumbleweed go to www.tumbleweed.com or call 650/216-2000.
SAFE HARBOR STATEMENT
Except for the historical information contained herein, the matters discussed in this press release may constitute forward-looking statements that involve risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from those projected, particularly with respect to the benefits associated with Tumbleweed’s products, either alone or in combination with FaceTime’s products. In some cases, forward-looking statements can be identified by terminology such as “may,” “will,” “should,” “potential,” “continue,” “expects,” “anticipates,” “intends,” “plans,” “believes,” “estimates,” and similar expressions. For further cautions about the risks of investing in Tumbleweed, we refer you to the documents Tumbleweed files from time to time with the Securities and Exchange Commission, particularly Tumbleweed’s Annual Report on Form 10-K filed June 4, 2003.
Tumbleweed assumes no obligation to update information contained in this press release, which represents the Company’s expectations only as of the date of this release and should not be viewed as a statement about the Company’s expectations after such date. Although this release may remain available on the Company’s website or elsewhere, its continued availability does not indicate that the Company is reaffirming or confirming any of the information contained herein.
About FaceTime Communications
Founded in 1998 with an early vision to integrate instant messaging into the enterprise, FaceTime Communications is the most widely deployed provider of IM security and management solutions that address network and information security, regulatory and corporate compliance, and call center customer service. FaceTime’s award-winning solutions are used by over 300 customers, with over 50% of the largest global 100 financial institutions, including 7 of the 8 largest U.S. banks, such as Bank of America with 140,000 licensed seats alone. Other leading cable, energy, entertainment, healthcare, insurance, technology and travel customers include Alaska Airlines, Amica Insurance, BankOne, Citigroup, Dominion Energy, Hewlett-Packard, Jefferies & Co, NCR, Soundview Technologies, Thomas Weisel Partners, Toronto Dominion Bank, Wachovia Securities and Western Union. A renown pioneer, FaceTime was the first company to provide multi-network access to public IM networks AOL, Microsoft and Yahoo! while also providing interoperability with such private and enterprise IM networks as Communicator Inc., IBM Lotus, Jabber, Microsoft, Reuters and Yahoo!. Headquartered in Foster City, California, FaceTime can be reached at www.facetime.com, (888) 349-FACE, or via IM screen name FaceTimeLive.