Microsoft Has Wallet Product And 10 Allies

Microsoft Corp. said 10 providers of electronic payment software have agreed to support Microsoft Wallet.

The wallet product, one of several new wrinkles in the electronic commerce strategy of the Redmond, Wash., software giant, was unveiled Sunday at a Microsoft-sponsored conference in Orlando.

The wallet will be incorporated in a system for using the MasterCard- Visa Secure Electronic Transactions, or SET, protocol that Microsoft will be offering jointly with Hewlett-Packard Co. and Verifone Inc.

Verifone was among the electronic money and payment developers signing for the virtual wallet, along with Cybercash, Cybercharge, Digicash, GC Tech, GlobeSet, IC Verify, Paylinx, Tellan Software, and Trintech.

Microsoft said its product would be compatible with Cybercash Inc.'s Cybercoin and PayNow payment modules. Verifone, Cybercash, Trintech Inc., and GlobeSet Inc. plan to offer SET capabilities based on Microsoft's wallet and Site Server Enterprise Edition, also announced last weekend.

Microsoft also put forward a standard for corporate purchasing called OBI-open buying on the Internet-and listed 68 companies supporting its overall commerce strategy and using Microsoft products in their offerings.

Financial companies and industry vendors on that list include American Express Co., Barnett Banks Inc., First Data Corp., First Virtual Holdings Inc., Harbinger Corp., Royal Bank of Canada, Wells Fargo & Co., the MasterCard, Visa, and JCB bank card associations, and the digital certification companies GTE Corp. and Verisign Inc.

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