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New Online Shopping Service Www.Studentoptions.Com Helps UK Students Make Their Money Go Further

Posted on: Thursday, 21 October 2004, 12:00 CDT

New Web Site Gives Students Easy Access to the Latest Microsoft Software, at the Lowest Price

Digital River has launched a new pilot Web site, www.studentoptions.com, which will allow students in the UK to purchase the latest Microsoft desktop software at huge discounts from the retail price. The Web site, which is supported by Microsoft and Eduserv Athens, will give UK students access to the very best software enabling them to stay up-to-date and develop their IT skills.

IT skills are undoubtedly valuable while at college, helping students to save time and to produce work of the highest quality. For example, Microsoft OneNote 2003 will help students to capture, organize and share their notes efficiently and effectively. The software available will also help students develop IT skills that are increasingly essential when graduating and entering the competitive job market.

The Microsoft software available on Studentoptions also offers more than study tools and a chance to gain career-focused skills. The products and programs will enable students to explore a range of extra-curricular interests, for example:

-- build your own Web site using Microsoft FrontPage

-- download and store music, video and more with Microsoft Windows XP

-- create flyers for university events, newsletters and other materials in Microsoft Publisher

"Through our industry partnership with Microsoft and Eduserv, we are pleased to be able to put software in the hands of students to help them develop important workplace skills and areas of personal interest," said Dave Alampi, Digital River's vice president of marketing. "By leveraging our global e-commerce platform and multi-lingual customer services, we can offer students easy online access to Microsoft's latest software titles and deliver instant digital downloads at special education prices."

David Burrows, Director of Education, Microsoft UK commented, "The Studentoptions pilot program is a significant step in broadening affordable access to the latest technology for students, which is vital to their development - we hope that they take advantage of it. We're also delighted to be working with such experienced partners to deliver this exciting new project for students across the UK."

"We are pleased that Athens' capability as an identity service provider enables students to be categorized securely and therefore able to purchase software products at discount," said Lyn Norris, Eduserv Athens product manager.

About Microsoft

Founded in 1975, Microsoft (Nasdaq:MSFT) is the worldwide leader in software, services and Internet technologies for personal and business computing. Since its creation Microsoft has worked with communities, educators and young people to expand the world of learning through technology.

About Digital River

Digital River, Inc. (Nasdaq:DRIV), a global leader in e-commerce outsourcing, builds and manages online businesses for more than 40,000 software publishers, manufacturers, distributors and online retailers. Its multi-channel e-commerce solution, which supports both direct and indirect sales, is designed to help companies of all sizes maximize online revenues as well as reduce the costs and risks of running an e-commerce operation. The company's comprehensive platform offers site development and hosting, order management, fraud prevention, site merchandising, advanced reporting and analytics, product fulfillment, e-marketing and multi-lingual customer service.

Founded in 1994, Digital River is headquartered in Minneapolis with offices in Chicago, Mountain View, California, London, and Cologne, Germany. For more details about Digital River, visit the corporate Web site at www.digitalriver.com or call 952-253-1234.

About Eduserv Athens

Eduserv Athens is a leading access and identity management system and service for distributed enterprises. Since 1995, Eduserv Athens has grown to become the de facto standard, within UK higher and further education and health sectors, for secure access management to hundreds of internal and external online services and resources. Currently, more than 2,000 organizations use Athens to manage 3.1 million-plus user accounts and access rights, and its use is rapidly growing internationally and within the UK public sector.

For more information about Eduserv Athens, please visit www.eduserv.org.uk/athens.

Source: Business Wire

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