AMERICAN EXPRESS, CITIGROUP AND STARWOOD HOTELS AND RESORTS MAKE INVESTMENT IN LOYALTY COMPANY

Source: Netcentives Inc.

July 16, 1999
SAN FRANCISCO -- Netcentives Inc., a leading developer of online promotion, direct marketing and loyalty programs, today announced that it has closed its latest round of funding with $36 million in investments. Terms of the deal were not disclosed.


The financing, led by Bowman Capital Management, LLC, included strategic investments from American Express Company, Citigroup Inc., and Starwood Hotels and Resorts Worldwide, Inc., and new investments from Glynn Capital Management, Invesco Private Capital Group and Thomas Weisel Partners.


Previous investors, including the Mayfield Fund, New Enterprise Associates (NEA), Information Technology Ventures Integral Partners and RRE Investors increased their investment in the company. Netcentives has received $65 million in venture and strategic funding to date.


"American Express is committed to providing products and services that can enrich our customer relationships online," said Larry Kutscher, vice president of interactive enterprise development at American Express. "We are pleased today to announce our investment in Netcentives and look forward to leveraging its expertise in online promotional tools and rewards."


"We have participated in two rounds of Netcentives funding," said Bill Carson, director of strategic investments, at Citigroup's e-Citi unit. "Netcentives is an important emerging player in the online rewards and loyalty program space and is a strong addition to our electronic commerce investment portfolio."


Netcentives, founded in 1996, launched the ClickRewards Shopping Network in March of 1998. Since that time, ClickRewards has attracted more than 50 leading online merchants as customers, including barnesandnoble.com and E*TRADE, and more than 1.4 million consumer members. Netcentives is the exclusive Internet-based network provider of frequent flyer miles for eight leading airlines.


"Starwood Hotels & Resorts, is committed to providing business travelers with a loyalty program that is both valuable and flexible," said Hoyt Harper, vice-president, marketing services at Starwood Hotels & Resorts. "We've been very impressed with the success Netcentives has seen extending loyalty programs to the Internet."


The company recently announced a suite of new products and services that build on the company's success with the ClickRewards Shopping Network. Designed to give companies and brands effective, measurable tools for establishing valuable, long term relationships with customers, partners and employees, the products and services include:


Netcentives Custom Loyalty Networks, custom loyalty programs for major brands and portals
ClickRewards@Work, sales and employee incentive programs deployed over the intranet and extranet
Netcentives Professional Services, legacy and database integration and application development services for electronic business initiatives

About American Express
American Express Company is a diversified worldwide travel, financial and network services company founded in 1850. It is a world leader in charge and credit cards Travelers Cheques, travel, financial planning, investment products, insurance and international banking. For more information, visit http://www.americanexpress.com.


About Citigroup Inc.
Citigroup (NYSE:C), the world's most global financial services company, provides some 100 million consumers, corporations, governments and institutions in 100 countries with a broad range of financial products and services, including consumer banking and credit, corporate and investment banking, insurance, securities brokerage and asset management. The 1998 merger of Citicorp and Travelers Group brought together such brand names as Citibank, Travelers, Salomon Smith Barney, Commercial Credit and Primerica under Citigroup's trademark red umbrella. For more information, visit http://www.citi.com.


About Starwood Hotels and Resorts
Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide, Inc. (NYSE:HOT), through its St. Regis Luxury Collection, Westin, Sheraton, Four Points, W and Caesars brands is the largest hotel and leisure company in the world, owning, managing and franchising more than 712 hotels in 72 countries and 130,000 employees. For more information, visit http://www.starwoodhotels.com


About Netcentives
San Francisco-based Netcentives Inc., is a leading provider of loyalty, direct-marketing and promotion products designed to drive electronic commerce. Chosen by the Internet's top brands, Netcentives offers a wide range of powerful promotion and direct marketing programs, including the ClickRewards Shopping Network, Custom Loyalty Networks for major brands and portals and ClickRewards@Work, a corporate incentives solution. Netcentives also offers e-commerce consulting and integration through its Professional Services group. Netcentives customers include barnesandnoble.com, Beyond.com, CDNOW, E*TRADE, garden.com, Macy's.com, msn shopping, OfficeMax.com, PlanetRx, Preview Travel, and Yahoo! among others. Netcentives consumer programs are the exclusive online reward networks to award frequent flyer miles from eight leading airlines, including American Airlines, British Airways, Continental Airlines, Delta Air Lines, Northwest Airlines, TransWorld Airlines, United Airlines, and US Airways. For more information on Netcentives, visit http://www.netcentives.com or call 415/538-1888.