MicroStrategy Announces First Quarter 2010 Financial Results

MCLEAN, Va., April 29 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- MicroStrategy® Incorporated (Nasdaq: MSTR), a leading worldwide provider of business intelligence software, today announced financial results for the three-month period ended March 31, 2010 (the first quarter of its 2010 fiscal year).

First quarter 2010 revenues were $93.4 million versus $80.2 million for the first quarter of 2009, a 16% increase.  Product licenses revenues for the first quarter of 2010 were $18.0 million versus $17.0 million for the first quarter of 2009, a 6% increase.  Product support and other services revenues for MicroStrategy's core business intelligence (BI) business in the first quarter of 2010 were $71.3 million versus $60.6 million for the first quarter of 2009, an 18% increase.  

Operating expenses for the first quarter of 2010 were $64.2 million versus $52.7 million for the first quarter of 2009, a 22% increase.  During the first quarter of 2009, MicroStrategy capitalized $4.2 million in research and development costs associated with the development of its MicroStrategy 9™ software, while no software development costs have been capitalized since the general release of MicroStrategy 9 in March 2009.  

Income from continuing operations and net income for the first quarter of 2010 were each $6.9 million, or $0.56 per share on a diluted basis.  Income from continuing operations for the first quarter of 2009 was $8.7 million, or $0.71 per share on a diluted basis, and net income for the first quarter of 2009 was $23.0 million, or $1.88 per share on a diluted basis.  In February 2009, MicroStrategy completed the sale of its majority-owned subsidiary, Alarm.com Incorporated, which was classified as a discontinued operation, resulting in a gain of $14.4 million, net of tax, in the first quarter of 2009.  

During the first quarter of 2010, MicroStrategy repurchased 169,547 shares of its class A common stock at an average price per share of $85.83 and an aggregate cost of $14.6 million.  As of March 31, 2010, MicroStrategy had cash and cash equivalents of $231.9 million versus $224.8 million as of December 31, 2009, an increase of $7.1 million.  As of March 31, 2010, MicroStrategy had 9,088,066 shares of class A common stock and 2,694,362 shares of class B common stock outstanding.

MicroStrategy Positioned in Leaders Quadrant of Gartner's 2010 Magic Quadrant for Business Intelligence Platforms Report:

Gartner, Inc. has positioned MicroStrategy in the Leaders quadrant in the 2010 "Magic Quadrant for Business Intelligence Platforms" report. Gartner describes Leaders as "vendors that are reasonably strong in the breadth and depth of their BI platform capabilities, and can deliver on enterprisewide implementations that support a broad BI strategy. Leaders articulate a business proposition that resonates with buyers, supported by the viability and operational capability to deliver on a global basis."  A copy of the Gartner report is available, compliments of MicroStrategy, at http://www.microstrategy.com/Company/Gartnerquadrant.asp.

MicroStrategy Announced Beta Release of iPhone Apps Development Platform:

MicroStrategy recently announced that it will offer a mobile application platform for developing and deploying iPhone® Apps. MicroStrategy Mobile™ for iPhone offers a new way to develop and deploy iPhone Apps that is faster, easier, and more maintainable than using traditional Integrated Development Environments. MicroStrategy Mobile for iPhone offers the following benefits:

• Reduces the time to develop new iPhone Apps − MicroStrategy's mobile app platform includes the infrastructure needed to support each new iPhone App, so application developers only need to focus on creating the user experience and not on the back-end infrastructure.

• Easy for non-developers to create professional iPhone Apps − MicroStrategy's iPhone applications do not require any coding. Using MicroStrategy's mobile app platform, iPhone Apps are assembled in a point-and-click fashion. App creators can choose from an array of finely-designed, iPhone-optimized displays and controls.

• Easy for companies to rapidly deploy iPhone App updates − MicroStrategy's mobile app platform uses an on-demand form of application deployment called "in-stream" deployment. As soon as new or updated applications are ready, they are instantly available to iPhone users directly from MicroStrategy's mobile app platform.

Mobile BI applications represent a new breed of business applications that are simple-to-use, highly focused, and available whenever and wherever business is conducted. Business people no longer need to delay decision-making due to a lack of information or delay executing a transaction simply because they are away from their desks. Mobile applications delivered through smartphones such as the iPhone have the potential to revolutionize business processes across every industry. For more details, visit http://www.microstrategy.com/mobile/platform.

MicroStrategy Offers Interactive Reports and Dashboards on the New Apple iPad:

MicroStrategy now offers interactive reporting and analysis directly on the Apple® iPad™.  With MicroStrategy, iPad users can seamlessly access MicroStrategy-based reports, business charts, and information dashboards at their convenience. MicroStrategy reports and dashboards do not need to be reformatted for viewing on the iPad, giving users seamless access to the same business information that they see on their desktop computers.  For more information on MicroStrategy on the iPad, visit http://www.microstrategy.com/mobile/ipad.

MicroStrategy also offers mobile BI capabilities for the Apple iPhone, the BlackBerry® smartphone, and the Amazon Kindle® DX. MicroStrategy's architecture is engineered to provide the speed and performance required by customers using business intelligence on a mobile device.

MicroStrategy Introduces New High Performance Standards for Business Intelligence:

In April 2010, MicroStrategy introduced a multi-year initiative to further improve the performance of its business intelligence platform. MicroStrategy's high performance initiative includes the formation of its High Performance and Scalability Lab, the creation of a dedicated Performance Engineering team, and specific R&D efforts solely focused on providing MicroStrategy customers with the highest levels of performance for BI applications of all sizes. With its new high performance initiative, MicroStrategy plans to:

• Deliver up to 10x faster BI applications − Today's BI applications must efficiently access terabytes and even petabytes of data. Since most competing BI tools do not include performance acceleration engines, average BI application query response times often range from 10 seconds to one minute or more. MicroStrategy's high performance initiative will set a new performance standard, aiming to deliver up to 10x faster query response time at any data scale.

• Provide faster than 3-second response time for most predictable queries and analyses − MicroStrategy research has found that most business queries are predictable. Business people often run similar reports on a daily, weekly, or monthly basis to understand operational performance. Using its in-memory technology to cache computations and place the results into server memory, MicroStrategy can dramatically accelerate repetitive operational reports as well as most subsequent analyses.

• Provide faster than 5-second response time for the majority of ad hoc queries − By optimizing and accelerating all aspects of its BI platform, from SQL generation to SQL execution to data rendering, MicroStrategy seeks to enable 50% of all ad hoc queries to return in less than 5 seconds. Specific areas on which MicroStrategy's R&D efforts will focus include faster database queries, larger data caches, faster Web interactivity, and faster dashboards.

MicroStrategy will launch its High Performance BI Webcast series, "Top 10 Ways to Optimize Performance with MicroStrategy" on May 6, 2010. The first one-hour Webcast will provide useful insights to extend performance levels and enhance the user experience. For more details, visit http://www.microstrategy.com/high-performance-BI.

MicroStrategy's Free Reporting Package Provides Critical Business Insights from SAP BW:

MicroStrategy announced that its free reporting software package, MicroStrategy Reporting Suite™, provides seamless access to SAP® Business Information Warehouse (SAP BW) data. SAP BW is an online analytical processing system and data warehouse. MicroStrategy Reporting Suite enables users to develop operational and analytical reports from SAP BW data and non-SAP data from an integrated BI interface. With MicroStrategy Reporting Suite, business users and IT professionals can quickly access SAP BW data to perform statistical and advanced analyses, run performance scorecards, and drill to investigate details, all from the same tool. MicroStrategy Reporting Suite extends SAP BW data analysis to more users, with its full-featured, intuitive interface and easy-to-use reports. For more details, visit www.microstrategy.com/freereportingsoftware/sapbw.

MicroStrategy Offers More than 200 Hours of Free Online Training for BI Professionals:

To address the increased market demand for MicroStrategy trained personnel, MicroStrategy recently announced that it is offering a free online training curriculum that covers a wide range of training needs. BI users from business and technical disciplines can choose from hundreds of lessons across a series of classes that cover key BI topics, prerequisite material for certification exams, the latest products and capabilities from MicroStrategy, techniques for leveraging advanced settings and tools, and MicroStrategy companion technologies.  

MicroStrategy also offers a full range of instructor-led courses, certification programs, and comprehensive education packages to meet the diverse education requirements of its customers. For more details on MicroStrategy's free online training, visit http://www.microstrategy.com/Education/Online.

New Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services Information Dashboard Powered by MicroStrategy:

The new information dashboard recently launched by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) is powered by MicroStrategy. The CMS dashboard offers an exciting tool in support of President Obama's initiative for transparency and open government. In addition to providing the American public with detailed insights into Medicare spending data, the dashboard data can be used by government and industry to assess health care policies, improve the management of health care, and identify areas for change.

The CMS dashboard, which can be viewed at http://www.cms.gov/dashboard, offers transparency into over $100 billion in Medicare spending data. The dashboard shortcuts the process of compiling the data and provides easy access for citizens to view the information at their convenience. With data from over 40 million Medicare hospital admissions, the dashboard enables the public to view the relationships between cost and volume of Medicare admissions by state, starting in January 2006. Every month, the data will be updated with nearly one million more admissions.

MicroStrategy's dashboards are used by businesses and government agencies to augment data comprehension and improve decision-making. To learn more about MicroStrategy's dashboard technology, visit http://www.microstrategy.com/dashboards.

New Customers and New Deals with Existing Customers in Q1 2010 Included:

99 Cents Only Stores; Amica Mutual Insurance; Banco Bilbao Vizcaya Argentaria; Canadian Institute for Health Information; Cancer Care Ontario; Cardinal Glass Industries; Charming Shoppes of Delaware; Chiquita Brands; Danone; Dick's Sporting Goods; eBay; Electronic Arts; Epsilon Data Management; Fannie Mae; Foot Locker; Freddie Mac; Heartland Payment Systems; Herbalife International of America; Interstate Batteries; LinkedIn Corporation; Maritz; McCain Foods; Meijer Great Lakes Limited Partnership; MNET Broadcast Services; MORE International; MySpace; National Aeronautics and Space Administration; Nordstrom; Nygard International; PHI Service Company; Reprise Media; Republic National Distributing Company; Ryder System; Sears Holdings Management Corporation; Sierra Health Services; Telescope; Telefonica O2 UK Limited; Tesco Personal Finance plc; The Mens Wearhouse; Tuesday Morning; U.S. House of Representatives; University of Richmond; US Navy Navair; US Postal Service; Valpak Direct Marketing Systems; and Wilton Industries

Examples of Customer Deals from Q1 2010:

Interstate Batteries

Interstate Batteries, the leading automotive replacement battery brand in North America, recently extended its enterprise BI strategy with MicroStrategy dashboards. Over the past several years, Interstate Batteries has used MicroStrategy dashboards for enhanced visibility into sales performance and historical sales trends. With the expansion of MicroStrategy across the enterprise, Interstate Batteries will be able to provide dashboard metrics and analysis capabilities to its distributors. This new reporting capability will improve inventory management, increase sales, and provide more effective management of new customers.

Nygard International

Nygard International, headquartered in Winnipeg, Canada, is a leading fashion company that designs and markets women's fashion apparel.  Nygard has recently expanded its deployment of MicroStrategy for enhanced mobile intelligence, and operational reporting and analytics.  With MicroStrategy Mobile, Nygard's mobile workforce is able to track product performance across store locations and reseller channels, and rely on real-time information to make critical business decisions. Nygard currently has six mobile BI applications in production.

Republic National Distributing Company

Republic National Distributing Company (RNDC) is the second largest distributor of premium wine and spirits in the U.S.  RNDC expanded its MicroStrategy deployment to maximize sales opportunities and increase cost savings. With the recent purchase of MicroStrategy software, RNDC will more rapidly and effectively bring analysis to bear on the key profit indicators of the organization.  RNDC's sales management uses the MicroStrategy platform to measure sales performance across all customer channels and at all key management levels in the organization.

About MicroStrategy Incorporated

Founded in 1989, MicroStrategy is a global leader in business intelligence (BI) technology.  MicroStrategy provides integrated reporting, analysis, and monitoring software that helps leading organizations worldwide make better business decisions every day.  Companies choose MicroStrategy for its ease-of-use, sophisticated analytics, and superior data and user scalability. MicroStrategy offers free reporting software that can be downloaded from its website, http://www.microstrategy.com/freereportingsoftware.  More information about MicroStrategy (Nasdaq: MSTR) is available at www.microstrategy.com.

MicroStrategy, MicroStrategy 9, MicroStrategy Mobile and MicroStrategy Reporting Suite are either trademarks or registered trademarks of MicroStrategy Incorporated in the United States and certain other countries.  Other product and company names mentioned herein may be the trademarks of their respective owners.

This press release may include statements that may constitute "forward-looking statements," including estimates of future business prospects or financial results and statements containing the words "believe," "estimate," "project," "expect" or similar expressions. Forward-looking statements inherently involve risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results of MicroStrategy Incorporated and its subsidiaries (collectively, the "Company") to differ materially from the forward-looking statements.  Factors that could contribute to such differences include: the Company's ability to recognize revenue or deferred revenue through delivery of products or satisfactory performance of services, such as the Company's ability to timely release its mobile application platform for developing and deploying iPhone Apps; continued acceptance of the Company's products in the marketplace; the timing of significant orders; delays in the Company's ability to develop or ship new products, such as its mobile application platform for developing and deploying iPhone Apps and new or modified products the Company may seek to develop as a result of its high performance initiatives; market acceptance of new products; competitive factors; general economic conditions, including significant downturns in industries, including the financial services and retail industries, in which we have a significant number of customers; currency fluctuations; and other risks detailed in the Company's registration statements and periodic reports filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission. By making these forward-looking statements, the Company undertakes no obligation to update these statements for revisions or changes after the date of this release.

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SOURCE MicroStrategy Incorporated