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MicroStrategy Becomes First IBM Business Intelligence Partner to Earn Validation and Registration in Netfinity ClusterProven Program

ClusterProven Support Enhances Performance and Availability of MicroStrategy-Based Intelligent E-Business™ Solutions

VIENNA, VA., October 13, 1999 – MicroStrategy® Incorporated (NASDAQ: MSTR), a leading worldwide provider of Intelligent E-Business™ software, today announced that it has become IBM’s (NYSE: IBM) first business intelligence partner to receive ClusterProven™ validation and registration on the Netfinity® platform. As a member of the ClusterProven program, MicroStrategy will be able to integrate Netfinity’s sophisticated clustering strategies into its world-class intelligence solutions, providing customers with even better performance and reliability of their mission-critical Intelligent E-Business™ applications.

By achieving ClusterProven validation, MicroStrategy has verified that solutions developed with its comprehensive MicroStrategy 6 product line maintain fluid performance during planned and unplanned downtime. This capability enhances an organization’s ability to perform mission-critical activities, such as customer relationship marketing initiatives and supply chain management processing, without having to worry about system stability and performance.

"We are witnessing an increasing number of companies pursuing sophisticated e-business strategies based on our technology," said Sanju K. Bansal, chief operating officer of MicroStrategy Incorporated. "Our relationship with IBM allows MicroStrategy to leverage the Netfinity platform to support the e-business objectives of our clients, enabling the deployment of comprehensive, reliable solutions."

"We’re excited that MicroStrategy has completed validation and has officially become a member of the IBM Netfinity ClusterProven program," said Sandy Carter, Director of Netfinity Partners in Development. "With ClusterProven, organizations can have confidence that they’re getting registered, highly available solutions so that they can concentrate on their business, and not on their clustering configurations."

IBM recently announced the ClusterProven program in an effort to establish high standards for system availability, providing companies with failover support for both their hardware and e-business application platforms. Netfinity Cluster Server supports load-balancing to maintain equilibrium in processing environments. Should a server become disabled or inundated with end user requests, Cluster Server’s load-balancing feature automatically reroutes query processing to other servers within the system.

IBM and MicroStrategy Incorporated are separate companies and each is responsible for its own products. Neither IBM nor MicroStrategy makes any warranties, express or implied, concerning the other’s products, including any warranties of Year 2000 readiness.

About MicroStrategy Incorporated

MicroStrategy is a leading worldwide provider of Intelligent E-Business(TM) software and related services. MicroStrategy's product line enables both proactive and interactive delivery of information from large-scale databases, providing Global 2000 enterprises a platform for developing solutions that deliver insight and intelligence to their enterprise, supply- chain, and customers.

MicroStrategy's platform enables users to query and analyze the most detailed, transaction-level databases, turning data into business intelligence. In addition to supporting internal enterprise users, MicroStrategy's platform delivers critical business information beyond corporate boundaries to customers, partners and supply chain constituencies through a broad range of pull and push technology such as the Internet, e-mail, telephones, pagers and other wireless communications devices. MicroStrategy's platform is ideal for developing e-business solutions that are personalized and proactive, and that reach millions of users. MicroStrategy also offers a comprehensive set of consulting, training and support services for its customers and partners.

MicroStrategy has over 750 customers across such diverse industries as retail, telecommunications, finance, insurance, healthcare, pharmaceuticals and consumer packaged goods. Representative MicroStrategy customers include American Express Travel Services, CVS Pharmacy, Harris Teeter, IMS America, Kmart, MCI WorldCom, Merck-Medco, Nike, and Ralston Purina. MicroStrategy has also entered into relationships with more than 185 systems integration, application development and platform partners, including Axiom, HNC Software, IBM, NCR, and Oracle.

For more information, please visit MicroStrategy's Web site: http://www.microstrategy.com.

This press release includes statements that may constitute "forward-looking" statements, usually containing the words "believe," "estimate," "project," "expect" or similar expressions. Forward-looking statements inherently involve risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from the forward-looking statements. Factors that could cause or contribute to such differences include 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, market acceptance of new products, competitive factors, general economic conditions, 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.

MicroStrategy, Intelligent E-Business 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.