Exhibit 99.1
At Ameritrade: At The Dilenschneider Group, Inc.
- -------------------------------- ---------------------------------
Kris Lutz Media Contact: Analyst Contact:
Director of Investor Relations Kim Shepherd Jim Fitzpatrick
800-237-8692 x 7755 312/553-0700 312/553-0700
At MicroStrategy:
- -----------------
Lisa Nolan
MicroStrategy Incorporated
703/ 848-8692
AMERITRADE AND MICROSTRATEGY
FORGE ALLIANCE TO OFFER CUSTOMERS
PERSONALIZED PROACTIVE FINANCIAL INTELLIGENCE
OMAHA, NE, May 27, 1999 -- Leveraging technology to provide its customers with
personalized proactive financial intelligence, Ameritrade Holding Corporation
(NASDAQ: AMTD), one of America's leading online brokerage firms, today announced
that it has signed a contract with MicroStrategy Incorporated (NASDAQ: MSTR), a
leading worldwide provider of business intelligence software, to develop a
comprehensive, leading edge suite of financial service offerings. Terms of the
contract were not disclosed.
"The proprietary e-business financial service offerings we are
developing with MicroStrategy will provide Ameritrade with a competitive
advantage that will be very hard to match," said Thomas K. Lewis, Jr., co-chief
executive officer, Ameritrade Holding Corporation. "Working with the
MicroStrategy technology, we will be able to process massive amounts of
financial intelligence and proactively broadcast it directly to our customers.
In addition to this unprecedented level of personalized financial insight and
analysis, including 24x7 stock alerts, we also will be able to offer our
customers the ability to act immediately to execute transactions via a wide
range of wireless devices such as pagers, cellular phones, and PDAs," Lewis
added.
"This agreement with Ameritrade marks MicroStrategy's emergence as a
strategic player in the e-business industry," said Michael J. Saylor, president
and chief executive officer of MicroStrategy. "MicroStrategy's core technology
strength is to extract insight from massive databases to provide organizations
with better intelligence on their business and their customers. With Ameritrade
we will leverage this expertise to develop financial applications that are
proactive and personalized, allowing them to reach customers in unique ways, and
provide customers with unmatched financial services."
"Our goal is to enable Ameritrade to add business intelligence to e-
commerce applications," said John Wyatt, president of MicroStrategy's E-Business
Division. "With Ameritrade, we want to go beyond simple transactions over a web
site to developing solutions that enable the company to capture data and use
that data to proactively interact with its customers via the communication
device of their choosing. We believe that Ameritrade is leading the industry in
developing e-business applications that provide significant value to its
customers." Wyatt added that this alliance could potentially include millions
of software licenses to cover Ameritrade's rapidly growing customer base.
According to Lewis, "We believe that the products and services that
will result from our alliance with MicroStrategy will help fuel the next wave of
growth in online investing. We envision a day in the not so distant future when
we can utilize technology to automatically notify customers via cell phone,
pager or email that a stock they have been watching is moving and a decision to
buy, sell or hold is needed and with the press of a button they'll be able to
respond. That's where the industry is going and we plan to be there first."
1
About Ameritrade Holding Corporation
Ameritrade Holding Corporation is a pioneer in the discount and online
brokerage industry. The Company provides brokerage services and clearing
services to self-directed individual consumer investors and other financial
institutions through its subsidiaries.
Subsidiaries of Ameritrade Holding include: Ameritrade (Inc.)
(www.ameritrade.com), a leading on-line discount brokerage firm; Accutrade, Inc.
(www.accutrade.com), a discount brokerage firm delivering superior levels of
personal service and support to its clients; AmeriVest, Inc.
(www.amerivestinc.com), which provides third-party discount brokerage services
and other financial services to commercial banks, credit unions and thrift
institutions; as well as Advanced Clearing, Inc. (www.advancedclearing.com), a
securities clearing firm providing clearing services to each subsidiary as well
as other financial institutions. For more information on the Company and its
subsidiaries, visit the Company's web site at www.amtd.com.
About MicroStrategy Incorporated
MicroStrategy is a leading worldwide provider of e-business
intelligence software and related services. MicroStrategy's product line, DSS
Suite(tm), 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.
The MicroStrategy 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-Medico, 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.strategy.com
# # #
MicroStrategy and DSS 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 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
2
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.
3