Microsoft Introduces Latest Release of Microsoft Investor

REDMOND, Wash., Feb. 24, 1997 — Microsoft Corp. today announced the availability of Microsoft® Investor, (http://investor.com/) , the latest version of the online investing service that helps people easily track their investments and understand the market.

A no-charge service*, Investor features lively and insightful editorial from leading financial journalists and analysts. The editorial coverage is designed to provide Investor users with a comprehensive understanding of financial issues and market trends. Microsoft also announced that it has entered into strategic relationships with E*TRADE Group Inc. and PC Financial Network
™
to provide users with greater access to online trading within Investor. These relationships complement existing offerings from Charles Schwab & Company Inc. and Fidelity Investments, announced last October.

Investor continues to deliver easy-to-use portfolio tracking via its Portfolio Manager, with access to company news, historical data and market information. By integrating a wider range of services and content, Investor now offers users improved convenience and usefulness. It intelligently integrates software tools and thought-provoking journalism, provides fresh and timely company news, and speaks in a uniquely sophisticated and provocative voice.

New Editorial by Leading Journalists

This latest version of Microsoft Investor will be updated daily with editorial content on a range of topics. Articles and columns will remain
“live”
for a week – except for a market summary, which changes daily. Visitors can expect the following:

  • Market summary (every business day). A daily recap of the major markets and the biggest movers to help investors understand what’s behind Wall Street’s gyrations.

  • Spotlight (Mondays). Stories about social and economic trends that will affect people’s investments and specific advice on what they should do about them.

  • Mutual funds (Tuesdays). A weekly look at the opportunities and pitfalls lurking in the ever-growing mutual fund industry.

  • Strategies (Wednesdays). Articles covering the stock-picking strategies that have worked – and the ones that haven’t.

  • Interviews (Thursdays). Discussions with top analysts and fund managers to find out their current thinking about the markets and, most important, their latest investment picks.

  • TGIF (Fridays). A surprise topic that promises to be relevant, informative and provocative for personal investors.

Investor’s thoughtful and opinionated editorial was developed by a top-notch writing team led by Founding Editor Dan Fisher. (Please refer to the attached biographies for more information about Investor’s writers and editors.)

“Unlike most competitive investment services, Investor doesn’t simply recast information that’s already available elsewhere,”
said Lewis Levin, vice president of the desktop finance division at Microsoft.
“Investor adds real value by integrating powerful, compelling software with relevant, high-quality analysis and content.”

New Trading Services

According to Forrester Research, 10 million online trading accounts are forecast by the year 2001. Microsoft continues to meet the needs of this rapidly growing community of online investors by providing additional access to online trading services through E*TRADE and PC Financial Network. Investor’s easy access to leading online brokers allows users to immediately act on their investment decisions. By trading on the Internet, users save time as well as money (in commissions), without requiring additional software.

“Online investing is rapidly accelerating, and E*TRADE is delighted to work with Microsoft to harness this momentum,”
said Christos M. Cotsakos, president and CEO, E*TRADE Group.
“The E*TRADE value proposition, combined with Microsoft Investor’s original editorial content and analysis, places independent investors in the driver’s seat to achieve their financial goals.”

“We view this relationship as a tremendous win for self-directed investors,”
said K. Blake Darcy, chief executive officer of PC Financial Network.
“By coupling PC Financial Network’s expertise in online investing with Investor’s unique content and software savvy, users are getting a rich and complete online investing experience.”

Expanded Community Environment

Investor offers users an expanded online community – including new discussion groups and chats where investors can exchange information with other followers of financial issues and thereby broaden their understanding of market events.

Investor is also offered as a free service on MSN
™
, The Microsoft Network, at (http://investor.MSN.com/) , and provides financial content and services to Microsoft Money, MSNBC, the Microsoft Web site, and the Microsoft Internet Explorer Web site. Investor was named one of the top 100 Web sites by PC Magazine.

Founded in 1975, Microsoft (NASDAQ
“MSFT”
) is the worldwide leader in software for personal computers. The company offers a wide range of products and services for business and personal use, each designed with the mission of making it easier and more enjoyable for people to take advantage of the full power of personal computing every day.

*Connect-time charges may apply.

Microsoft and MSN are either registered trademarks or trademarks of Microsoft Corp. in the United States and/or other countries. The Microsoft Network is operated by Microsoft Corp. on behalf of Microsoft Network LLC.

PC Financial Network is a trademark of Donaldson, Lufkin & Jennette Securities Corp.

Other product and company names herein may be trademarks of their respective owners.

Note to editors: If you are interested in viewing additional information on Microsoft, please visit the Microsoft Web page at http://www.microsoft.com/presspass/ on Microsoft’s corporate information pages.

Biographies: Who’s Who in Microsoft Investor Editorial

Founding Editor Dan Fisher

Dan Fisher spent 26 years at the Los Angeles Times, where he was a financial writer before going abroad as a foreign correspondent. He was at various times bureau chief in Moscow, Warsaw, Jerusalem and London, was a Pulitzer Prize finalist, and founded the paper’s weekly World Report section. Later he helped start and then ran the award-winning TimesLink news and information service, which pioneered online journalism.

Copy Chief Wendy White

Wendy White spent nine years at Investor’s Business Daily, which she helped launch in 1984. She was a University of Michigan business school fellow, a Freedom Forum Fellow in Asia, and an editor at The Seattle Times. She also plays flute, sings in the Seattle Symphony Chorus and paddles a mahogany sea kayak she built herself.

Columnist James Grant

James Grant edits Grant’s Interest Rate Observer and directs Grant’s Municipal Bond Observer and Grant’s Asia Observer. His books include
“The Trouble With Prosperity: The Loss of Fear,” “The Rise of Speculation”
and
“The Risk to American Savings”
(Times Books 1996). He is a frequent panelist on
“Wall Street Week with Louis Rukeyser”
and does a weekly market commentary on
“CNN Business News.”
He’s based in New York.

Mutual Fund Columnist Tim Middleton

Tim Middleton writes about investing for the New York Times, Individual Investor and other publications, and is a radio commentator for WCBS in New York. A former reporter for the Dow Jones News Service and editor at Crain’s New York Business, Tim works from home in Short Hills, N.J.

Editorial Consultant Daniel Akst

Daniel Akst is a former assistant business editor at the Los Angeles Times. He won a Hancock Award at The Wall Street Journal, and his work has appeared in Forbes, Fortune, Newsday, the Boston Globe and
“Marketplace”
on National Public Radio. His books include the novel
“St. Burl’s Obituary,”
forthcoming in paperback from Harcourt Brace.

Scheduled contributors to Microsoft Investor in the weeks ahead will include Dan Seligman, Susan Lee, Charles R. Morris, Neal Koch, Mark Thompson, Randy Myers, Peter Barsocchini, Steven Landsburg, Anne Gregor, Julie Rose and Jon Markman

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