Microsoft Investor Previews New Version With Breakthrough Tools To Help Investors Find and Research New Investment Ideas
REDMOND, Wash., March 4, 1998 — Microsoft Corp. today announced its most significant release of Microsoft® Investor, a leading online investing site that helps people track their investments, find new investing ideas and research their next investment. Today’s beta introduction is the start of a preview period during which users are encouraged to visit the site, explore Microsoft Investor’s latest features and provide feedback. The preview version of the new Microsoft Investor can be found at http://beta.investor.com/ .
Microsoft Investor, designed for both the novice and experienced user, addresses the growing interest in online investing by providing consumers with new, more powerful software tools as well as content from expanded alliances with leading content providers like Morningstar Inc., ValueLine Publishing Inc. and Disclosure Inc.
“This new release of Microsoft Investor demonstrates our vision for an online investing service and is the result of more than two years of research and ongoing development,” said Lewis Levin, vice president of the desktop finance division at Microsoft. “Both experienced and novice investors are recognizing the site as a leading online investing resource, with more than 1.6 million unique users visiting the site each month. We’re extremely proud of this growth and look forward to continuing our momentum with the new version.”
New Features of Microsoft Investor
Microsoft Investor Faster and Easier Than Ever Before
Improving site performance was a critical design goal for Microsoft Investor. Tests indicate that, on average, key areas of the new version of Microsoft Investor will be 40 percent faster than previous versions.
The latest version of Microsoft Investor also enables its best technologies, including ActiveX® Controls, for users of both Netscape Navigator 3.0 and higher and Microsoft Internet Explorer 3.0 and higher, making it available to the broadest segment of online consumers.
Advisor FYI Alerts Informs Users of Events Affecting Their Investments
Advisor FYI
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personal financial guidance alerts, save users time by monitoring their portfolio and alerting them of important events affecting their investments. Users can receive a variety of timely and pertinent alerts about topics including sharp rises in trading volumes, stock splits, earnings revisions, and mutual fund ratings’ upgrades and downgrades.
Strategy Lab Provides New Investment Ideas
Microsoft Investor’s new Strategy Lab lets personal investors watch the pros at work and follow the distinct strategies of six seasoned experts. Microsoft Investor subscribers can compare their own portfolios with the experts and learn by example. The wide range of investing strategies offers something for everyone, from mutual funds to options trading.
Investment Finder Helps Users Choose the Right Investment
Completely redesigned, the new Investment Finder is a powerful tool that lets users search an in-depth, integrated database of more than 8,000 stocks or 8,000 mutual funds. Users can build their own screens to query against eight databases, using over 300 criteria. Novice investors can get started quickly by using a wide selection of prebuilt screens designed by investing experts. Investors can also save screens to use them again in the future or e-mail them to others.
A Leading Online Source for Mutual Fund Research
Microsoft Investor now offers more comprehensive mutual fund research. Microsoft has extended its alliance with Morningstar Inc., adding new content including historical risk and return data, brokerage availability, expenses and fees, purchase constraints, portfolio holdings, composition and statistics. Microsoft has also entered into a new relationship with Value Line Publishing Inc. to provide detailed editorial analysis.
New Stock Research Including Insider Trading Data
New Insider Trading Data from Disclosure Inc. offers a glimpse into the personal trading activities of top U.S. executives and shows who is buying and selling shares, as well as when and at what price. Microsoft Investor provides information not only on past trades but also the planned sales and purchases of executives. Additional content in the Stock Research area includes SEC filings, also from Disclosure Inc., as well as 10 years of key fundamental data items from Media General Financial Services.
Microsoft Investor Adds Leading Investment Content Providers
Alliances with top content providers help Microsoft Investor deliver the best content and services to users. The new version adds ValueLine Publishing Inc., Disclosure Inc. and Standard and Poor’s ComStock Inc. to its growing list of industry-leading content providers, including Hoover’s Inc., Zacks Investment Research, Morningstar Inc., Media General Financial Services, Commodity Systems Inc. (CSI), PR Newswire, Business Wire, MSNBC and Reuters.
About Microsoft Investor
Microsoft Investor is an Internet resource created to help users easily track their investments and make investment decisions. Microsoft Investor was rated the No. 1 site for financial information and investing on the Web by the editors at Barron’s magazine, as well as being selected the Best All-Around Fee-Based Financial Site by Money Magazine. Media Metrix recently ranked Microsoft Investor the fastest-growing investing site of the last year. Designed for both the novice and experienced investor, Microsoft Investor provides users with portfolio tracking, original editorial content, business news, stock quotes, historical data and access to online trading (connect-time charges may apply).
Microsoft Investor seamlessly integrates with the Money 98 Financial Suite, Microsoft’s personal finance management software. Money 98 Financial Suite is the fastest-growing personal finance product on the market, nearly doubling its market share in 1997.
Pricing and Availability
In addition to its broad range of free services (connect time charges may apply), Microsoft Investor offers unlimited access to its valuable premium services for a monthly fee of $9.95 ($6.95 for subscribers to The Microsoft Network.) To access the current version of Microsoft Investor, go to http://investor.MSN.com/ .
About Microsoft
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 its easier and more enjoyable for people to take advantage of the full power of personal computing every day.
Microsoft, ActiveX and Advisor FYI are either registered trademarks or trademarks of Microsoft Corp. in the United States and/or other countries.
Other product and company names herein may be trademarks of their respective owners.
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