Microsoft Investor to Be Premier Provider of Active Channel Content For Microsoft Internet Explorer 4.0
Latest Market Information and Full Suite of Microsoft Personal Finance Products Available Right on the Desktop
REDMOND, Wash. – Oct. 1, 1997 – Microsoft® Investor, a leading online personal investment resource, today announced it will be a premier provider of Active Channel
™
content for Microsoft Internet Explorer 4.0, the highly anticipated new version of Microsoft Corp.’s Web browser. Microsoft Investor, which has attracted more than 20,000 paying subscribers in the first three months since the launch of its premium service, will be featured on the Internet Explorer 4.0 Channel Bar to deliver valuable and timely investing information right on the desktop.
The Investor channel brings consumers a personalized list of stock quotes, market indexes, and editorial features on a variety of investing ideas. The Investor channel will also offer a market-update feature that delivers the latest analysis of the market three times a day.
“In the investment world, every minute counts,”
said Lewis Levin, vice president of the desktop finance division at Microsoft.
”
Through the Active Desktop
™interface and Microsoft Investor’s array of rich investment content and services, users will always have the latest investment news and information delivered exactly when and where they want it.”
Microsoft Investor will make use of the powerful new features of Internet Explorer 4.0 on its channel. Through the use of Internet Explorer’s Dynamic HTML and content delivery capabilities, Investor users will have the most active and engaging experience with financial information and selected investment news delivered automatically to their desktops.
Microsoft Investor channel users will also get one-click access to other Microsoft personal finance products, including the Microsoft Money Insider
™
interactive financial guide (http://moneyinsider.MSN.com/) , a Web site that helps consumers make smart financial decisions, and a free trial downloading of the newly released Microsoft Money 98 personal finance software (connect-time charges may apply).
Consumer Promotion
To help celebrate the launch of Internet Explorer 4.0 and encourage users to experience the new dynamic Active Channel content, Microsoft announced an online
“Subscribe to Win”
sweepstakes.
To support the sweepstakes, Microsoft Investor has donated $5,000 worth of investing advice from Jim O’Shaugnessy, money manager and author of
“What Works on Wall Street,”
and 40 free, one-year subscriptions to Microsoft Investor premium content. To play, users simply install Internet Explorer 4.0, subscribe to one of the participating Active Channel content providers on the Internet and click the
“Subscribe to Win”
icon. With one click, they have a chance to win these prizes instantly and be entered into the drawing for one of the four grand prizes. For a complete list of terms, conditions and participating Active Channel content providers visit http://www.microsoft.com/ie/offers/
Getting Started
Internet Explorer 4.0 is available via download at http://microsoft.com/ie/ or on
CD-ROM for $4.95 (includes shipping and handling). Customers can order the CD from the Microsoft Web site at http://www.microsoft.com/ie/ie40/ . Users installing Internet Explorer 4.0 through the CD will receive cached Microsoft Investor content, which uses the latest Dynamic HTML technologies to give users a guided tour of Microsoft Investor’s features.
Internet Explorer 4.0
Microsoft Internet Explorer 4.0 Active Channel content reinforces the Internet Explorer 4.0 goal of delivering
“the Web the way you want it”
– premier content optimized for easy, fast and personalized delivery. Providers of Active Channel content are leading Internet content providers that are designing their channels to exploit the new functionality in Internet Explorer 4.0, such as Dynamic HTML and channel definition format (CDF)-based webcasting. With Dynamic HTML, channel publishers can create highly interactive Web pages whose colors, images, text styles, data and even 2-D positioning can change quickly based on user interaction. Active Channel technology will also support CDF-based webcasting, which enables customers to easily define and schedule automatic downloading of their favorite content. CDF-based webcasting offers customers a more convenient and personalized Web browsing experience.
About Microsoft Investor
Microsoft Investor is an Internet resource created to help users easily track their investments and make investment decisions. Designed for both the novice and experienced investor, Microsoft Investor is a free, Web-based service, providing personal investors with portfolio tracking, original editorial content, business news, stock quotes, historical data, and access to online trading (connect-time charges may apply). In addition to its broad range of free services, Microsoft Investor now offers unlimited access to valuable premium services for a monthly charge of $9.95 (members of MSN
™
, The Microsoft Network pay only $6.95). These services include company and mutual fund research and an Investment Finder to find the mutual funds and stocks that best fit users’ needs.
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.
Microsoft, Active Channel, Active Desktop, Money Insider 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.
Note to editors : If you are interested in viewing additional information on Microsoft, please visit the Microsoft Web page at http://www.microsoft.com/corpinfo/ on Microsoft’s corporate information pages.
