MicroStrategy

MicroStrategy Incorporated is a company that provides business intelligence (BI), mobile software, and cloud-based services.

MicroStrategy Incorporated
TypePublic company
NASDAQ: MSTR (Class A)
S&P 600 component
IndustryBusiness intelligence and mobile software
Founded1989 (1989)
FounderMichael J. Saylor
Sanju Bansal
HeadquartersTysons Corner, Virginia
Key people
Michael J. Saylor (Chairman, President, & CEO)
Phong Le, (CFO)
Revenue $486 million (2019)[1]
$34 million (2019)[1]
Total assets $917 million (2019)[1]
Total equity $509 million (2019)[1]
Number of employees
2,396 (2019)[1]
Websitewww.microstrategy.com
Footnotes / references
[1]

Founded in 1989 by Michael J. Saylor and Sanju Bansal, the firm develops software to analyze internal and external data in order to make business decisions and to develop mobile apps. It is a public company headquartered in Tysons Corner, Virginia, in the Washington metropolitan area.[2] Its primary business analytics competitors include SAP AG Business Objects, IBM Cognos, and Oracle Corporation's BI Platform.[3][4] Saylor is the CEO and chairman of the board.[5][1]

History

Saylor started MicroStrategy in 1989 with a consulting contract from DuPont, which provided Saylor with $250,000 in start-up capital and office space in Wilmington, Delaware. Saylor was soon joined by company co-founder Sanju Bansal, whom he had met while the two were students at Massachusetts Institute of Technology.[6] The company produced software for data mining and business intelligence using nonlinear mathematics,[5] an idea inspired by a course on systems-dynamics theory that they took at MIT.[7]

In 1992, MicroStrategy gained its first major client when it signed a $10 million contract with McDonald's. It increased revenues by 100% each year between 1990 and 1996.[6] In 1994, the company's offices and its 50 employees moved from Delaware to Tysons Corner, Virginia.[8]

On June 11, 1998, MicroStrategy became a public company via an initial public offering.[9][10]

In 2000, the company founded Alarm.com as part of its research and development unit.[11]

On March 20, 2000, after a review of its accounting practices, the company announced that it would restate its financial results for the preceding two years.[12] Its stock price, which had risen from $7 per share to as high as $333 per share in a year, fell $120 per share, or 62%, in a day in what is regarded as the bursting of the dot-com bubble.[13]

In December 2000, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission brought charges against the company and its executives.[14] A lawsuit was subsequently filed against MicroStrategy and certain of its officials over fraud.[15] In December 2000, Saylor, Bansal, and the company's former CFO settled with the SEC without admitting wrongdoing, each paying $350,000 in fines. The officers also paid a combined total of $10 million in disgorgement. The company settled with the SEC, hiring an independent director to ensure regulatory compliance.[16][17]

In February 2009, MicroStrategy sold Alarm.com to venture capital firm ABS Capital Partners for $27.7 million.[11] The company introduced OLAP Services with a shared data set cache, to accelerate reports and ad hoc queries.[18] In 2010, the company began developing and deploying business intelligence software for mobile platforms, such as the iPhone and iPad.[19]

In 2011, the company expanded its offerings to include a cloud-based service, MicroStrategy Cloud.[20] In 2013, MicroStrategy sold Angel to Genesys Telecommunications Laboratories for $110 Million.[21][22] In January 2014, the company announced a new feature of the platform called PRIME (Parallel Relational In-Memory Engine), co-developed with Facebook.[23]

In October 2014 the company announced plans to lay off 770 employees, a month after reducing Saylor's salary from $875,000 to $1 at his request.[24]

In June 2015, MicroStrategy announced the general availability of MicroStrategy 10.[25]

In the Fall of 2018, the company released Microstrategy 11.[26]

In January 2019, MicroStrategy announced the general availability of MicroStrategy 2019.[27]

In February 2020, the company announced its latest release, Microstrategy 2020, including a new design for its HyperIntelligence analytics tool.[28]

In August 2020, MicroStrategy invested $250 million in Bitcoin as a treasury reserve asset, citing declining returns from cash, a weakening dollar and other global macroeconomic factors.[29][30] The company made several additional large purchases of Bitcoin later in the year; in total the company spent over $1 billion purchasing Bitcoin in 2020 at an average purchase price of about $15,964 per Bitcoin.[31] Michael J. Saylor is the main driver behind this strategy.

Products
MicroStrategy Analytics
Developer(s)MicroStrategy
Stable release
MicroStrategy 2019 / January 7, 2019 (2019-01-07)[27]
Operating systemMicrosoft Windows, Linux, AIX, Solaris
TypeBusiness Intelligence
LicenseTrialware
Websitewww.microstrategy.com/us/platform

MicroStrategy 2020, the company's latest platform release of its business intelligence software, includes improvements to the vendor's HyperIntelligence capabilities, an embedded analytics system using augmented intelligence and machine learning technology.[28]

MicroStrategy 2019, the prior platform release, focused on three areas: federated analytics, allowing extended connectivity to data sources and applications; transformational mobility, for easier mobile application development; and HyperIntelligence, integrating Bluetooth identity detection and voice.[26][27][32] The earlier suite of software, MicroStrategy 10, consisted of MicroStrategy Analytics, MicroStrategy Mobile, and Usher. MicroStrategy 10.10, released in December 2017, added MicroStrategy Workstation.[33] It uses business intelligence and predictive analytics to search through and perform analytics on big data from a variety of sources, including data warehouses, Excel files, and Apache Hadoop distributions.[34]

MicroStrategy Mobile, introduced in 2010, is a software platform integrating Analytics capabilities into apps for iPhone, iPad, Android, and BlackBerry. It allows easier access without needing to reformat the data for different platforms.[23]

Usher is a digital credential and identity intelligence product that provides a secure way for organizations to control digital and physical access. It replaces physical badges and passwords with secure digital badges, and generates information on user behavior and resource usage.[35][36] Usher uses three-factor authentication, out-of-band channels, time-limited codes, and bidirectional public key infrastructure encryption.[37]

References
  1. "Microstrategy form 10-K". Microstrategy Investor Relations. 2020-02-13. Retrieved 2020-03-26.
  2. Perez, Juan Carlos (January 21, 2008). "Customers Trust MicroStrategy's Independence". PC World.
  3. Kanaracus, Chris (April 19, 2011). "Microstrategy Takes Aim at Self-service BI". PC World.
  4. Howson, Cindi (February 14, 2013). "MicroStrategy Doubles Down On Mobile, Data Visualization". InformationWeek.
  5. Jaffe, Harry (March 1, 2000). "The Seven Billion Dollar Man". Washingtonian.
  6. Glasser, Jeff (July 15, 1996). "From the Ground Up and Up". The Washington Post.
  7. Salter, Chuck (March 31, 2000). "People and Technology - MicroStrategy Inc". Fast Company.
  8. Leibovich, Mark (January 6, 2002). "MicroStrategy's CEO Sped to the Brink". The Washington Post.
  9. "Microstrategy Incorporated IPO". TechCrunch.
  10. Leibovich, Mark (August 9, 1998). "JOURNEY INTO THE SECRET HEART OF CAPITALISM". The Washington Post.
  11. Takahashi, Dean (February 17, 2009). "Alarm.com buys out its owners for $27.7 million". VentureBeat.
  12. Hilzenrath, David S. (March 22, 2000). "For MicroStrategy, A Matter of Timing". The Washington Post.
  13. "MicroStrategy plummets". CNNMoney. March 20, 2000.
  14. "SEC Brings Civil Charges Against MicroStrategy, Three Executive Officers for Accounting Violations" (Press release). U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. December 14, 2000.
  15. "MicroStrategy Chairman Accused of Fraud by S.E.C." December 15, 2000.
  16. Lau, Debra (December 18, 2000). "Forbes Faces: Michael Saylor". Forbes.
  17. Hilzenrath, David S. (December 15, 2000). "Saylor, Associates Settle Fraud Charges". The Washington Post.
  18. "MicroStrategy Launches In-Memory Analysis Engine". Information Week. February 14, 2014.
  19. Kayle, Alex (July 7, 2010). "iPad spells end for traditional BI". ITWeb.
  20. Howson, Cindi (January 31, 2012). "MicroStrategy Cloud, Social And Mobile Bets Pay Off". InformationWeek.
  21. "MicroStrategy Announces Sale of Angel Subsidiary" (Press release). PR Newswire. February 26, 2013.
  22. "MicroStrategy To Sell Angel.com Unit To Genesys For $110M". Forbes. February 26, 2013.
  23. "MicroStrategy Rolls Out Analytics Solutions for Cloud, Mobile Information-Driven Apps". Integration Developer News. Retrieved 2014-02-20.
  24. Clabaugh, Jeff (October 9, 2014). "MicroStrategy slashes workforce by 20 percent". American City Business Journals.
  25. Noyes, Katherine (June 4, 2015). "MicroStrategy 10 promises enhanced BI with more governance, security". CIO magazine.
  26. Holak, Brian (January 8, 2019). "MicroStrategy 2019 platform touts 'zero-click' analytics". Tech Target. Retrieved April 2, 2019.
  27. Marshall, Mo (January 7, 2019). "MicroStrategy 2019 promises voice queries, hyper-targeted intelligence". Venture Beat. Retrieved April 2, 2019.
  28. "HyperIntelligence upgrades highlight MicroStrategy 2020". Search Business Analytics. 2020-02-05. Retrieved 2020-03-26.
  29. "MicroStrategy buys $250M in Bitcoin as CEO says it's superior to cash". Washington Business Journal. 2020-08-11. Retrieved 2020-08-11.
  30. "MicroStrategy Buys $50 Million Worth Of Bitcoin, Topping Up Holdings To $766M".
  31. "MicroStrategy Announces Over $1B in Total Bitcoin Purchases in 2020". Yahoo! Finance. BusinessWire. Retrieved 21 December 2020.
  32. Brust, Andrew (January 7, 2019). "MicroStrategy 2019 introduced "HyperIntelligence" contextual BI". ZDNet. Retrieved April 2, 2019.
  33. Sargent, Jenna (December 11, 2017). "MicroStrategy 10.10, Talend's new developer courses, and UC Berkeley future learning robots". SD Times.
  34. "Zettaset adds BI connector to Hadoop tool". ITWeb. January 29, 2014.
  35. Overly, Steven (April 14, 2013). "MicroStrategy's office of the future includes mobile identity and cybersecurity". The Washington Post.
  36. Flook, Bill (October 2, 2013). "Michael Saylor on the iPhone 5s, mobile ID and the new 'biometric war'". American City Business Journals.
  37. "MicroStrategy Incorporated 2013 Form 10-K Annual Report". U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.
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