Harvey Williams

Microstrategy's Pluses and Minuses

The key issue for MSTR is really the Enterprise market and the major conglomerate vendors plus the open source vendors at the bottom end. MSTR finds itself in the middle of a "Sandwich" and being squeezed both ways. No surprise then that revenue is flat on the software side and that maintenance revenues are increasing. This is their core strength, building and maintaining maintenance revenue each year. The challenge for them now is really around "Strategy". How can they meet the challenge from the "open source" vendors plus at the same time compete with the big boys whilst growing revenue and not losing credibility. Let's see how this strategy pans out in the next 12 months to get a better feel for where the company is heading. It is a tough one and certainly one that will really test and exercise management. I would say any investment should be treated cautiously.