Court Orders Key Actuate Employees to Testify under Oath Regarding Alleged Theft of MicroStrategy Trade Secrets
Actuate also Ordered to Provide MicroStrategyâ??s Expert with Access to Actuate 6 Source Code
McLEAN, Va. (October 01, 2002) –
MicroStrategy® Incorporated (NASDAQ: MSTR), a leading worldwide provider of business intelligence software, today announced two important developments in its litigation against rival Actuate Corporation (NASDAQ: ACTU).
In June 2001, MicroStrategy filed suit against Actuate and two of its senior software engineers who had previously worked for MicroStrategy. MicroStrategy has accused these two former employees of putting their knowledge of MicroStrategy 7 to work in helping Actuate design and develop Actuate 6, released in May 2002. Among the relief that MicroStrategy is seeking is an injunction blocking the further marketing and sale of Actuate 6, payment to MicroStrategy of all of Actuate’s profits from the sale of Actuate 6, and treble damages.
On September 20, 2002, the Circuit Court of Fairfax County, Virginia ordered Actuate to make the two individual defendants available for questioning, under oath, by MicroStrategy’s lawyers. The court also required Actuate to make relevant portions of the source code for Actuate 6 available for inspection by MicroStrategy’s expert, and to do so by October 21, 2002. Until the court acted, Actuate had been refusing to permit MicroStrategy to question these two important witnesses, and had been refusing to provide access to the Actuate 6 source code. To allow reasonable time for discovery to be completed, the court has rescheduled the trial date to February 10, 2003.
Jonathan F. Klein, MicroStrategy’s Vice President, Law and General Counsel, stated: “We are confident that, once all the facts come to light, we can prove that Actuate has misappropriated our trade secrets and confidential information.”
About MicroStrategy Incorporated
Leadership in a Critical Market: Founded in 1989, MicroStrategy is a worldwide leader in the increasingly critical business intelligence software market. Large and small companies alike are harnessing MicroStrategy’s business intelligence software to gain vital insights from their data to help them proactively enhance cost-efficiency, productivity and customer relations and optimize revenue-generating strategies. MicroStrategy’s business intelligence platform offers exceptional capabilities that provide organizations — in virtually all facets of their operations — with user-friendly solutions to their data query, reporting, and advanced analytical needs, and distributes valuable insight on this data to users via Web, wireless, and voice. PC Magazine selected MicroStrategy 7(TM) as the 2001 “Editors’ Choice” for business intelligence software.
Enterprise-Class Business Intelligence: MicroStrategy 7i(TM) is a truly integrated, enterprise-class, Web-based business intelligence platform. With MicroStrategy 7i, enterprises can now standardize on one business intelligence platform and deploy high-value business intelligence enterprise-wide. MicroStrategy 7i’s configurable query, reporting, and OLAP Web interface is designed to support all users, from casual report viewers to power analysts.
Diverse Customer Base: MicroStrategy’s customer base cuts across industry and sector lines, with over 1,700 enterprise-class customers, including Lowe’s Home Improvement Warehouse, AT&T Wireless Group, Wachovia and GlaxoSmithKline. MicroStrategy also has relationships with over 400 systems integrators and application development and platform partners, including IBM, PeopleSoft, Hewlett-Packard, and JD Edwards.
MicroStrategy is listed on Nasdaq under the symbol MSTR. For more information on the company, or to purchase or demo MicroStrategy’s software, please visit MicroStrategy’s Web site at http://www.microstrategy.com.
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Marc Brailov
MicroStrategy Incorporated
(703) 770-1670
mbrailov@microstrategy.com
Source: MicroStrategy