REDMOND, Wash. — Feb. 5, 2008 — Microsoft Corp. has been positioned in the Leaders Quadrant of the Gartner Magic Quadrant for Business Intelligence Platforms, 2008.¹ The Magic Quadrant positions vendors according to their ability to execute and their completeness of vision.

According to the Gartner Inc. report, “Leaders are vendors that are reasonably strong in the breadth and depth of their BI platform capabilities, and can deliver on enterprisewide implementations that support a broad BI strategy. Leaders articulate a business proposition that resonates with buyers, supported by the viability and operational capability to deliver on a global basis.”

“We are honored to be recognized in the Leaders Quadrant. Over the years we’ve worked hard to deliver innovative and compelling BI technology and solutions that bring value to our customers,” said Bill Baker, general manager, business intelligence, Microsoft Office Business Platform, and Distinguished Engineer at Microsoft. “Our customers’ confidence in our integrated BI solution motivates us to continue our investments in business intelligence. We believe our placement in the Leaders Quadrant highlights the success of our recent innovations as well as our vision to provide BI capabilities to everyone in our clients’ organizations, not just a chosen few.”

This follows Microsoft’s placement in the Visionaries Quadrant in Gartner’s Magic Quadrant for CPM Suites, 2007.² In addition, Microsoft has been positioned in the Leaders quadrant in Gartner’s Magic Quadrant for Data Warehouse Database Management Systems (DBMS), 2007.³ “We view these placements as recognition of Microsoft’s continued commitment to providing a comprehensive data platform that scales to the needs of enterprise applications and data storage requirements,” Baker said. “Collectively, we believe Microsoft’s position within these three key reports highlights our strides in marketplace adoption and our commitment to customer success.”

With the recent launch of a performance management solution, Microsoft offers customers a complete business intelligence (BI) offering that provides all the major components to deliver performance management capabilities across all departments of an organization using the familiar Microsoft Office environment to significantly increase the reach of the application.

“We expect 2008 to be another exciting and productive year for Microsoft BI and our customers,” Baker said. “With the upcoming launch of Microsoft SQL Server 2008 and the momentum of Microsoft Office PerformancePoint Server 2007, we hope to further drive our leadership position by continuing to help our customers improve their organizations through the use of our BI products.”

About the Magic Quadrant

Magic Quadrant Disclaimer: The Magic Quadrants are copyrighted 2007 and 2008, by Gartner, Inc. and is reused with permission. The Magic Quadrants are a graphical representation of a marketplace at and for a specific time period. It depicts Gartner’s analysis of how certain vendors measure against criteria for that marketplace, as defined by Gartner. Gartner does not endorse any vendor, product or service depicted in the Magic Quadrant, and does not advise technology users to select only those vendors placed in the “Leaders” quadrant. The Magic Quadrant is intended solely as a research tool, and is not meant to be a specific guide to action. Gartner disclaims all warranties, express or implied, with respect to this research, including any warranties of merchantability or fitness for a particular purpose.

About Microsoft

Founded in 1975, Microsoft (Nasdaq “MSFT”) is the worldwide leader in software, services and solutions that help people and businesses realize their full potential.

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¹ Gartner, Inc. “Gartner Magic Quadrant for Business Intelligence Platforms, 2008,” James Richardson et al., Feb. 1, 2008

² Gartner, Inc. “Gartner’s Magic Quadrant for CPM Suites, 2007,” Nigel Rayner et al., Dec. 15, 2007

³ Gartner, Inc. “Magic Quadrant for Data Warehouse Database Management Systems, 2007,” Donald Feinberg and Mark A. Beyer, Oct. 10, 2007