I've written here before that if I were running a public company I wouldn't give quarterly financial guidance, but MicroStrategy (MSTR) is taking the focus on long-term business management even further (see below). Could this be a red flag signaling poor financial results in the future that the company would like to avoid having to talk about? There is no way to know, but I would not jump to such a conclusion without other information to back up that assumption. There is no doubt some investors will see this as a negative and bet against the stock because of it, but with 30% short interest already, that seems like a risky bet to make.

From a MicroStrategy press release issued July 21st:

"MicroStrategy Incorporated (MSTR), a leading worldwide provider of business intelligence software, expects to issue a press release on July 28, 2005, to announce its financial results for the second quarter of 2005.

MicroStrategy has recently reviewed its practice of holding a conference call to discuss its quarterly financial results. The Company believes that it is in the best interests of its shareholders to focus on long-term financial performance, which allows the management team to more effectively run operations and build long-term shareholder value. Accordingly, consistent with our decision at the beginning of this year to discontinue providing revenue or earnings guidance, the Company has also decided that it will no longer hold conference calls following the release of its quarterly financial results."

Side note: MicroStrategy's Q1 conference call from April 28th is quite entertaining, and might shed some light as to why that call was the last quarterly call the company hosted. Feel free to draw your own opinions and share them with me, as I think it's an interesting topic of discussion.