Microsoft Signs Agreement With Merck & Co. Inc. to Acquire Assets of Rosetta Biosoftware,...

Microsoft Signs Agreement With Merck & Co. Inc. to Acquire Assets of Rosetta
Biosoftware, Strengthening Position in Life Sciences Industry

Multifaceted agreement enhances Microsoft Amalga Life Sciences to accelerate
basic research and drive personalized medicine.

REDMOND, Wash., June 1 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Microsoft Corp. today
announced that it has signed an agreement with Merck & Co. Inc. to acquire
certain assets of Rosetta Biosoftware, a business unit of Rosetta Inpharmatics
LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Merck & Co. Inc. The deal allows Microsoft
to incorporate genetic, genomic, metabolomic and proteomics data management
software into the Microsoft Amalga Life Sciences platform for enhanced
translational research capabilities. In addition, Microsoft will establish a
strategic relationship with Merck to enhance the Amalga Life Sciences platform
to meet emerging pharmaceutical research needs.

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Under the terms of the agreement, Merck will become a customer of the
Microsoft Amalga Life Sciences 2009 platform and also will provide strategic
input to Microsoft on the direction and evolution of new solutions
incorporating Rosetta Biosoftware technologies. The software platform will
help drive improvements in Merck's already advanced research capabilities.

"This agreement establishes a stable and sustainable platform for the Rosetta
Biosoftware technology. In addition, we look forward to collaborating with
Microsoft to develop new bioinformatic solutions to enable and expedite drug
discovery and development," said Rupert Vessey, vice president, Merck Research
Laboratories. "This is part of our previously announced strategy designed to
improve the effectiveness and efficiency of our Basic Research operations to
ensure long-term pipeline productivity."

"We're excited to collaborate with Merck and augment the capabilities of
Amalga Life Sciences with the complementary assets of Rosetta Biosoftware,"
said Peter Neupert, corporate vice president, Health Solutions Group,
Microsoft. "The newly combined offering will enable customers to improve the
management and analysis of genomic, biological and research data, helping to
bring lifesaving drugs and therapies to market faster and accelerate the
realization of personalized medicine."

Introduced in April 2009, Microsoft Amalga Life Sciences is a new software
platform designed to transform health and life sciences research data into the
critical knowledge needed for the discovery of new treatments. The platform
helps organizations across the life sciences spectrum accelerate research and
discovery efforts by automating the management and analysis of massive,
heterogeneous research data. This gives scientists and researchers the
opportunity to redesign, manage and control research processes to increase
productivity, reduce errors and improve decision-making.

The deal is expected to close at the end of June 2009, and the new Amalga Life
Sciences platform incorporating Rosetta Biosoftware technologies is slated to
be available in early 2010. Microsoft is pursuing hiring Rosetta Biosoftware
employees who can fill roles that are critical to the effective incorporation
of Rosetta Biosoftware technologies into the Amalga Life Sciences platform.
Until the deal is closed, Rosetta Biosoftware will continue to operate as a
business unit of Rosetta Inpharmatics LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Merck.

About Microsoft in Health
Microsoft is committed to improving health around the world through software
innovation. Over the past 12 years Microsoft has steadily increased its
investments in health, with a focus on addressing the challenges of health
providers, health and social services organizations, payers, consumers, and
life sciences companies worldwide. Microsoft closely collaborates with a broad
ecosystem of partners and develops its own powerful health solutions, such as
Amalga and HealthVault. Together, Microsoft and its industry partners are
working to advance a vision of unifying health information and making it more
readily available, ensuring the best quality of life and affordable care for
everyone.

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.

SOURCE Microsoft Corp.

Caitlin McCabe of Ruder Finn, +1-212-593-5812, mccabec@ruderfinn.com, for
Microsoft Corp.