2009-09-18 15:05:03 -

Micro Focus® (LSE.MCRO.L), a leading provider of enterprise application management, testing and modernization solutions, today celebrates fifty years since the name COBOL was given to the computer language which continues to underpin the modern world.

The name COBOL (Common Business-Oriented Language) was agreed during a meeting of the Short Range Committee, the organization responsible for submitting the first version of the language, on September 18, 1959.
This followed a meeting at the Pentagon where guidelines for COBOL were first laid down.

Despite its age, COBOL still plays a pivotal role in running most of the world’s businesses and public services, from powering almost all global ATM transactions, running nearly three quarters of the world’s business applications, and booking hundreds of holidays

every single day. There is understood to be over 200 billion lines of COBOL code in existence, with hundreds more being created every single day. 1


In May this year, Micro Focus published research showing that people still use COBOL at least 13 times throughout the course of an average working day. Yet, despite using the technology so often, only 18% of those surveyed had ever actually heard of COBOL. 2 Equivalent research conducted by Micro Focus in the UK showed that UK citizens rely nearly as heavily on COBOL, using it at least 10 times per day. 3 To commemorate COBOL’s historic birthday, Micro Focus has launched a social media hub for COBOL users around the world to share how they are celebrating this milestone. For more information, you can visit the site at www.cobol.com : .

“COBOL has been a major part of the technology landscape since the dawn of the computing age and it will continue to play a leading role moving forward. Organizations have depended on COBOL for 50 years – a testament to the language’s resilience, flexibility and value,” said Ken Powell, president, North American operations at Micro Focus. “Over the past five decades, COBOL has grown to encapsulate business logic at the heart of organizations across all industries. As these organizations make plans to modernize business-critical applications, they will be able to draw on the reliability and breadth of business logic that comes with this iconic language.”

Mike Gilpin, analyst at Forrester Research and former COBOL programmer states, “…32% of enterprises say they still use COBOL for development or maintenance… COBOL is one of the few languages written in the last 50 years that's readable and understandable… Modern programming languages are ridiculously hard to understand." 4


About Micro Focus

Micro Focus, a member of the FTSE 250, provides innovative software that allows companies to dramatically improve the business value of their enterprise applications. Micro Focus Enterprise Application Modernization, Testing and Management software enables customers’ business applications to respond rapidly to market changes and embrace modern architectures with reduced cost and risk. For additional information please visit www.microfocus.com : .

1 Datamonitor (November 2008), ‘COBOL – continuing to drive value in the 21st Century’ :

2 Micro Focus (May 28 2009), No Respect: Survey Shows Lack Of Awareness, Appreciation For COBOL :

3 Micro Focus (May 28, 2009), Computer Language Celebrates 50 th  Birthday By Staying Active :

4 The Guardian, 9 April 2009, COBOL hits 50 and keeps counting :

Micro FocusLaura Stiff, 650-930-2114 laura.stiff@microfocus.com : mailto:laura.stiff@microfocus.com orLEWIS
PRMari Melguizo, 617-226-8840 microfocusus@lewispr.com : mailto:microfocusus@lewispr.com