Filed by Computer Associates International, Inc.
Pursuant to Rule 425 under the Securities Act of 1933
Subject Company: Sterling Software, Inc.
Commission File No. 333-30842

Contact: Doug Robinson, Investor Relations          Bob Gordon, Public Relations
         (631) 342-2745                             (631) 342-2391
         dougr@ca.com                               bobg@ca.com

                    COMPUTER ASSOCIATES EXTENDS TENDER OFFER
                  FOR STERLING SOFTWARE, INC. TO MARCH 31, 2000

ISLANDIA, N.Y., March 29, 2000 - - Computer Associates International,  Inc. (CA)
announced today that Silversmith Acquisition Corp., a wholly-owned subsidiary of
CA, is extending its offer to acquire all outstanding  shares of common stock of
Sterling  Software,  Inc.  (Sterling)  until  midnight,  New York City time,  on
Friday,  March 31, 2000.  The extension is required to provide the United States
Department  of  Justice  time to review  additional  information  and  documents
requested pursuant to the Hart-Scott-Rodino  Antitrust  Improvements Act of 1976
(HSR) in conjunction with CA's ongoing tender offer. CA responded to the request
on March 22, 2000.

The final  exchange  ratio under the offer (if by Friday,  March 31,  2000,  the
waiting  periods  under  antitrust  laws  applicable  to the offer are  cleared,
including HSR) will be 0.5634 shares of CA common stock for each share of common
stock of Sterling,  unless a reset is required in  accordance  with the terms of
the  offer.  The  exchange  ratio  of  0.5634  is  the  ratio  announced  at the
commencement  of the offer. If a reset of the exchange ratio does occur, CA will
announce the reset exchange ratio by press release, will file that press release
with the  Securities  and  Exchange  Commission  and will  extend  the  offer as
required by the Commission.

As a consequence  of the extension of the expiration  date,  holders of Sterling
common stock may tender or withdraw shares until  midnight,  New York City time,
Friday,  March 31,  2000,  unless the offer is further  extended.  The offer was
previously scheduled to expire at midnight on Wednesday, March 29, 2000.

Based on the latest count of tendered shares, approximately 50,437,620 shares of
Sterling  common  stock have been  tendered  and not  withdrawn  pursuant to the
tender offer.

The  information  agent  for the offer is  MacKenzie  Partners,  Inc.  156 Fifth
Avenue,  New York,  N.Y. 10010,  telephone:  (800)  322-2885,  facsimile:  (212)
929-0308 or proxy@mackenziepartners.com.

Computer Associates  International,  Inc., the world's leading business software
company,  delivers the end-to-end  infrastructure  to enable  eBusiness  through
innovative technology, services and education. CA has 18,000 employees worldwide
and had revenue of $6.3 billion for the year ended  December 31, 1999.  For more
information, visit www.ca.com.

Sterling  Software is one of the world's leading software  companies,  providing
software and services for the application  development,  business  intelligence,
information management,  storage management, network management, Web management,

VM systems  management,  and federal systems  markets.  Headquartered in Dallas,
Sterling  Software has a worldwide  installed base of more than 20,000  customer
sites and 3,800  employees  in 90 offices  worldwide.  For more  information  on
Sterling Software, visit the company's Web site at www.sterling.com.

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All trademarks, trade names, service marks and logos referenced herein belong to
their respective companies.

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We urge  investors  and security  holders to read the  following  regarding  the
tender  offer,  including  amendments  that  may be made to them,  because  they
contain important information:

- - Computer Associates'  preliminary prospectus,  prospectus  supplements,  final
prospectus and tender offer material.

- - Computer  Associates'  Registration  Statement on Form S-4 and Schedule TO, as
amended,  containing  or  incorporating  by reference  such  documents and other
information.

- - Sterling Software's  Solicitation/Recommendation  Statement on Schedule 14D-9,
as amended.

These documents and amendments to these documents have or will be filed with the
United States Securities and Exchange Commission.

When these and other documents are filed with the SEC, they may be obtained free
at the SEC's web site at www.sec.gov. You may also obtain for free each of these
documents (when available) from Computer Associates by directing your request to
Investor Relations at  www.ca.com/invest/questions or by fax at 631-342-6864, or
from Sterling Software by directing your request to  investor@sterling.com or by
fax at (214) 981-1215.

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