Business Objects Announces Preview Release of Crystal Reports for Eclipse; Company to Expand Support for Java Developer Community with New Version of Embedded Reporting Solution and Eclipse Foundation Membership.

ORLANDO, Fla. -- Business Objects (Nasdaq:BOBJ) (Euronext Paris ISIN code: FR0004026250 - BOB), the world's leading provider of business intelligence (BI) solutions, today announced a preview release of Crystal Reports(R) for Eclipse. This new version of Crystal Reports will provide a 100 percent Java-based report design and deployment environment for application developers.

Every software application that stores data must have a way to present that information back to the user. For more than a decade, Crystal Reports has been the defacto standard for embedded reporting. Starting with Microsoft Visual Basic over 10 years ago, Crystal Reports has provided embedded reporting directly within integrated development environments (IDEs) to allow application developers to efficiently create reports directly within their applications. Today, Crystal Reports is integrated within a majority of the leading IDEs including Microsoft Visual Studio .NET, IBM Rational Application Developer, BEA Workshop, and Borland JBuilder.

Business Objects provides extensive support of open source software infrastructure including support for the Linux platform, Apache Tomcat application server, and the MySQL database. Organizations and application developers are choosing Java and open source infrastructure to build applications to lower costs and improve the flexibility and portability of their applications. By adding the Eclipse IDE to the list of supported development environments for Crystal Reports, Business Objects strengthens its offerings for the open source community and gives Eclipse users a powerful, flexible reporting solution.

With the preview release of Crystal Reports for Eclipse, application developers can create new reports or use existing Crystal Reports documents, and integrate them directly into applications. This new version of Crystal Reports will take full advantage of the Eclipse user interface, including dockable panes and context sensitive menus to customize the reports without ever leaving the Eclipse development environment. In addition, Business Objects is providing a development and test license of the embedded reporting engine that lets developers build report viewing directly within client-server and web applications.

For Java developers looking to deploy their Eclipse solutions today, IBM Rational Application Developer 6.0 provides advanced Crystal Reports functionality including improved drag and drop support, enhanced web based application development, and simplified management of reports. Developers can also choose to deploy the application using the full management, scalability, interactivity, and security of the Business Objects BI platform, with either Crystal Reports Server or BusinessObjects(TM) XI.

"Much of the success of Crystal Reports over the years has come from the creativity and innovation of application developers who embed our reporting technology in literally countless applications that businesses and consumers use every day," said Lance Walter, vice president of product marketing at Business Objects. "Business Objects understand the unique needs of the developer community, and Crystal Reports for Eclipse continues our tradition of enabling developers to build applications with a rich look and feel, while significantly reducing the amount of time it takes to hand code sophisticated reports. We encourage all Eclipse developers to download the free preview and see for themselves why Crystal Reports is the defacto standard for embedded reporting."

Business Objects Joins Eclipse Foundation 

Eclipse (www.eclipse.org) is an open source community whose projects are focused on providing an extensible development platform for building software applications. The Eclipse IDE is currently the fastest growing development environment for Java developers and is also the foundation for other commercial IDEs and applications. Business Objects has now joined the Eclipse Foundation as an Add-In Provider. Business Objects is committed to being actively involved in the future development of the Eclipse community.

"Our goal at the Eclipse Foundation has been to foster an open-source community that serves the needs of commercial vendors and serve as a platform for innovation," said Mike Milinkovich, executive director of the Eclipse Foundation. "The endorsement of Eclipse by Business Objects will further extend the tools and technologies that Eclipse developers and vendor partners can use for application development. The long history of developers embedding Crystal Reports in their applications makes the solution a natural fit for the Eclipse IDE and will help to expand the success of the Eclipse community."

Crystal Reports for Eclipse Availability

We expect that the Crystal Reports for Eclipse preview and the test version of the embedded reporting engine license will be delivered in Q4 of 2005. Eclipse developers can register today for the free download from Business Objects at http://www.businessobjects.com/eclipse.

Business Objects is committed to conducting a significant technical preview cycle for Crystal Reports for Eclipse. General Availability is expected in the second half of 2006.

About Business Objects

Business Objects is the world's leading business intelligence (BI) software company. With more than 30,000 customers worldwide, including over 80 percent of the Fortune 500, Business Objects helps organizations gain better insight into their business, improve decision making, and optimize enterprise performance. The company's business intelligence platform, BusinessObjects(TM) XI, offers the BI industry's most advanced and complete platform for performance management, planning, reporting, query and analysis, and data integration. BusinessObjects XI includes Crystal Reports(R), the industry standard for enterprise reporting. Business Objects has built the industry's strongest and most diverse partner community, and also offers consulting and education services to help customers effectively deploy their business intelligence projects.

Business Objects has dual headquarters in San Jose, Calif., and Paris, France. The company's stock is traded on both the Nasdaq (BOBJ) and Euronext Paris (ISIN: FR0004026250 - BOB) stock exchanges. More information about Business Objects can be found at www.businessobjects.com.

Safe Harbor for Forward Looking Statements

Certain sections of the press release contain forward-looking statements that are based on assumptions regarding the product release dates, features, and capabilities which will be included. However, these statements are not guarantees of the date of availability, which may be delayed or cancelled, or of the availability of features mentioned, which may be changed or removed prior to release. Statements such as "expected," "planned," or "anticipated" denote forward-looking statements, and the word "launch" refers to pre-release marketing activities and does not denote general availability. Forward-looking statements are made pursuant to the safe harbor provisions of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995, as amended. All forward-looking statements speak only as of the date of this press release. The company does not undertake any obligation to update or publicly release any revisions to forward-looking statements to reflect events, circumstances or changes in expectations after the date of this press release.

Business Objects and the Business Objects logo, BusinessObjects, WebIntelligence, Crystal Reports, Intelligent Question, and Desktop Intelligence are trademarks or registered trademarks of Business Objects S.A. or its affiliated companies in the United States and/or other countries. All other names mentioned herein may be trademarks of their respective owners.