Business Objects Named Leading ISV in End-User Query and Reporting Market by IDC; Business Objects Increases Lead Over Competition.

SAN JOSE, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Aug. 7, 1996--Business Objects (NASDAQ: BOBJY), the world's leading provider of integrated query, reporting, and online analytical processing (OLAP) tools, today announced that International Data Corp., Framingham, Mass., the leading provider of information technology market research, has named Business Objects the leading independent software vendor (ISV) in end-user query and reporting. Based on IDC's recently published worldwide study, "Information Access Tools: 1996 Worldwide Markets and Trends", Business Objects is in the number one revenue position among ISVs in the end-user query and reporting tools market.

The IDC study reports, "Business Objects, grew 120% and now leads ISVs with 11% of total worldwide revenue among all vendors. Its next two closest competitors each had less than half the sales of Business Objects."

"Our market analysis clearly shows Business Objects to be the number one graphical query and reporting tools revenue earner in 1995," said Clare Gillan, vice president, applications research for IDC. "We see features such as integrated query, reporting, and OLAP becoming requirements in the fast-moving decision support tools market. And we see the multidimensional analysis/OLAP market reaching a record high, exceeding $250 million in 1996 as more mainstream interest builds."

IDC's Information Access Tools report finds that in 1995 the worldwide information access tools market grew to $5.6 billion, "largely driven by the maturation and broader acceptance of new generation end-user oriented client/server analysis tools and wide spread data warehouse initiatives."

Business Objects generated over $60M in total revenue in 1995, concluding its fifth consecutive year of more than 100% revenue growth. BusinessObjects has been licensed in more than 50 countries to over 3,200 customer sites and 185,000 users worldwide. The company added 90,000 users in 1995 alone.

"This report from IDC is a strong validation of our market leadership," said Dave Kellogg, vice president of corporate marketing for Business Objects. "Over the past five years major corporations around the world have deployed BusinessObjects as their preferred tool for end-user query and reporting against data warehouses, packaged applications, and relational databases. Our position as the world leader in query and reporting represents a strong beachhead from which we are expanding with BusinessObjects 4.0."

Additional findings of the IDC report include: -0-

-IDC predicts the end-user query and reporting market will reach $1.3 billion in the year 2000.

- IDC expects the worldwide multidimensional analysis market to reach $476 million in 2000.

Copies of the report, "Information Access Tools: 1996 Worldwide Markets and Trends" (IDC Report No.11484) is available from International Data Corporation. Contact Cheryl Toffel at 508/935-4389 or email: [e-mail].

About IDC

International Data Corporation is the world's leading provider of information technology data, analysis, and consulting. With research centers in more than 40 countries and more than 300 research analysts worldwide, IDC is uniquely positioned to provide a global perspective on IT market and technology trends.

IDC's subsidiary, IDC/LINK, specializes in the convergence of the information telecommunications, personal computing, and electronic entertainment industries.

Based in Framingham, Mass., IDC is a subsidiary of International Data Group (IDG), the world's largest publisher of computer-related information and the leading global provider of information services on information technology.

About Business Objects

Business Objects (NASDAQ:BOBJY) is the world's leading supplier of integrated query, reporting, and OLAP tools. The company's flagship product, BusinessObjects, provides mainstream business users with access to information stored in corporate databases, data warehouses, and packaged applications. The company pioneered the market for business-intelligent decision support tools in 1990 by introducing the first product to use a "semantic layer" to map complex database schemas to a business representation understandable by non-technical end users.

Business Objects led the overall decision support tools market in 1995 with software license revenues of $48.7M. Business Objects generated over $60M in revenue in 1995, concluding its fifth consecutive year of more than 100% revenue growth. BusinessObjects has been licensed in more than 50 countries to 3,200 customer sites and 185,000 users worldwide. Business Objects partners with more than 350 leading third-party vendors including Arbor Software, Carleton, Hewlett-Packard, Informatica, Informix, IBM, Microsoft, Oracle, PeopleSoft, Prism, Pyramid, Red Brick, SAP, Silicon Graphics, Sun, Sybase, Tandem, and Texas Instruments. Strategic resellers include Bull, Digital, Fujitsu, NCR, Price Waterhouse, Sequent, SHL, Siemens Nixdorf, Toshiba, and Unisys. More information on Business Objects can be found on the World Wide Web at http://www.businessobjects.com. -0-

Note to Editors: BusinessObjects is a trademark of Business Objects S.A. Other company and product names may be trademarks of the respective companies with which they are associated.

CONTACT: Business Objects

Tracy Eiler, 408/953-6031

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Blanc & Otus

Jennifer Glass, 415/512-0500

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