Business Objects Wins Readers Choice Award from Visual Studio Magazine.

Business Editors/High-Tech Writers

SAN JOSE, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--April 7, 2004

Developers Select Crystal Reports as The Best Data

Reporting and Analysis Tool for the Ninth Year in a Row

Readers of Visual Studio Magazine have recognized Business Objects (Nasdaq:BOBJ)(Euronext Paris ISIN code FR0004026250-BOB), the world's leading provider of business intelligence (BI) solutions, with a Visual Studio Magazine 2004 Readers Choice Award. For the ninth year in a row, readers have selected Crystal Reports(R) as the best product in the "Data Reporting and Analysis Tools" category. Visual Studio Magazine is considered the leading independent source of technical information for developers working with Microsoft-based tools and technologies. The highly coveted Readers Choice Awards recognize products that professional developers choose as the most valuable developer tools and components.

"This award is a testament to the continued quality and innovation that Crystal Reports provides Visual Studio developers," said Patrick Meader, editor-in-chief of Visual Studio Magazine. "For the past ten years, our publication has followed and evangelized technologies that provide cost savings, improve efficiency, and enhance the functionality of applications developed in the Visual Studio environment. These awards honor the products that our readers say are the best."

Crystal Reports, the proven enterprise reporting technology with millions of users worldwide, provides powerful authoring, open architecture, and industry-leading scalability. With Crystal Reports, developers can build reports that are integrated into operational applications and leading Integrated Development Environments (IDE) that support .NET and J2EE. Developers worldwide have embraced Crystal Reports because it reduces the time spent hand-coding reports and enables them to easily build dynamic, presentation-quality reports.

"Winning this award for the past nine years is further proof that Crystal Reports is the developer community's tool of choice and the de-facto reporting standard for Microsoft Visual Studio .NET," said Chris Caren, vice president of worldwide product marketing at Business Objects. "Our customers continue to equate enterprise reporting with Crystal Reports because the product consistently delivers powerful interactive reporting capabilities to both developers and information consumers."

About Visual Studio Magazine

Visual Studio Magazine, formerly Visual Basic Programmer's Journal, has been the leading independent source for technical information for professional developers working with Microsoft-based toolsets and technologies for more than 10 years. Visual Studio Magazine was recently voted the "#1 VB Developer Publication" by the independent research firm of Evans Data. For more information contact Susan Ogren at [e-mail] or access the website at www.visualstudiomagazine.com.

About Business Objects

Business Objects is the world's leading business intelligence (BI) software company. Business Objects enables organizations to track, understand, and manage enterprise performance. The company's solutions leverage the information that is stored in an array of corporate databases, enterprise resource planning (ERP), and customer relationship management (CRM) systems.

Popular uses of BI include enterprise reporting, management dashboards and scorecards, customer intelligence applications, financial reporting, and both customer and partner extranets. These solutions enable companies to gain visibility into their business, acquire and retain profitable customers, reduce costs, optimize the supply chain, increase productivity, and improve financial performance.

In December 2003, Business Objects completed the acquisition of Crystal Decisions, the leader in enterprise reporting. The combined product line includes software for reporting, query and analysis, performance management, analytic applications, and data integration. In addition, Business Objects offers consulting and education services to help customers effectively deploy their business intelligence projects.

Business Objects has more than 24,000 customers in over 80 countries. The company's stock is traded under the ticker symbols NASDAQ: BOBJ and Euronext Paris (ISIN: FR0004026250 - BOB). It is included in the SBF 120 and IT CAC 50 French stock market indexes. Business Objects can be reached at 408-953-6000 and http://www.businessobjects.com.

BusinessObjects and Crystal Reports are trademarks or registered trademarks of Business Objects S.A. or its affiliated companies in the United States or other countries. Other company and product names may be trademarks of the respective companies with which they are associated.