Business Objects and HP Collaborate to Optimize Business Intelligence Solutions for Enterprise Customers.

Business Editors/High-Tech Writers

SAN JOSE, Calif. & PALO ALTO, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--April 23, 2003

Companies Jointly Promote BusinessObjects Enterprise 6 on HP-UX 11i

In conjunction with the launch of BusinessObjects Enterprise 6, the new version of the industry's leading integrated business intelligence (BI) suite, Business Objects (Nasdaq:BOBJ) and HP (NYSE:HPQ) today announced an expanded relationship to strengthen the existing global alliance between the two companies. As part of the alliance, HP and Business Objects collaborated to test, tune, and optimize Enterprise 6 on the HP-UX 11i platform. As a result of Business Objects' and HP's cooperative efforts, enterprise customers can now easily deploy market leading BI solutions comprising BusinessObjects Enterprise 6 applications running on HP-UX 11i. Using Enterprise 6, customers are better able to identify trends and shifts in their businesses, lower costs, drive revenue, and increase overall customer satisfaction.

Today's announcement underscores enhanced support of HP platforms from Business Objects and HP's increased support for Business Objects software through testing and tuning to ensure tight integration. With the HP-UX 11i platform, which provides outstanding performance, scalability and reliability, and BusinessObjects Enterprise 6, customers have a BI solution that allows them to more efficiently and reliably track, understand, and manage their businesses. The BI solution from Business Objects and HP is planned to be available worldwide immediately upon release of Enterprise 6, which is scheduled to be generally available by May 15, 2003.

"Time and time again, customers turn to Business Objects to deploy and manage business intelligence across their entire enterprise to improve overall business performance," said Beverly Powell-Goldman, group vice president of strategic alliances at Business Objects. "The combination of Enterprise 6 running on the HP-UX 11i platform offers customers a truly enterprise class, tightly integrated BI solution that is simple to deploy in a heterogeneous environment."

"BI and advanced analytics like those offered by Business Objects are clearly becoming more of a priority as companies seek to maximize their return on investment," said Bruno Castejon, director of customer relationship management and business intelligence solutions, HP Enterprise Systems Group. "By working with Business Objects to optimize Business Objects solutions on HP-UX 11i, HP helps offer customers worldwide a jump-start into extending the value of BI on an enterprise scale."

Business Objects and HP also plan to co-market enterprise solutions that encompass core BI products from Business Objects and infrastructure solutions from HP, as well as business services from both companies. In the near-term, HP and Business Objects intend to demonstrate the full suite of solutions during the BusinessObjects Enterprise 6 Launch Road Show starting the last week in May. The road show, which will have stops in 17 cities across 13 countries in Europe, will feature product presentations and demonstrations, as well as customer testimonials. More information on the road show is available at www.businessobjects.com/e6europe.

About HP

HP is a leading global provider of products, technologies, solutions and services to consumers and businesses. The company's offerings span IT infrastructure, personal computing and access devices, global services and imaging and printing. HP completed its acquisition of Compaq Computer Corporation on May 3, 2002. More information about HP is available at http://www.hp.com.

About Business Objects

Business Objects is the world's leading provider of enterprise business intelligence (BI) solutions. 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 management dashboards and scorecards, enterprise performance management applications, customer intelligence applications, enterprise reporting, 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.

Business Objects provides the industry's most integrated business intelligence suite, called BusinessObjects Enterprise 6. This suite includes the industry's best web query, reporting, and analysis; the most advanced and complete suite of analytic applications; and the best connectivity to packaged applications.

Business Objects has more than 17,500 customers in over 80 countries. The company's stock is publicly traded under the ticker symbols NASDAQ: BOBJ and Euronext Paris (Euroclear code 12074). 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 www.businessobjects.com.

Note to Editors: BusinessObjects is a trademark of Business Objects S.A. in the United States and/or other countries. All company and product names may be trademarks of the respective companies with which they are associated.

This news release contains forward-looking statements that involve risks, uncertainties and assumptions. All statements other than statements of historical fact are statements that could be deemed forward-looking statements. Risks, uncertainties and assumptions include the possibility that the market for the sale of certain products and services may not develop as expected; that development and performance of these products and services may not proceed as planned; and other risks that are described from time to time in HP's Securities and Exchange Commission reports, including but not limited to HP's quarterly report on Form 10-Q for the quarter ended January 31, 2003, and subsequently filed reports. If any of these risks or uncertainties materializes or any of these assumptions proves incorrect, HP's results could differ materially from HP's expectations in these statements. HP assumes no obligation to update these forward-looking statements.