Business Objects Expands Revenue Leadership in the Western European Business Intelligence Tools Market

Business Objects (Nasdaq:BOBJ) (Euronext Paris ISIN code:FR0004026250 - BOB), today announced that it has strengthened itsposition as the leading business intelligence (BI) vendor in WesternEurope, according to the report "Western European BusinessIntelligence Tools, 2004 Vendor Shares" (IDC #LT06M, July 2005) issuedby IDC. The report positions Business Objects as the leader throughoutWestern Europe in the overall business intelligence tools market, aswell as the End-user Query, Reporting, and Analysis segment.

The IDC report combines software license and maintenance revenuedata from query, reporting, and analysis tools, data mining software,and packaged data mart and data warehouse products. In the report, IDCnotes that in 2004, the BI market in Western Europe grew to more than$1.4 billion. Business Objects commanded the top market share with 20percent, based on 2004 revenues of $287.5 million. In the largestsegment of the BI tools market, End-user Query, Reporting, andAnalysis, Business Objects increased its leadership position bycapturing 25.3 percent of the market. The report also notes thatBusiness Objects was the overall BI revenue leader in France, Germany,Italy, and the United Kingdom -- with market share at more than 27percent in three of those four regions.

"Business Objects continues to be the leader in businessintelligence worldwide, and nowhere is that more evident than inWestern Europe," said Rasmus Andsbjerg, research analyst at IDC andauthor of the report. "After the acquisition of Crystal Decisions in2003, Business Objects continues to deliver strong results and nowholds 20 percent of the BI tools market in Western Europe, based onrevenue growth of more than 16 percent. This clearly indicates asuccessful integration of the two companies and a fully-leveragedtransition. The business intelligence market in Western Europecontinues to see strong growth and we expect this to continue over thenext several years."

"With revenues that are more than 60 percent larger than the nextclosest competitor, Business Objects continues to be the leading BIvendor in Western Europe," said Maurizio Carli, senior vice presidentand general manager of European Operations at Business Objects. "Byoffering the industry's strongest and most complete BI platform, adiverse partner network, and an unmatched R&D team focused ongame-changing innovation, we are making life very difficult on ourcompetitors. Business Objects remains the clear choice in the BImarket, particularly for organizations making enterprise BIstandardization decisions, as no other vendor can match the value andfunctionality of our BI platform."

About Business Objects

Business Objects is the world's leading business intelligence (BI)software company. With more than 30,000 customers worldwide, includingover 80 percent of the Fortune 500, Business Objects helpsorganizations gain better insight into their business, improvedecision making, and optimize enterprise performance. The company'sbusiness intelligence platform, BusinessObjects(TM) XI, offers the BIindustry's most advanced and complete platform for performancemanagement, planning, reporting, query and analysis, and dataintegration. BusinessObjects XI includes Crystal Reports(R), theindustry standard for enterprise reporting. Business Objects has builtthe industry's strongest and most diverse partner community, and alsooffers consulting and education services to help customers effectivelydeploy their business intelligence projects.

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

Business Objects and the Business Objects logo, BusinessObjects,WebIntelligence, Crystal Reports, Crystal Enterprise, CrystalAnalysis, RapidMarts, and BusinessQuery are trademarks or registeredtrademarks of Business Objects S.A. or its affiliated companies in theUnited States and/or other countries. All other names mentioned hereinmay be trademarks of their respective owners.