Cognos Announces Results for Fourth Quarter and Full Fiscal Year 2001

OTTAWA, April 5, 2001 — Cognos Incorporated (Nasdaq: COGN; TSE: CSN), today announced results for the Company`s fourth quarter and full fiscal year 2001, which ended February 28, 2001. Revenue for the quarter set a new record at $144.1 million, compared with revenue of $118.1 million for the same period last year. Pretax income was $31.6 million, compared with $29.5 million in the fourth quarter of last year. Net income was $22.1 million or $0.24 per share, compared with $21.3 million or $0.24 per share for the fourth quarter of the prior fiscal year.

Revenue for the full fiscal year 2001 was $495.7 million, an increase of 29 percent compared with revenue of $385.6 million for the previous year. Pretax income for the year was $91.3 million, compared to $81.7 million for the previous year. Net income for fiscal year 2001 was $64.3 million, or $0.70 per share, compared with the previous year`s net income of $58.8 million, or $0.67 per share. Net income per share figures have been adjusted to reflect the two-for-one stock split in April 2000. All figures are stated in U.S. dollars and in accordance with U.S. GAAP.

"Final results for the quarter were consistent with the preliminary results we announced on March 5, 2001," said Ron Zambonini, Cognos President and CEO. "Our fourth quarter results were clearly affected by the economy, where some of our customers and prospects in North America postponed or reduced large purchases of $500,000 and greater. While we continue to see extensive use — and the increasing value — of our products within customer sites, the current economic uncertainty has greatly reduced our visibility to these larger transactions on an ongoing basis.

"However, against this backdrop of economic uncertainty, the trend toward increasing enterprise level deployments of our products continued during the fourth quarter. The number of orders greater than $50,000 reached a record 595 — 43 percent higher than last year. We also had 89 orders over $200,000 in the fourth quarter, which is 46 percent greater than last year. And we were pleased with the performance of our BI support and services business, which grew a combined 41 percent in the quarter. So, while we experienced a shortfall from our expectation in business intelligence license (BI) revenue, we remain confident that the core value proposition for our enterprise software solution remains solid. Total BI revenue in the quarter was $132.0 million.

"On the product front, our customers are asking for one solution to address all their performance management needs. Cognos is delivering that solution. The next version of our enterprise BI platform, scheduled for the fall of this year, is unique to the industry in its breadth, depth, scalability, and level of integration. The Internet, e-business, and wireless areas continue to provide us with exciting opportunities to enhance the value of our products and further extend the breadth of our solution with new technologies and applications that are coming on stream.

"Turning to the customer, we have always considered a close direct relationship to be a key pillar of our business model," added Mr. Zambonini. "This is evidenced by our strong level of direct sales, high support contract renewal rate, and best-in-class marks for customer loyalty. We will continue to work closely with our customers, to assist them in the various challenges they face. The breadth and depth of our product platform and the strength of our field services and support organization enable us to address a wide range of customer imperatives, from productivity enhancement and cost reduction to customer relationship management and new incremental revenue generation. This focus on the customer positions us to further cement the partnerships we have with them."

"We will continue to focus sharply on our business model and on further strengthening the fundamentals of the Company. The objective is to ensure that Cognos emerges from the current economic situation even more strongly positioned to take advantage of the opportunities that the business intelligence market will continue to offer. We believe that Cognos is the best-positioned business intelligence software vendor in the world. And we believe that our considerable corporate assets — including our strong balance sheet; global market leadership; broad and loyal customer base; strength in R&D, sales and support resources; seasoned management team; and strong product cycle — position us well to weather the current economic conditions," concluded Mr. Zambonini.

Cognos will hold a Webcast and conference call to present fourth quarter and fiscal year 2001 financial results at 5:15 p.m. Eastern Time on Thursday, April 5, 2001. The Webcast may be accessed at www.cognos.com/company/investor/earnings_fy01q4.html.

Certain statements made in this press release that are not based on historical information are forward-looking statements which are made pursuant to the safe harbor provisions of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995.

This press release contains forward-looking statements relating to: the Company`s expectations concerning future revenues and earnings, including future growth rates from the licensing of its business intelligence and application development products and related product support and services; the effect of the current economic environment on the Company`s business and technology strategies; the trends and growth rates in the business intelligence market generally, and of Web-based solutions in particular; the Company`s ability to deliver business intelligence solutions that respond to changing market requirements; the future prospects of the Company`s current and future products, and the Company`s ability to compete in an intensely competitive marketplace.

These forward-looking statements are neither promises nor guarantees, but involve risks and uncertainties that may cause future results to differ materially from those in the forward-looking statements. Factors that may cause such differences include, but are not limited to: the Company`s ability to continue to grow at historical growth rates or to anticipate a decline in revenue from any of its products; fluctuations in its quarterly and annual operating results based on historical patterns, which may cause its stock price to fluctuate or decline; rapid technological change and new product introductions and enhancements in the business intelligence software market; the Company`s reliance on partners and other third party distribution channels to market and distribute its products; unauthorized use of the Company`s intellectual property; claims by third parties that the Company`s software infringes their intellectual property; the Company`s ability to compete in an intensely competitive marketplace; the risks inherent in international operations, such as currency exchange rate fluctuations; global economic conditions; the Company`s ability to identify, hire, train, motivate and retain highly qualified management and other key personnel; the Company`s ability to identify, pursue and complete acquisitions which could divert management attention and financial resources and not produce desired business results; as well as the risk factors discussed in the Company`s most recent Annual Report on Form 10-K filed with the United States Securities and Exchange Commission. Readers should not place undue reliance on any such forward-looking statements, which speak only as of the date they are made. The Company disclaims any obligation to publicly update or revise any such statement to reflect any change in the Company`s expectations or in events, conditions, or circumstances on which any such statements may be based, or that may affect the likelihood that actual results will differ from those set forth in the forward-looking statements.