Business Objects and Red Hat Sign Global Technology Partner Agreement

1 January 1970

Business Objects (Nasdaq:BOBJ) (Euronext Paris ISIN code: FR0004026250 -- BOB) and Red Hat (Nasdaq:RHAT) today announced the signing of a new global alliance agreement. As part of the agreement, each company will join the other's technology partner program and the two companies will embark on several co-marketing and co-selling programs to help customers derive the benefit from the use of business intelligence on the Red Hat Enterprise Linux platform. In addition, the companies will host a web seminar with Intel on deploying mission-critical business intelligence on Linux. This free event is scheduled for Tuesday, November 29, at 2:00 p.m. ET. To register for the web seminar, please visit www.businessobjects.com/bobj_rhat_webinar/.

Business Objects and Red Hat have seen an increase in customer demand for enterprise applications that support Linux. The Linux operating system has the capability to support mission-critical applications such as business intelligence. It offers companies a way to lower their total cost of ownership, in an easy-to-use environment, while maintaining a high level of security and performance. Earlier this year, Business Objects launched BusinessObjects(TM) XI, its industry-leading BI platform, as well as Crystal Reports(R) Server and BusinessObjects Data Integrator on Red Hat Enterprise Linux.

"There is a rising interest in Linux-based business intelligence solutions, and over the next five years we expect to see Linux drive significant growth in BI revenues," said Dan Vesset, research director for analytics and data warehousing software at IDC. "IDC expects the market for business intelligence on Linux to grow at a compound annual growth rate of nearly 65 percent through 2009."(1)

Business Objects and Red Hat have worked closely to optimize the performance of Business Objects solutions on the Red Hat Enterprise Linux operating system. Deploying Business Objects on Red Hat, customers can distribute information to a broad audience in a secure and robust manner, while reducing the amount of time and effort spent on system administration, training, and data integration. Additionally, Linux presents a low cost, high value alternative to proprietary platforms.

"Over the past 3 years Linux has established itself as a standard platform for enterprise computing," said Tim Yeaton, senior vice president of marketing at Red Hat. "In addition to compute intensive workloads such as ERP, CRM and databases, business intelligence is an area that will be able to leverage the price/performance benefits of Linux. Working with Business Objects we are thrilled to bring leading BI solutions to our customers."

"While other business intelligence vendors have been content to just dabble with Linux, Business Objects is helping to drive the future of BI on Linux with partners like Red Hat," said Jon Dorrington, vice president of alliances at Business Objects. "We are hearing the message loud and clear from customers that they want to deploy our industry-leading BI solutions on Linux. We plan to increase the amount of resources we investment in Linux and other open source solutions going forward to take advantage of this growing demand."

About Red Hat

Red Hat, the world's leading open source and Linux provider, is headquartered in Raleigh, NC with satellite offices spanning the globe. Red Hat is leading Linux and open source solutions into the mainstream by making high quality, low cost technology accessible. Red Hat provides operating system software along with middleware, applications and management solutions. Red Hat also offers support, training and consulting services to its customers worldwide and through top-tier partnerships. Red Hat's open source strategy offers customers a long term plan for building infrastructures that are based on and leverage open source technologies with focus on security and ease of management. Learn more: http://www.redhat.com.

About Business Objects

Business Objects is the world's leading business intelligence (BI) software company. With more than 30,000 customers worldwide, including over 80 percent of the Fortune 500, Business Objects helps organizations gain better insight into their business, improve decision making, and optimize enterprise performance. The company's business intelligence platform, BusinessObjects(TM) XI, offers the BI industry's most advanced and complete platform for performance management, planning, reporting, query and analysis, and data integration. BusinessObjects XI includes Crystal Reports(R), the industry standard for enterprise reporting. Business Objects has built the industry's strongest and most diverse partner community, and also offers consulting and education services to help customers effectively deploy their business intelligence projects.

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

Safe Harbor for Forward-Looking Statements

Certain sections of the press release contain forward-looking statements that are based on assumptions regarding the product features and capabilities, the adoption of Linux-based BI solutions by customers, and revenues for Linux-based BI solutions. Actual events or results may differ materially from those described in this press release due to a number of risks and uncertainties. These potential risks and uncertainties include, among others, customer acceptance of BI solutions, customer demand for BI solutions utilizing the Linux operating systems, the ability to satisfy changing customer needs, and market demand in general for BI products. Forward-looking statements are made pursuant to the safe harbor provisions of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995, as amended. More information about potential factors that could affect Business Objects' business is included in Business Objects' Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2004 and Business Objects' Form 10-Q for the quarter ended September 30, 2005, each of which are on file with the SEC and available at the SEC's website at www.sec.gov. Business Objects is not obligated to undertake any obligation to update these forward-looking statements to reflect events or circumstances after the date of this press release. Neither Business Objects nor Red Hat has any ability to influence projections by IDC, nor do they endorse or adopt them.

Business Objects and the Business Objects logo, BusinessObjects, WebIntelligence, Crystal Reports, Intelligent Question, and Desktop Intelligence are trademarks or registered trademarks of Business Objects S.A. or its affiliated companies in the United States and/or other countries. All other names mentioned herein may be trademarks of their respective owners.

(1) Source: IDC report #34034, Worldwide Business Intelligence Tools 2005-2009 Forecast Update: October 2005