04/23/2007

Business Objects (Nasdaq: BOBJ; Euronext Paris ISIN code: FR0004026250 - BOB), the world's leading provider of business intelligence (BI) solutions, today announced that it has entered into a definitive agreement to acquire privately-held Cartesis S.A.

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ebizQ received the following details from Business Objects:

Cartesis is a leading specialist in enterprise performance management (EPM) software with more than 1,300 customers worldwide. Cartesis provides financial reporting, consolidations, and planning capabilities, as well as a new governance, risk, and compliance portfolio. The acquisition will add important functionality to the Business Objects performance management platform, resulting in the market's broadest offering to the office of the Chief Financial Officer - from analytics to profitability to consolidations, all supported by the industry's leading business intelligence infrastructure.

Under terms of the agreement, Business Objects will pay a total transaction value of €225M (approximately $300M) in cash. The acquisition is expected to close within 90 days, subject to regulatory approval, Cartesis shareholder approval, and other customary closing conditions. Due to purchase accounting adjustments, the transaction is expected to be neutral to slightly accretive to earnings for the first year post closing and accretive thereafter, as revenue synergies and economies of scale are realized.

"This acquisition marks an important step in our strategy of systematically building out the industry's best performance management platform," stated John Schwarz, CEO of Business Objects. "The acquisition of Cartesis will allow us to extend our comprehensive solutions for the office of the CFO by providing critical, cross-application and cross-database line of sight to financial and management reporting, including consolidated statements and budgeting - all on the industry's number one business intelligence platform."

The Business Objects performance management platform enables companies to align resources around common plans, track and measure progress, and adapt quickly to market conditions to drive improved performance across the enterprise. The platform spans two important segments of the enterprise software market - performance management and business intelligence infrastructure. It appeals strongly to the CFO, as it features one of the most robust planning, profitability, performance dashboarding, and scorecarding portfolios in the industry. With the acquisition of Cartesis, the platform is further broadened to address U.S. and international standards for financial reporting and consolidation, as well as governance, risk, and compliance management - creating the most comprehensive and powerful performance management solution available.

Unlike other competitive offerings, the platform also appeals to the CIO, as it features the industry's leading reporting, query, and analytics products along with a compelling data quality, data integration, and metadata management portfolio. This alignment allows both the CFO and CIO to quickly deliver accurate and current reports with information acquired from diverse applications and databases - all based on trusted and cleansed data.

Cartesis will become a part of the Business Objects Enterprise Performance Management product line organization. Mark Doll, senior vice president and general manager of Global Services and EPM for Business Objects, and Didier Benchimol, CEO of Cartesis, will lead the integration.

"Cartesis' core competency is high-end financial management," said Didier Benchimol, CEO of Cartesis. "Our domain expertise and robust standards-based offering will complement the already strong presence that Business Objects has in performance management. Business Objects' performance management platform strategy is open and completely aligned with our longstanding aspirations. We are excited about becoming a part of the Business Objects team."