OTTAWA, June 21, 2000 —Cognos Incorporated (Nasdaq: COGN; TSE: CSN) today announced results for its first quarter of fiscal year 2001, which ended May 31, 2000. Revenue for the quarter set a new first-quarter record at $108.7 million, a 33 percent increase over revenue of $81.6 million for the same period last year. Pretax income was also a record for any first quarter in the history of Cognos at $16.6 million, while net income was $12.0 million or 13 cents per share. This compares with net income of $10.9 million or 12 cents per share in the first quarter of the prior year. Diluted net income per share has 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.)

The Company’s revenue growth continued to be powered by its award-winning business intelligence platform. Total revenue in the quarter from business intelligence products was $95.3 million. Business intelligence license revenue rose by 56 percent in the quarter, while total business intelligence revenue grew by 46 percent. Life-to-date business intelligence revenue surpassed $1 billion during the quarter, representing a significant industry-first milestone and reflecting the Company’s broad and loyal customer base throughout the world.

"These results represent a rock-solid start to a new fiscal year," said Ron Zambonini, Cognos president and chief executive officer. "The business intelligence market is vibrant. And, as strong as it is today, we believe we are still on the first page of the first chapter of this story, relative to market potential, opportunity, and user value. Cognos is recognized as the clear market leader for business intelligence software. We have entered a strong product cycle, with the significant product rollout announcements earlier this year. The dramatic shift in the market to the e-business model, reflecting the explosive growth in deployment of enterprise intranets and business-to-business extranets by our customers worldwide, plays into the strength of our highly integrated and scalable product platform, and represents immense opportunity for us moving forward.

"We are unique in delivering today a total solution for end-to-end enterprise business intelligence for e-business. No other vendor has the depth, breadth, and scalability of offering to compare with the Cognos solution. With our enterprise-wide business intelligence solution, we are substantially increasing the value of BI products for our customers.

"In turn, the Company is benefiting from customers moving to our Web- based business intelligence solutions, as the proportion of our total business comprised of large enterprise orders and the average transaction value both continue to increase. The number of transactions exceeding $50,000 climbed by more than 48 percent from a year ago. More than 90 percent of these orders encompass our Web-based solution for intranet and extranet applications. These included orders from leading corporations such as DaimlerChrysler, General Electric, Hewlett-Packard, Analog Devices, Boeing, AT&T, British Telecommunications, and Bank of America."

The performance of the Company advanced on all fronts during the quarter. First quarter results demonstrated strong growth across all of the Company’s markets. North America accounted for 65 percent of revenue, Europe contributed 29 percent, while the rest of the world represented 6 percent.

"The strong and balanced performance resulted in operating margins of over 13 percent for what is traditionally our seasonally weakest quarter," continued Mr. Zambonini. "At the same time, we have continued to invest for the future through the addition of resources in key areas to capitalize on the compelling opportunity in front of us.

"We are pleased to begin the new fiscal year with such healthy momentum. Customer demand for our comprehensive solution suite is robust; the outlook for the e-business intelligence market is bright; and Cognos enjoys the number one market share position worldwide. Underscoring our leading position, just last week, Cognos was recognized by Business Week magazine as one of the world’s Top 100 Information Technology companies - the only business intelligence software provider named to this prestigious list."

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: our expectations concerning future revenues and earnings, including future rates of growth, from the licensing of our business intelligence and application development products and related product support and services; the sufficiency of capital to meet our working capital and capital expenditure requirements; future prospects of our current and future products and our ability to compete in an intensely competitive marketplace.

Forward-looking statements are subject to risks and uncertainties that may cause future results to differ materially from those expected. There can be no guarantee that future results will turn out as expected. Factors that may cause such differences include, but are not limited to: our ability to continue to grow at historical growth rates or to anticipate a decline in revenue from any of our products; fluctuations in quarterly and annual operating results based on historical patterns, which may cause our stock price to fluctuate or decline; the rapid technological change and new product introductions and enhancements that characterize the software markets we target; our reliance on partners and other distribution channels to market and distribute our products and any failure of these parties to do so; unauthorized use of our intellectual property; the loss of rights to use software licensed to us by third parties; the actions of our competitors in an intensely competitive marketplace; risks inherent in international operations; our ability to identify, hire, train, motivate and retain highly qualified management and other key personnel; our ability to identify, pursue and complete acquisitions which could divert management attention and financial resources and not produce desired business results; volatility and fluctuation of our stock price. A detailed discussion of each of these risk factors is contained under the heading "Certain Factors That May Affect Future Results" in our most recent Annual Report on Form 10-K filed with the United States Securities and Exchange Commission.

Cognos is the world’s largest and most successful business intelligence company. Founded in 1969, Cognos does business with 14,000 customers in more than 60 countries around the world. Cognos business intelligence solutions and services are also available from more than 2,800 worldwide partners and resellers. For more information, visit the Cognos Web site at http://www.Cognos.com.