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Technology Stocks : Cognos Inc. - COGN -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Mike 2.0 who wrote (811)	4/7/1999 10:50:00 PM
From: Sultan	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 1109

HUMC has not been able to grow their BI offerings. Main players have been COGN, BOBJ. However, it looks like with their recent acquisition as well as comments made by CEO, they might be finally making inroads. If that is true, we will know it soon enough when they report their qtr. I don't own HUMC currently but that is going to change when they take over DOCS, which I do own.

To: Mike 2.0 who wrote (811)	4/8/1999 7:52:00 AM
From: Glenn McDougall	Respond to of 1109

Cognos masters Y2K for record 4th-quarter earnings James Bagnall The Ottawa Citizen Cognos Inc. beat the Year 2000 bug that's been plaguing many other Canadian software firms and yesterday reported record sales and earnings for its fourth fiscal quarter ended Feb. 28. Along the way, the Ottawa-based software giant topped the consensus estimates, setting the stage for a possible recovery today in the company's share price, which closed yesterday at $34.50 on the TSE. Cognos released its numbers after trading ceased. The Ottawa firm reported net income excluding write-downs of $20.5 million, or 47 cents per share in its fourth quarter. That's up 20.8 per cent from the same period a year earlier. This result beat the mean estimate of 43 cents per share as measured by First Call Corp. by a considerable margin. Fourth quarter revenues jumped 22.9 per cent to $86.9 million. Cognos reports in U.S. dollars. "We haven't experienced the Y2K effect," said Cognos senior vice-president Alan Rottenberg. "This may be because our software doesn't deal with (computer) transactions; it deals with the output from these transactions." Another part of the explanation might be that Cognos generates a significant portion of its licence revenue from sales of Web-based products. Nearly 50 per cent of the revenues booked in the fourth quarter by its largest unit - known as business intelligence (BI) software -- involved Web-based software many corporations consider quick to install and relatively inexpensive. Mr. Rottenberg said it typically takes Cognos sales people two weeks to demonstrate a "proof of concept" to potential customers and less than three months to install the software. In sharp contrast, installing company-wide software programs such as those developed by Ottawa-based JetForm Corp. can take more than a year. Cognos's BI unit recorded sales of $70.6 million in the quarter, up 33 per cent from the fourth quarter last year. That's healthy growth which easily met analysts' expectations. Even so, it represents a slower rate of growth than that posted by its chief rival. France-based Business Objects SA saw its revenues leap 43 per cent to $51.5 million during its most recent quarter. Fourth quarter sales from Cognos' older software development tools unit were $16.3 million, down from $17.7 million a year earlier. Cognos wrapped up fiscal 1999 with revenues of $301.1 million, up 23 per cent from the year before. Earnings, excluding writedowns related mainly to a series of small acquisitions, were $61.8 million or $1.39 per share.