OTTAWA, December 20, 2001—Cognos Incorporated (Nasdaq: COGN; TSE: CSN), the world leader in business intelligence solutions, today announced results for its third quarter of fiscal year 2002, which ended November 30, 2001.

Revenue for the quarter was $124.2 million, compared with revenue of $124.6 million for the same period last year and up from revenue of $116.3 million in the second quarter of this year. Net income was $13.3 million or $0.15 per share. This compares with net income of $13.6 million or $0.15 per share in the third quarter of last year. Excluding a write-off of $3.0 million for acquired in-process technology associated with an acquisition, net income for the same period last year was $16.6 million or $0.18 per share.

Revenue for the nine-month period ended November 30, 2001 was $348.5 million, compared with revenue of $351.5 million for the first nine months of last year. Net income for the first nine months of this year, including restructuring charges of $12.8 million, was $9.3 million or $0.10 per share. Excluding restructuring charges, net income for the first nine months of this year was $18.3 million or $0.20 per share. This compares with net income of $42.1 million or $0.46 per share in the first nine months of last year. Excluding a write-off of $3.0 million for acquired in-process technology, net income for the first nine months of last year was $45.1 million or $0.49 per share. All figures are stated in U.S. dollars.

Business intelligence (BI) license revenue increased by 17 percent from the second quarter of this year, continuing its strong momentum. BI license revenue was $56.5 million, compared with $61.8 million for the same period last year. Total BI revenue increased by 7 percent from the previous quarter of this year to reach $114.1 million in the quarter. This compares to $112.8 million in the third quarter of last year.

Cognos continued to strengthen its balance sheet during the quarter. Cash flow was $10.0 million, net of $10.0 million expended to repurchase stock in the quarter. The Company had $268.1 million in cash, cash equivalents, and short-term investments at the end of the third quarter.

"We are pleased with the results for the third quarter, particularly given the current economic conditions" said Ron Zambonini, Cognos President and CEO. "We continue to assert our leadership in the BI market by driving the best momentum, as demonstrated by the strong sequential growth in total BI revenue and BI license revenue again this quarter.

"Major organizations throughout the world made significant commitments to our enterprise business intelligence solution. The Company was awarded six contracts greater than $1 million in the quarter, demonstrating the continued advancement of BI in enterprise deployments encompassing intranets and extranets alike. The contracts represented a diversity of industries from leading organizations such as Amgen, the world's largest independent biotechnology company; Mattel, the world's largest toy company; the U.S. Air Force, which uses our software to optimize its supply and maintenance systems for its fleet of aircraft; Metropolitan Life Insurance, in a large extranet deployment to reach its diverse corporate client base; and ePeopleServe, a new Cognos partner, and a joint venture between British Telecom and Anderson Consulting to provide extranet-based human resources services.

"We are entering the strongest product cycle in the history of the Company," continued Mr. Zambonini. "Cognos Series 7 has completed a highly successful beta phase and will ship in January 2002. We continue to receive extremely positive feedback from our beta customers and from more than 8,000 Cognos customers who had a close look at Series 7 at our global user events throughout the third quarter. They clearly see the value of a fully integrated, comprehensive, and highly scalable BI solution. And we are significantly broadening our analytic applications product family. In addition to our new planning module for Cognos Finance, we are introducing a full suite of applications for Oracle environments in this fourth quarter, and for SAP early next fiscal year. Cognos is the only vendor to deliver true enterprise business intelligence encompassing the entire enterprise decision cycle — planning & budgeting, reporting, analysis, and mission control — in other words, enterprise-wide business performance management."

This press release contains forward-looking statements relating to, among other things, the Company's expectations concerning the success and soundness of the Company's business model and its sales, marketing and technology strategies; the effect of the continuing uncertain economic environment on those strategies; the Company's ability to deliver business intelligence solutions that respond to changing market requirements; the updating, development, qualification, introduction, and shipment of the Company's current and future products; and the Company's ability to compete in an intensely competitive market.

These forward-looking statements are neither promises nor guarantees, but involve risks and uncertainties that may cause actual 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 develop and introduce new products and enhancements in the business intelligence software market; the impact of global economic conditions on the Company's business and the Company's ability to implement timely and appropriate remedial measures; the Company's ability to select and implement appropriate business models and strategies; the Company's ability to maintain revenue growth or to anticipate a decline in revenue from any of its products or services; 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 in the business intelligence software market; new product introductions and enhancements by competitors; the Company's ability to compete in an intensely competitive 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 its software infringes their intellectual property; the risks inherent in international operations, such as currency exchange rate fluctuations; the Company's ability to identify, hire, train, motivate and retain highly qualified management and other key personnel; and 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 its 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 contained in the forward-looking statements.

Cognos will present the Company's financial results for the third quarter fiscal year 2002 and discuss expectations for the future at 5:15 p.m. Eastern Time, today, December 20, 2001. The conference call may be accessed at 416-646-3095. The Webcast may be accessed at http://www.cognos.com/company/investor/events/fy02q3/index.html.