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Filed pursuant to Rule 424(b)(1)
Registration No. 333-85229
BUSINESS OBJECTS S.A.
LOGO
900,000 ORDINARY SHARES
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Business Objects S.A. is offering 900,000 ordinary shares for sale outside
of the United States in a global international offering. Our ordinary shares
have been approved for listing on the Premier Marche (reglement mensuel) of the
ParisBourse(SBF) S.A.
Our ordinary shares are currently traded in the United States in the form
of American depositary shares evidenced by American depositary receipts. Each
American depositary share represents one ordinary share. Our American depositary
shares are traded on the Nasdaq National Market under the symbol "BOBJ". On
November 1, 1999 the last reported sale price for the American depositary shares
on the Nasdaq National Market was $79.875, or 76.11 Euros, per share.
INVESTING IN THE ORDINARY SHARES INVOLVES RISKS.
SEE "RISK FACTORS" BEGINNING ON PAGE 8.
NEITHER THE SECURITIES AND EXCHANGE COMMISSION NOR ANY OTHER REGULATORY
BODY HAS APPROVED OR DISAPPROVED OF THESE SECURITIES OR PASSED UPON THE ACCURACY
OR ADEQUACY OF THIS PROSPECTUS. ANY REPRESENTATION TO THE CONTRARY IS A CRIMINAL
OFFENSE.
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<CAPTION>
PER SHARE TOTAL
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(IN EUROS)
<S> <C> <C>
Public offering price................................... 71.50 64,350,000
Underwriting discount................................... 2.86 2,574,000
Proceeds, before expenses, to Business Objects.......... 68.64 61,776,000
</TABLE>
The underwriters have an option to purchase up to an additional 135,000
ordinary shares from us at the public offering price, less the underwriting
discount.
The underwriters expect to deliver the ordinary shares against payment in
Paris, France on or about November 5, 1999.
PARIBAS GOLDMAN SACHS INTERNATIONAL
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The date of this Prospectus is November 2, 1999.
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TABLE OF CONTENTS
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PAGE
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Prospectus Summary.......................................... 3
Risk Factors................................................ 8
Note Regarding Forward-Looking Statements................... 14
Use of Proceeds............................................. 15
French Market Information................................... 15
U.S. Market Information..................................... 17
Dividend Policy............................................. 17
Capitalization.............................................. 18
Selected Consolidated Financial Data........................ 19
Management's Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition
and
Results of Operations..................................... 21
Recent Developments......................................... 37
Business.................................................... 40
Management.................................................. 55
Beneficial Share Ownership by Principal Shareholders and
Management................................................ 59
Description of Share Capital................................ 61
French Taxation............................................. 71
Underwriting and Sale....................................... 74
Where You Can Find Additional Information Regarding Business
Objects................................................... 77
Clearing.................................................... 78
Legal Matters............................................... 78
Experts..................................................... 78
Index to Consolidated Financial Statements.................. F-1
</TABLE>
YOU SHOULD RELY ON THE INFORMATION CONTAINED IN THIS DOCUMENT OR TO WHICH
WE HAVE REFERRED YOU. WE HAVE NOT AUTHORIZED ANYONE TO PROVIDE YOU WITH
INFORMATION THAT IS DIFFERENT. THIS DOCUMENT MAY ONLY BE USED WHERE IT IS LEGAL
TO SELL THESE SECURITIES. THE INFORMATION IN THIS DOCUMENT MAY ONLY BE ACCURATE
ON THE DATE OF THIS DOCUMENT.
THIS PROSPECTUS HAS NOT BEEN AND WILL NOT BE SUBMITTED TO THE CLEARANCE
PROCEDURES OF THE FRENCH COMMISSION DES OPERATIONS DE BOURSE AND ACCORDINGLY MAY
NOT BE USED IN CONNECTION WITH ANY OFFER OR SALE OF ORDINARY SHARES IN FRANCE.
FOR THE PURPOSES OF THE FRENCH PUBLIC OFFERING AND THE LISTING OF THE ORDINARY
SHARES ON THE PARISBOURSE(SBF) S.A., WE PREPARED A PROSPECTUS IN FRENCH THAT HAS
RECEIVED THE VISA (NO. 99-1354) OF THE COMMISSION DES OPERATIONS DE BOURSE DATED
NOVEMBER 2, 1999.
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PROSPECTUS SUMMARY
This summary highlights information contained elsewhere in this prospectus.
This summary is not complete and does not contain all the information you should
consider before buying our ordinary shares. You should read the entire
prospectus carefully.
BUSINESS OBJECTS S.A.
We develop, market and support business intelligence software for
client/server environments, intranets, extranets and the internet. Business
intelligence software allows users within an enterprise to easily access,
analyze and share corporate data for better decision making, and to share
corporate information with the enterprise's own customers, suppliers and
partners. We believe that there is a significant demand for business
intelligence software tools. Dataquest, an independent market research firm,
estimates that the market for business intelligence software will grow from
approximately $1.7 billion in 1997 to approximately $7.9 billion in 2003.
Over the past few decades, organizations have accumulated massive amounts
of information and data about their business resources, activities and
processes, their customers and suppliers and the industries in which they
operate. This data, however, has remained largely inaccessible to business
users, and is often created and stored in numerous and diverse databases and
business applications throughout an enterprise. The true value of accumulated
data within an enterprise cannot be realized unless users can effectively
access, analyze and share the data.
Our principal software tool, BUSINESSOBJECTS(TM), and its platform for
internet-based installations, WEBINTELLIGENCE(TM), enable end-users to access
and interact with information available to enterprises from a wide range of
sources, including database systems, such as those developed by Oracle, IBM,
Sybase and Microsoft, business applications, such as those developed by SAP,
PeopleSoft and Baan, and data warehouses. Our software tools are designed to
make it easy for both technical and non-technical users to access, analyze,
publish and share corporate data with co-workers within an enterprise, as well
as with entities outside of the enterprise, including customers, suppliers and
partners. We believe our software tools provide a number of key advantages in
this regard, including:
- Ease of use and learning: Our software tools are designed to ensure
maximum ease of use and learning because they allow users to structure
queries using commonly used business terms without having to understand
the technical details of database structures. Further, we provide
sophisticated online documentation and computer-based training.
- Access to all enterprise data sources: Our software tools are designed to
provide access to over 100 data sources, including the most popular
database management systems and business applications packages.
- Shared infrastructure for client/server and internet environments: Our
core software tool, BUSINESSOBJECTS and its platform for internet-based
installations, WEBINTELLIGENCE, share a common architecture that enables
our customers to expand their existing client/server installations to
include internet-based users and to migrate their client/server-based
systems to internet-based systems with ease.
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- Optimized for e-business: Our internet-based software tools have been
developed using common internet languages and protocols to enable our
customers to use the internet to allow access to their corporate data by
their own suppliers, customers and partners.
- Information technology control and security: The security features of our
software tools enable an enterprise's information technology department
to maintain control of and to manage information access by users within,
as well as outside of, the enterprise.
- Scalability: Our software tools are capable of scaling from deployments
as small as ten users to deployments of thousands of users.
We currently sell our products through a sales organization which includes
both direct and indirect sales channels in 15 countries. We utilize indirect
sales channels to cover geographic areas in which we have no direct sales
presence. We also provide extensive post-sales technical support and software
maintenance, customer education and training programs and consulting services.
As of June 30, 1999, we have sold over 1.3 million licenses to over 8,600
customers around the world.
Our objective is to be the leading supplier of business intelligence
software tools worldwide. Our business strategy to accomplish this is focused on
five key areas:
- We intend to expand our products and services for the internet and
e-business applications, which we believe represent a new and growing
opportunity for business intelligence technology.
- We intend to maintain our enterprise-wide focus by developing and
supporting applications that are compatible with major desktop operating
systems, databases and other packaged business applications.
- We intend to pursue the emerging market of analytical applications by
creating front-end customer intelligence applications that are
complementary to current operational customer relationship management
applications. Analytical application software facilitates decision
support for a particular area of an enterprise.
- We intend to expand our relationships with strategic partners, including
enterprise software vendors, systems integrators and value-added
resellers.
- We intend to broaden our customer service capabilities by investing more
of our resources in our technical support program, consulting
organization and education and training programs.
Business Objects S.A. was organized in 1990 as a societe anonyme, or
limited liability company, under the laws of the Republic of France. Our
principal executive offices in France are located in Paris at 1 Square Chaptal,
92300 Levallois-Perret, and our telephone number in France is
011-33-141-25-21-21. Our principal executive offices in the United States are
located at 2870 Zanker Road, San Jose, California 95134, and our telephone
number in the United States is 1-408-953-6000. Our Internet site is located at
http://www.businessobjects.com. Information contained on our Internet site does
not constitute part of this prospectus.
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Unless otherwise specifically stated, information contained in this
prospectus:
- does not take into account the exercise of the underwriters'
over-allotment option to purchase up to 135,000 of our ordinary shares;
- has been prepared in accordance with U.S. generally accepted accounting
principles; and
- is presented in U.S. dollars at historical exchange rates.
References in this prospectus to "Business Objects," "we," "our" and "us"
refer to Business Objects S.A. and its subsidiaries.
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SUMMARY CONSOLIDATED FINANCIAL DATA
(in thousands, except per share data)
You should read the following summary of consolidated financial data
together with our Selected Consolidated Financial Data, "Management's Discussion
and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operation," our Consolidated
Financial Statements and Notes thereto, included elsewhere in this prospectus.
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SIX MONTHS ENDED
YEAR ENDED DECEMBER 31, JUNE 30,
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1996 1997 1998 1998 1999
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(UNAUDITED)
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CONSOLIDATED STATEMENT OF
OPERATIONS DATA:
Revenues................. $85,137 $114,253 $166,894 $74,117 $107,051
Gross margin............. 75,122 97,373 139,723 62,192 87,968
Operating expenses....... 68,074 93,241 123,946 57,163 75,028
Income from operations... 7,048 4,132 15,777 5,029 12,940
Net income............... 5,160 2,877 10,287 3,360 8,352
Net income per share
Basic.................. $ 0.32 $ 0.17 $ 0.61 $ 0.20 $ 0.48
======= ======== ======== ======= ========
Diluted................ $ 0.30 $ 0.17 $ 0.58 $ 0.19 $ 0.44
======= ======== ======== ======= ========
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<TABLE>
<CAPTION>
JUNE 30, 1999
DECEMBER 31, 1998 ----------------------
ACTUAL ACTUAL AS ADJUSTED
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(UNAUDITED)
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CONSOLIDATED BALANCE SHEET DATA:
Cash, cash equivalents and short-term
investments............................. $ 71,713 $ 78,972 $141,398
Total current assets...................... 121,942 130,196 192,622
Total assets.............................. 138,085 151,580 214,006
Shareholders' equity...................... 67,247 69,920 132,346
</TABLE>
The as adjusted numbers give effect to our receipt of the estimated net
proceeds from the sale of the 900,000 ordinary shares offered by this
prospectus, after deducting the underwriting discount and estimated expenses
payable by us. This amount has been converted to U.S. dollars based upon the
Noon Buying Rate of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York as of November 1, 1999,
which was 1.0494 dollars per Euro. See "Use of Proceeds" and "Capitalization."
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THE OFFERING
Ordinary shares offered by Business
Objects.................................... 900,000 shares(1)
Ordinary shares to be outstanding after the
offering................................. 18,928,702 shares
Nasdaq National Market Symbol.............. BOBJ
Use of Proceeds............................ For general corporate purposes,
including working capital and
potential acquisitions.
The above table is based on our ordinary shares outstanding as of October
1, 1999. The number of ordinary shares offered in the offering and outstanding
after the offering does not include:
- 2,700,925 shares subject to options outstanding at October 1, 1999;
- 145,000 shares subject to warrants outstanding at October 1, 1999; and
- up to 135,000 shares issuable upon exercise of the underwriters'
over-allotment option.
-------------------------------
(1) Includes 90,000 shares being offered in an open price public offering in
France ("offre a prix ouvert").
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RISK FACTORS
You should carefully consider the risks and uncertainties described below
before making an investment decision. Additional risks and uncertainties that we
are unaware of or that we currently deem immaterial also may become important
factors that may adversely affect our company.
RISKS RELATED TO OUR BUSINESS
WE TARGET OUR PRODUCTS TO ONE MARKET AND IF SALES OF OUR PRODUCTS IN THIS MARKET
DECLINE, OUR OPERATING RESULTS WILL BE SERIOUSLY HARMED.
We generate substantially all of our revenues from licensing and service
fees generated from the sale of our products in the business intelligence
software market, and we expect to continue to do so in the future. Accordingly,
our future revenues and profits will depend significantly on our ability to
further penetrate the business intelligence software market. If we are not
successful in selling our products in our targeted market due to competitive
pressures, technological advances by others or otherwise, our operating results
would suffer.
OUR QUARTERLY OPERATING RESULTS ARE SUBJECT TO FLUCTUATIONS, WHICH MAY AFFECT
OUR STOCK PRICE.
Historically, our quarterly operating results have varied substantially
from quarter to quarter, and we anticipate this pattern to continue. This is
principally because our license fees are variable from quarter to quarter, while
a high percentage of our operating expenses are relatively fixed, and are based
on anticipated levels of revenues. In addition, we expect our expenses to
increase as our business grows. If revenues earned in any particular quarter
fall short of anticipated revenue levels, our quarterly operating results would
be significantly harmed.
While the variability of our license fees is partially due to factors that
would influence the quarterly results of any company, our business is
particularly susceptible to quarterly variations because:
- We typically receive a substantial amount of our revenues in the last
weeks of the last month of a quarter, rather then evenly throughout the
quarter.
- Our strongest quarter each year is typically our fourth quarter, as our
customers often wait for the end of their annual budget cycle before
deciding whether to purchase new software. Consequently, our revenues are
generally lower in our first quarter. In addition, our third quarter is a
relatively slow quarter due to lower economic activity throughout Europe
during the summer months.
- Customers may delay purchasing decisions in anticipation of our new
products or product enhancements or platforms or announced pricing
changes by us or our competitors.
- We partly depend on large orders which may take several months to
finalize. A delay in finalizing a large order may result in the
realization of license fees being postponed from one quarter to the next.
- Our revenues are also sensitive to the timing of our competitors' offers
of new products that successfully compete with ours on the basis of
functionality, price or otherwise.
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As a result of the above, quarter to quarter comparisons of our revenues
and operating results may not be meaningful and you should not rely on them as
indicative of our future performance.
OUR STOCK PRICE IS SUSCEPTIBLE TO OUR OPERATING RESULTS AND TO STOCK MARKET
FLUCTUATIONS.
In future quarters, our operating results may be below the expectations of
public market analysts and investors, and the price of our shares may fall. In
addition, the stock markets in the United States have experienced significant
price and volume fluctuations, which have particularly affected the market
prices of many software companies and which have often been unrelated to the
operating performance of these companies. These market fluctuations could affect
our stock price.
OUR SOFTWARE MAY HAVE DEFECTS AND ERRORS, WHICH MAY LEAD TO A LOSS OF REVENUE OR
PRODUCT LIABILITY CLAIMS.
BUSINESSOBJECTS and its platform for internet-based installations,
WEBINTELLIGENCE, are internally complex and occasionally contain defects or
errors, especially when first introduced or when new versions or enhancements
are released. For example, when BUSINESSOBJECTS 4.0 was first introduced in
1996, it would not run on Windows 3.1, and we had to rework a portion of the
product to enable it to do so. The revised version then took significantly
longer than expected to achieve operational stability, and contained a number of
"bugs" resulting from the significant rewriting and rearchitecting of the
product. We resolved these problems by the end of 1996, but our operating
results for 1996 were severely affected.
Despite extensive testing, we may not detect errors in our new products,
platforms or product enhancements, including BUSINESSOBJECTS 5.0 and
WEBINTELLIGENCE 2.5, which were recently launched in the United States, until
after we have commenced commercial shipments. If defects and errors are
discovered in our products, platforms or product enhancements after commercial
release:
- potential customers may delay or forego purchases;
- our reputation in the marketplace may be damaged;
- we may incur additional service and warranty costs; and
- we may have to divert additional development resources to correct the
defects and errors.
If any or all of the foregoing occur, we may lose revenues or incur higher
operating expenses and lose market share, any of which could severely harm our
financial condition and operating results.
THE PROTECTION OF OUR INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY IS CRUCIAL TO OUR BUSINESS, AND IF
THIRD PARTIES USE OUR INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY WITHOUT OUR CONSENT, IT COULD DAMAGE
OUR BUSINESS.
Our success depends in part on our ability to protect our proprietary
rights in our intellectual property. Despite precautions we take to protect
these rights, unauthorized third parties could copy aspects of our current or
future software and platforms or obtain and use information that we regard as
proprietary. Policing unauthorized use of software is
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difficult and some foreign laws do not protect our proprietary rights to the
same extent as in the United States or France.
In addition, although our name, together with our logo, is registered as a
trademark in France, the United States, and a number of other countries, we may
have difficulty asserting our ownership rights in the name "Business Objects" as
some jurisdictions consider the name "Business Objects" to be generic or
descriptive in nature. As a result, we may be unable to effectively police
unauthorized use of our name or otherwise prevent the name of our software
products from becoming a part of the public domain.
To protect our proprietary rights, we may become involved in litigation,
which could be costly and negatively impact our operating results. For example,
we recently litigated a patent infringement claim against Brio Technology, Inc.
Litigating claims related to our proprietary rights can be very expensive in
terms of management time and resources, which could cause our financial
condition and operating results to suffer.
THIRD PARTIES COULD ASSERT THAT OUR TECHNOLOGY INFRINGES THEIR PROPRIETARY
RIGHTS, WHICH COULD ADVERSELY AFFECT OUR ABILITY TO DISTRIBUTE OUR PRODUCTS AND
RESULT IN COSTLY LITIGATION.
We do not believe that our products infringe the proprietary rights of any
third parties. However, on July 30, 1999, Brio Technology, Inc. filed an action
alleging that we infringe one of its patents by selling our reporting
functionality. Although Brio Technology dismissed this lawsuit as part of a
settlement announced in September 1999, other third parties may in the future
make claims that our product infringes their technology. We cannot assure you
that third parties will never make these types of claims. We believe that
software products offered in our target markets increasingly will be subject to
infringement claims as the number of products and competitors in our industry
segment grows and product functionalities begin to overlap.
The potential effects on our business operations resulting from any third
party infringement claim that may be filed against us in the future include the
following:
- we could be forced to cease selling our products;
- we would be forced to commit management resources to resolve the claim;
- we may incur substantial litigation costs in defense of the claim;
- we may be required to indemnify our customers;
- we may have to expend significant development resources to redesign our
products as a result of these claims; and
- we may be required to enter into royalty and licensing agreements with a
third party bringing an infringement claim against us, and these
agreements may contain terms that are unfavorable to us.
THE LOSS OF OUR RIGHTS TO USE SOFTWARE LICENSED TO US BY THIRD PARTIES COULD
HARM OUR BUSINESS.
In order to provide a complete product suite, we occasionally license
software from third parties, and sub-license this software to our customers. In
addition, to a limited extent, we license software programs from third parties
and incorporate these programs into our own software products. By utilizing
third party software in our business we incur
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risks that are not associated with developing software in-house. For example,
these third party providers may discontinue or alter their operations, terminate
their relationship with us, or generally become unable to fulfill their
obligations to us. If any of these circumstances were to occur, we may be forced
to seek alternative technology which may not be available on commercially
reasonable terms. In the future, we may be forced to obtain additional third
party software licenses to enhance our product offerings and compete more
effectively. We may not be able to obtain and maintain licensing rights to
needed technology on commercially reasonable terms, which would harm our
business and operating results.
FAILURE OF OUR PRODUCTS OR COMPUTER SYSTEMS, OR THOSE OF OUR CUSTOMERS,
SUPPLIERS OR VENDORS, TO RECOGNIZE THE YEAR 2000 COULD DISRUPT THE OPERATION OF
OUR BUSINESS.
We have developed our current core software tool, BUSINESSOBJECTS and, its
platform for internet-based installations, WEBINTELLIGENCE, to comply with the
Year 2000 Conformity Requirements developed by the British Standards Institute.
However, because we are dependent upon our customers' use of third party
software in connection with their use of our software, the implementation of our
products and platforms may be affected by Year 2000 issues related to
modifications or revisions in the respective third party software. We may face
claims based on Year 2000 issues arising from the integration and operation of
our products within an enterprise system. For example, we have identified a
limitation for a specific customer operation -- the importing and exporting of
data in certain file formats -- which is due to the regional setting of the
user's environment and can be changed by the user. This limitation is only
present in version 4.1.6 and earlier versions of our software BUSINESSOBJECTS,
and version 2.0.1 and earlier versions of our platform WEBINTELLIGENCE. Although
we believe this limitation is applicable to a limited number of customer
operations, we may in the future discover additional customer operations that
are affected by this limitation or other limitations, which may require us to
use significant resources to correct.
Furthermore, some of our customers continue to operate older versions of
our products that may experience problems associated with Year 2000 issues. We
have been encouraging these customers to migrate to current versions of our
software, but some of them may not do so prior to January 1, 2000.
In addition, some of our suppliers and vendors may experience problems
associated with Year 2000 issues. If any of these third parties cannot provide
us on a timely basis with products, services or systems that have been modified
to operate in the Year 2000 and beyond, our business may be disrupted and our
operations may suffer.
Some of our key indirect sales channel partners, such as systems
integrators, value-added resellers and consultants, may also experience Year
2000 problems and may be unable to supply their customers with Year 2000
compliant products and services, or provide continuous operations. If any of
these key indirect sales channel partners cannot provide their customers with
Year 2000 compliant products and services, or if their operations suffer
interruption, our business may be disrupted and our operations may suffer.
We may also experience reduced sales of our products and services as
existing and potential customers reduce their systems budgets due to increased
expenditures on their own Year 2000 compliance efforts. In addition, during the
remainder of 1999, our existing
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or potential customers may choose to defer new software or services purchases
until after January 1, 2000 to avoid the possibility of introducing any new Year
2000 issues into their systems. See "Management's Discussion and Analysis of
Financial Condition and Results of Operations -- Year 2000 Compliance."
OUR EXECUTIVE OFFICERS AND KEY PERSONNEL ARE CRITICAL TO OUR BUSINESS; WE MAY
NOT BE ABLE TO RECRUIT AND RETAIN THE PERSONNEL WE NEED TO SUCCEED.
Our success depends to a significant extent upon a number of key management
and technical personnel, including Bernard Liautaud, our chief executive officer
and co-founder, the loss of whom could adversely affect our business. The loss
of the services of other key personnel or our inability to attract and retain
highly skilled technical, management, sales and marketing personnel could also
harm our business. Competition for such personnel in the computer software
industry is intense, and we may be unable to successfully attract and retain
such personnel.
WE MAY HAVE DIFFICULTY MANAGING OUR GROWTH.
Our business has grown rapidly in recent years. If we continue to grow at
the same pace, this growth may place a significant strain on our management and
operations. Our future operating results depend in part on the ability of our
officers and key employees to continue to implement and improve our operational
and financial control systems and to hire, expand, train and manage our
employees. If we are unable to manage our growth effectively, our financial
condition and operating results could suffer.
WE HAVE MULTINATIONAL OPERATIONS THAT ARE SUBJECT TO RISKS INHERENT IN
INTERNATIONAL OPERATIONS, INCLUDING CURRENCY EXCHANGE RATE FLUCTUATIONS.
Because we conduct our business throughout the world, we are subject to a
number of risks inherent in international operations, including compliance with
various foreign laws, regulations and tax structures, and longer accounts
receivable payment cycles outside of the United States. In particular, we
conduct a significant portion of our business in currencies other than the U.S.
dollar, the currency in which we report our financial statements. We expect to
generate a significant portion of our revenues and expenses in the Euro in the
future. As a result, our operating results expressed in U.S. dollars have been
in the past, and may be in the future, adversely impacted by currency exchange
rate fluctuations on the U.S. dollar value of foreign currency-denominated
revenues and expenses. Although we expect this pattern to continue, the
acceptance of the Euro and its use as the primary European currency is expected
to reduce these fluctuations with respect to our European activities. However,
we cannot assure you that these fluctuations will not continue and will not be
significant. As of June 30, 1999, we were not engaged in a foreign currency
hedging program to cover our currency transaction exposure.
RISKS RELATED TO OUR INDUSTRY
OUR MARKETS ARE HIGHLY COMPETITIVE AND COMPETITION COULD HARM OUR ABILITY TO
SELL PRODUCTS AND SERVICES AND REDUCE OUR MARKET SHARE.
Competition could seriously harm our ability to sell software and services
at prices and terms favorable to us. If we cannot compete effectively, we may
lose market share. Some of our competitors have been in business longer than us
and have significantly greater financial,
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technical, sales, marketing and other resources than we do. In addition, some of
our competitors enjoy greater name recognition and a larger installed customer
base than we do. Moreover, some of our competitors, particularly companies that
offer relational database management software systems and enterprise resource
planning software systems, have well-established relationships with some of our
existing and targeted customers.
In the future, any of our competitors could introduce products with more
features at lower prices. Some of these companies could also bundle existing or
new products, with other more established products that they offer, and compete
more effectively against our products. Some of these competitors have already,
or may in the future, provide their products or components of their products to
customers at no cost to the customer to gain market share. Because our products
are specifically designed and targeted to the business intelligence software
market, we may lose sales to competitors offering a broader range of products.
Furthermore, other companies larger than us could enter the market through
internal expansion or by strategically aligning themselves with one of our
current competitors and provide products that cost less than our products. We
believe that the business intelligence software tools market will continue to
grow and develop, and that more and more large companies may find it a desirable
market in which to compete. To the extent that we are unable to effectively
compete against our current and future competitors, as a result of some or all
of the factors stated above, our financial condition and operating results would
suffer.
THE SOFTWARE MARKETS THAT WE TARGET ARE SUBJECT TO RAPID TECHNOLOGICAL CHANGE
AND NEW PRODUCT INTRODUCTIONS.
The market for business intelligence software tools is characterized by:
- rapid technological advances;
- changes in customer requirements; and
- frequent new product introductions and enhancements.
To be successful, we must develop new products, platforms and enhancements
to our existing products that keep pace with technological developments,
changing industry standards and the increasingly sophisticated requirements of
our customers. If we are unable to respond quickly and successfully to these
developments and changes, we may lose our competitive position. In addition,
even if we are able to develop new products, platforms or enhancements to our
existing products, these products, platforms and product enhancements may not be
accepted in the marketplace. Our customers may defer or forego purchases of our
existing products if we do not adequately time the introduction or the
announcement of new products or enhancement to our existing products, or if our
competitors introduce or announce new products, platforms and product
enhancements. Any of these factors could severely harm our business, financial
condition and operating results.
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NOTE REGARDING FORWARD-LOOKING STATEMENTS
This prospectus, including the sections entitled "Prospectus Summary,"
"Risk Factors," "Management's Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and
Results of Operations," and "Business" contains forward-looking statements.
These statements relate to future events or our future financial performance,
and involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties, and other factors that may
cause our or our industry's actual results, levels of activity, performance or
achievements to be materially different from any future results, levels of
activity, performance or achievements expressed or implied by these forward-
looking statements. These risks and other factors include, among other things,
those listed under "Risk Factors" and elsewhere in this prospectus. In some
cases, you can identify forward-looking statements by terminology such as "may,"
"will," "intends," "should," "expects," "plans," "anticipates," "believes,"
"estimates," "predicts," "potential," "continue," or the negative of these terms
or other comparable terminology. These statements are only predictions. Actual
events or results may differ materially. In evaluating these statements, you
should specifically consider various factors, including the risks outlined under
"Risk Factors." These factors may cause our actual results to differ materially
from any forward-looking statement.
Although we believe that the expectations reflected in the forward-looking
statements are reasonable, we cannot guarantee future results, levels of
activity, performance, or achievements. We are under no duty to update any of
the forward-looking statements after the date of this prospectus to conform
these statements to actual results.
14
<PAGE> 15
USE OF PROCEEDS
We estimate the net proceeds to us from the sale of the 900,000 ordinary
shares being offered to be approximately 59.5 million Euros, 68.8 million Euros
if the underwriters' over-allotment option is exercised in full, after deducting
the underwriting discount and estimated offering expenses payable by us.
The purpose of this offering is to effect a listing of our ordinary shares
on the Premier Marche of the ParisBourse(SBF) S.A. and thereby increase the
visibility of Business Objects and strengthen our presence throughout Europe and
France in particular. We intend to use the funds generated from this offering
for general corporate purposes, primarily working capital. We may also use a
portion of the proceeds for strategic acquisitions. We currently do not have any
agreements or commitments to consummate any acquisition that we believe will
have a material effect on our business.
FRENCH MARKET INFORMATION
GENERAL
The ordinary shares have been approved for trading on the marche a
reglement mensuel, the monthly settlement market, of the Premier Marche of the
ParisBourse(SBF) S.A.
TRADING ON THE PARISBOURSE(SBF) S.A.
Official trading of listed securities on the ParisBourse(SBF) S.A. is
transacted through investment service providers that are members of the
ParisBourse(SBF) S.A. Trading takes place continuously on each business day from
10:00 a.m. through 5:00 p.m. (Paris, France time), with a pre-opening session
from 8:30 a.m. through 10:00 a.m. (Paris, France time), during which
transactions are recorded but not executed. Any trade effected after the close
of a stock exchange session is recorded on the next ParisBourse(SBF) S.A.
trading day.
The ParisBourse(SBF) S.A. is a self-regulatory organization that oversees
the operation of the marche a reglement mensuel or monthly settlement market and
other regulated markets, including the admission of financial instruments. It is
responsible for supervising trading in listed securities on French stock
exchanges and publishes a daily Official Price List that includes price
information concerning listed securities. The ParisBourse(SBF) S.A. has
introduced continuous trading during trading hours by computer for most listed
securities.
Securities listed on the ParisBourse(SBF) S.A. are traded on one of three
markets. The securities of most large public companies are listed on the Premier
Marche, and the Second Marche is available for small-and medium-sized companies.
Securities may also be traded on the Nouveau Marche, a regulated electronic
market designed primarily for small capitalization and start-up companies. All
three markets are operated by the ParisBourse(SBF) S.A. In addition, shares
listed on these markets are placed in one of three categories depending on the
volume of transactions. Our shares are expected to be listed in the category
known as Continu A, which includes the most actively traded securities.
Trading in securities listed on the Premier Marche may be suspended by the
ParisBourse(SBF) S.A. if quoted prices exceed certain price limits defined by
the regulations of the ParisBourse(SBF) S.A. In particular, if the quoted price
of a Continu A security varies by more than 10% from the previous day's closing
price, trading may be suspended for up
15
<PAGE> 16
to 15 minutes. Further suspensions for up to 15 minutes are also possible if the
price again varies by more than 5%, it being specified that the total daily
variation may never exceed 20%. The ParisBourse(SBF) S.A. may also suspend
trading of a security listed on the Premier Marche in certain other limited
circumstances, including for example, the occurrence of unusual trading activity
in the security.
Trades of securities listed on the Premier Marche of the ParisBourse(SBF)
S.A. are settled in either of two ways:
- in the monthly settlement market, the marche a reglement mensuel, or
- in the cash settlement market, the marche au comptant.
Our ordinary shares, including those sold in this offering, are expected to
be quoted on the marche a reglement mensuel and to be fungible with our
currently outstanding ordinary shares.
In the marche a reglement mensuel, a purchaser may:
- elect to settle on the third day following the trade -- a procedure known
as a "reglement immediat" or immediate settlement, or
- decide, on the determination date, the "date de liquidation," to either
settle the trade no later than the last trading day of that month; or,
upon payment of an additional fee, to extend to the determination date of
the following month the option either to settle no later than the last
trading day of that month or to postpone further the selection of a
settlement date until the next determination date, a procedure known as a
"report."
The purchaser may decide to renew its option on each subsequent
determination date, conditioned upon the payment of an additional fee.
The transfer of ownership of equity securities traded on the monthly
settlement market of the ParisBourse(SBF) S.A. occurs at the time of
registration of the securities in the appropriate shareholder's account. In
accordance with French securities regulation, any sale of securities executed on
the monthly settlement market during the month of a dividend payment date is
deemed to occur after payment of the dividend to the seller. The account of the
purchaser having purchased the securities prior to the date of the dividend
payment, is credited with an amount equal to the dividend paid, and the seller's
account is credited with the dividend and debited by the same amount.
16
<PAGE> 17
U.S. MARKET INFORMATION
GENERAL
We have sponsored a program that provides for the trading of our ordinary
shares in the United States in the form of American depositary shares. Each
American depositary share represents one ordinary share placed on deposit with
the Bank of New York, as depositary, and is issued and delivered by the
depositary through its principal office in New York City at 101 Barclay Street,
New York, New York, 10286. Under the terms of our deposit agreement with the
depositary, ordinary shares may also be deposited with the Paris office of
Paribas, as custodian.
PRICE RANGE OF AMERICAN DEPOSITARY SHARES
Our American depositary shares are quoted on the Nasdaq National Market
under the symbol "BOBJ". Neither our American depositary shares nor our ordinary
shares are listed or quoted on any other quotation system or securities
exchange. The following table sets forth the range of quarterly high and low
closing prices of our American depositary shares on the Nasdaq National Market
for each full quarterly period within the two most recent fiscal years and each
full and partial quarterly period in 1999:
<TABLE>
<CAPTION>
HIGH LOW
------- -------
<S> <C> <C>
1999:
Fourth Quarter (through November 1,
1999)...................................... $ 79.88 $ 54.38
Third Quarter.............................. $ 61.69 $ 36.38
Second Quarter............................. $ 39.00 $ 17.56
First Quarter.............................. $ 40.13 $ 24.75
1998:
Fourth Quarter............................. $ 32.50 $ 7.88
Third Quarter.............................. $ 18.75 $ 8.88
Second Quarter............................. $ 19.88 $ 13.00
First Quarter.............................. $ 16.63 $ 9.50
1997:
Fourth Quarter............................. $ 14.00 $ 9.75
Third Quarter.............................. $ 10.88 $ 6.75
Second Quarter............................. $ 11.75 $ 7.38
First Quarter.............................. $ 16.00 $ 9.38
</TABLE>
On November 1, 1999, the last reported sale price of our American
depositary shares on the Nasdaq National Market was $79.875, or 76.11 Euros, per
share. As of October 1, 1999, there were 48 record holders of our American
depositary receipts evidencing 17,184,555 American depositary shares. As of
October 1, 1999, there were outstanding approximately 18,028,702 ordinary
shares.
DIVIDEND POLICY
We have never declared or paid any dividends on our ordinary shares. We
intend to employ all available funds for the development of our business and we
do not intend to declare or pay any cash dividends in the foreseeable future.
17
<PAGE> 18
CAPITALIZATION
The table below sets forth the following information:
- the actual capitalization of Business Objects as of June 30, 1999; and
- the capitalization as adjusted to give effect to the sale of 900,000
ordinary shares in this offering, less the underwriting discount and
estimated offering expenses payable by us. For purposes of the following
table, the proceeds of this offering have been converted from Euro into
dollars using the Noon Buying Rate of the Federal Reserve Bank of New
York as of November 1, 1999, which was 1.0494 dollars per Euro.
<TABLE>
<CAPTION>
JUNE 30, 1999
----------------------------
ACTUAL AS ADJUSTED
---------- --------------
(IN THOUSANDS, EXCEPT SHARE
AND PER SHARE DATA)
(UNAUDITED)
<S> <C> <C>
Long-term debt........................................... $ 1,000 $ 1,000
Shareholders' equity:
Ordinary shares, FF1 nominal value; 37,452 shares
authorized; 17,782 shares issued and outstanding,
actual; 18,682 shares issued and outstanding, as
adjusted............................................... 3,251 3,398
Additional paid-in capital............................... 43,233 105,512
Treasury shares.......................................... (4,611) (4,611)
Retained earnings........................................ 36,746 36,746
Accumulated other comprehensive income................... (8,699) (8,699)
------- --------
Total shareholders' equity.......................... 69,920 132,346
------- --------
Total capitalization................................ $70,920 $133,346
======= ========
</TABLE>
This table excludes the following shares:
- 2,883,133 shares subject to options outstanding at June 30, 1999;
- 310,325 shares subject to options granted subsequent to June 30, 1999;
- 145,000 shares of common stock issuable upon exercise of warrants
outstanding at June 30, 1999; and
- up to 135,000 shares issuable upon exercise of the underwriters'
over-allotment option.
See "Management -- Description of Share Capital" and Note 9 of Notes to
Consolidated Financial Statements.
18
<PAGE> 19
SELECTED CONSOLIDATED FINANCIAL DATA
The selected consolidated financial data set forth below should be read in
conjunction with the "Management's Discussion and Analysis of Financial
Condition and Results of Operation," the Consolidated Financial Statements and
the Notes thereto and the other information contained in this prospectus. The
information contained in the table below was derived from the following sources:
- The selected consolidated statements of operations data for the years
ended December 31, 1996, 1997 and 1998, and the selected consolidated
balance sheet data as of December 31, 1997 and 1998, are derived from,
and are qualified by reference to, our audited consolidated financial
statements appearing elsewhere in this prospectus.
- The selected consolidated statements of operations data for the years
ended December 31, 1994 and 1995 and the selected consolidated balance
sheet data as of December 31, 1994, 1995 and 1996 are derived from our
audited consolidated financial statements not included in this
prospectus.
- The selected consolidated statement of operations data for each of the
six month periods ended June 30, 1998 and 1999, and the selected
consolidated balance sheet data as of June 30, 1998 and 1999 are derived
from, and are qualified by reference to, our unaudited interim
consolidated financial statements appearing elsewhere in this prospectus.
This information is presented on the same basis of accounting as the
combined financial information for the audited periods. Our management
believes all adjustments necessary for a fair presentation of results of
the interim periods have been made and such adjustments were of a normal
and recurring nature.
Our consolidated financial statements have been prepared in accordance with
U.S. generally accepted accounting principles, commonly referred to as U.S.
GAAP. Net income per share reflects our net income per ordinary share and per
American depositary share. The historical results are not necessarily indicative
of future results.
19
<PAGE> 20
<TABLE>
<CAPTION>
SIX MONTHS ENDED
YEAR ENDED DECEMBER 31, JUNE 30,
---------------------------------------------------- ------------------
1994 1995 1996 1997 1998 1998 1999
------- ------- ------- ------- -------- ------- -------
(IN THOUSANDS, EXCEPT SHARE AND PER SHARE DATA) (UNAUDITED)
<S> <C> <C> <C> <C> <C> <C> <C>
CONSOLIDATED STATEMENT OF
OPERATIONS DATA:
Revenues:
License fees............... $24,306 $48,782 $64,451 $78,478 $108,761 $48,579 $67,067
Services................... 5,881 11,824 20,686 35,775 58,133 25,538 39,984
------- ------- ------- ------- -------- ------- -------
Total revenues........... 30,187 60,606 85,137 114,253 166,894 74,117 107,051
Cost of revenues:
License fees............... 1,466 2,107 3,235 3,773 3,272 1,576 1,957
Services................... 1,619 4,044 6,780 13,107 23,899 10,349 17,126
------- ------- ------- ------- -------- ------- -------
Total cost of revenues... 3,085 6,151 10,015 16,880 27,171 11,925 19,083
------- ------- ------- ------- -------- ------- -------
Gross margin................. 27,102 54,455 75,122 97,373 139,723 62,192 87,968
Operating expenses:
Sales and marketing........ 16,154 30,666 50,038 68,115 89,118 41,564 53,454
Research and development... 4,299 8,071 10,634 14,050 19,434 8,831 12,422
General and
administrative........... 3,447 5,706 7,402 11,076 15,394 6,768 9,152
------- ------- ------- ------- -------- ------- -------
Total operating
expenses............... 23,900 44,443 68,074 93,241 123,946 57,163 75,028
------- ------- ------- ------- -------- ------- -------
Income from operations....... 3,202 10,012 7,048 4,132 15,777 5,029 12,940
Interest and other income,
net........................ 383 1,999 1,849 1,673 2,078 785 1,216
------- ------- ------- ------- -------- ------- -------
Income before provision for
income taxes and minority
interest................... 3,585 12,011 8,897 5,805 17,855 5,814 14,156
Provision for income taxes... (1,208) (3,963) (3,737) (3,184) (7,316) (2,380) (5,804)
Minority interest............ -- -- -- 256 (252) (74) --
------- ------- ------- ------- -------- ------- -------
Net income................... $ 2,377 $ 8,048 $ 5,160 $ 2,877 $ 10,287 $ 3,360 $ 8,352
======= ======= ======= ======= ======== ======= =======
Basic net income per
share(1)................... $ 0.18 $ 0.51 $ 0.32 $ 0.17 $ 0.61 $ 0.20 $ 0.48
Diluted net income per
share(1)................... $ 0.17 $ 0.49 $ 0.30 $ 0.17 $ 0.58 $ 0.19 $ 0.44
Weighted average shares --
basic(1)................... 13,140 15,843 16,265 16,624 16,966 16,865 17,525
Weighted average shares --
diluted(1)................. 14,097 16,497 16,924 16,876 17,741 17,683 19,051
</TABLE>
<TABLE>
<CAPTION>
DECEMBER 31,
---------------------------------------------------- JUNE 30,
1994 1995 1996 1997 1998 1999
------- ------- ------- ------- -------- -----------
(IN THOUSANDS) (UNAUDITED)
<S> <C> <C> <C> <C> <C> <C>
CONSOLIDATED BALANCE SHEET DATA:
Cash, cash equivalents and short-term
investments........................ $30,849 $46,702 $42,171 $39,013 $ 71,713 $ 78,972
Total current assets................. 40,915 66,669 70,057 80,020 121,942 130,196
Total assets......................... 45,237 71,013 80,770 94,340 138,085 151,580
Total current liabilities............ 10,435 24,431 28,915 43,541 70,838 80,660
Long term obligations................ 93 121 19 -- -- 1,000
Shareholders' equity................. 34,709 46,461 51,836 50,799 67,247 69,920
</TABLE>
- -------------------------
(1) Refer to Note 1 of Notes to Consolidated Financial Statements for an
explanation of the method used to determine the number of shares used in
computing net income per share.
20
<PAGE> 21
MANAGEMENT'S DISCUSSION AND ANALYSIS OF FINANCIAL
CONDITION AND RESULTS OF OPERATIONS
The following discussion and analysis should be read together with our
Consolidated Financial Statements and the Notes to those statements included
elsewhere in this prospectus.
OVERVIEW
Business Objects develops, markets, and supports a broad family of business
intelligence software tools. We introduced our core software, BUSINESSOBJECTS,
in 1990. BUSINESSOBJECTS operates using a client/server architecture, runs on
Windows 95 and Windows NT operating systems, and is interoperable with most
major databases. We introduced WEBINTELLIGENCE in 1997. WEBINTELLIGENCE provides
some of the same functionality as BUSINESSOBJECTS, but operates using an
internet-based architecture, runs in Windows NT and, in the near future, Unix
servers and is accessible through most major internet browsers and most desktop
platforms.
We derive our revenues from license fees and from charges for services,
consisting of post-sale customer support, consulting and training services. We
generally recognize revenues from software license fees upon delivery of the
software product to the end user. We recognize revenues from our customer
support services on a straight-line basis over the period during which we
provide the support services. We recognize consulting and training service
revenues as the services are provided. In software arrangements that include
rights to multiple software products, post-contract customer support, and/or
other services, we allocate the total arrangement fee among each deliverable
based on the relative fair value of each of the deliverables determined based on
vendor-specific objective evidence.
Our revenues have increased over each of the periods presented in this
prospectus, reflecting increased sales of licenses to our business intelligence
tools and related services. We believe that with the continuing proliferation of
the internet and the increasing acceptance of performing business functions over
the internet, revenues from our WEBINTELLIGENCE version of our product should
represent an increasing portion of our licensing revenues.
Our gross margins for our license fees are significantly higher than our
gross margins generated from the sale of our services. The cost of license fees
consists primarily of costs incurred for materials, packaging, freight and
royalties, which have typically fluctuated from 3% to 5% of the related revenues
in recent years. The cost of services, consisting of the cost of providing
maintenance, consulting and training, most of which are personnel costs, have
fluctuated from 33% of the related revenues in 1996 to approximately 41% of the
related revenues in 1998.
Our operating expenses have increased each year due to the growth of our
business, although these expenses have generally fluctuated as a percent of
revenues from year to year. The dollar increases in operating expenses are
primarily due to an increase in personnel in our sales and marketing, product
development and general and administrative functions.
As with many software companies, we experience seasonality in our business,
with revenues generally higher in the fourth quarter of each year and lower in
the first quarter of the following year. We believe that this trend is primarily
the result of a tendency of
21
<PAGE> 22
customers to delay software purchases until the fourth quarter due to their
annual budget. In addition, our third quarter is a relatively slow quarter due
to the lower economic activity throughout Europe during the summer months.
In view of our significant growth in recent years, we believe that
period-to-period comparisons of our financial results are not necessarily
meaningful and you should not rely upon them as an indication of future
performance.
RESULTS OF OPERATIONS
The following table sets forth selected items from our consolidated
statements of income expressed as a percentage of total revenues for the periods
indicated:
<TABLE>
<CAPTION>
SIX MONTHS
ENDED
YEAR ENDED DECEMBER 31, JUNE 30,
------------------------ -------------
1996 1997 1998 1998 1999
------ ------ ------ ----- -----
<S> <C> <C> <C> <C> <C>
Revenues:
License fees............................... 75.7% 68.7% 65.2% 65.5% 62.6%
Services................................. 24.3 31.3 34.8 34.5 37.4
----- ----- ----- ----- -----
Total revenues........................ 100.0 100.0 100.0 100.0 100.0
===== ===== ===== ===== =====
Cost of revenues:
License fees............................. 3.8 3.3 2.0 2.1 1.8
Services................................. 8.0 11.5 14.3 14.0 16.0
----- ----- ----- ----- -----
Total cost of revenues................ 11.8 14.8 16.3 16.1 17.8
----- ----- ----- ----- -----
Gross margin............................... 88.2 85.2 83.7 83.9 82.2
Operating expenses:
Sales and marketing...................... 58.7 59.6 53.4 56.1 49.9
Research and development................. 12.5 12.3 11.6 11.9 11.6
General and administrative............... 8.7 9.7 9.2 9.1 8.6
----- ----- ----- ----- -----
Total operating expenses.............. 79.9 81.6 74.2 77.1 70.1
----- ----- ----- ----- -----
Income from operations..................... 8.3 3.6 9.5 6.8 12.1
Interest and other income, net............. 2.2 1.5 1.2 1.0 1.1
----- ----- ----- ----- -----
Income before provision for income taxes
and minority interest.................... 10.5 5.1 10.7 7.8 13.2
Provision for income taxes................. (4.4) (2.8) (4.4) (3.2) (5.4)
Minority interest.......................... -- 0.2 (0.1) (0.1) --
----- ----- ----- ----- -----
Net income................................. 6.1 2.5 6.2 4.5 7.8
===== ===== ===== ===== =====
Gross margin:
License fees............................. 95.0% 95.2% 97.0% 96.8% 97.1%
Services................................. 67.2% 63.4% 58.9% 59.5% 57.2%
</TABLE>
22
<PAGE> 23
SIX MONTHS ENDED JUNE 30, 1999
REVENUES
The following table sets forth information regarding the composition of our
revenues and period-to-period changes:
<TABLE>
<CAPTION>
SIX MONTHS ENDED
JUNE 30,
----------------------- PERIOD-TO-PERIOD
1998 1999 PERCENT CHANGE
--------- ---------- ----------------
(DOLLARS IN THOUSANDS)
<S> <C> <C> <C>
License fees............................. $48,579 $ 67,067 38.1%
Percentage of total revenues............. 65.5% 62.6%
Services................................. 25,538 39,984 56.6%
Percentage of total revenues........... 34.5% 37.4%
Total revenues........................... $74,117 $107,051 44.4%
</TABLE>
Total revenues from our main geographic markets were as follows:
<TABLE>
<CAPTION>
SIX MONTHS ENDED
JUNE 30,
----------------------- PERIOD-TO-PERIOD
1998 1999 PERCENT CHANGE
--------- ---------- ----------------
(DOLLARS IN THOUSANDS)
<S> <C> <C> <C>
Europe................................... $47,602 $ 69,078 45.1%
North America............................ 20,134 30,906 53.5%
Rest of World............................ 6,381 7,067 10.7%
Total.................................... $74,117 $107,051 44.4%
</TABLE>
Note: These amounts have been reclassified to reflect a change effective in
1999 in management analysis of geographic territories.
Total revenues increased to $107.1 million for the six months ended June
30, 1999, up from $74.1 million in the prior year period. In each period
presented, a majority of our total revenues was derived from license fees for
BUSINESSOBJECTS, WEBINTELLIGENCE and related platforms. Our service revenues
were comprised of revenues from maintenance, consulting services, and training
activities related to licenses of BUSINESSOBJECTS and its platform for
internet-based installations, WEBINTELLIGENCE, and related platforms.
- License Fees. Revenues from license fees were $67.1 million for the six
months ended June 30, 1999 and $48.6 million for the prior year period,
representing a period-over-period increase of $18.5 million or 38.1%. The
increase in license fees was primarily due to increased sales efforts for our
software products, of which a majority of license fees consisted of licenses of
BUSINESSOBJECTS and its platform for internet-based installations,
WEBINTELLIGENCE.
We anticipate that license fees, which represented approximately 65.5% and
62.6% of our total revenues for the six month periods ended June 30, 1998 and
1999, respectively, will continue to represent a majority of our revenues for
the foreseeable future. The decrease in license fees as a percent of total
revenues for the six month period ended June 30, 1999 as compared to the six
month period ended June 30, 1998 was primarily due to increased customer demand
for consulting and training services and an increase in our installed customer
base, which resulted in an increase in maintenance revenues. It is expected that
the percentage of total revenues derived from license fees will continue to
decrease in the future as the rate of growth in service revenues exceeds the
rate of growth
23
<PAGE> 24
in license fees. In addition, we expect that the market penetration by, and the
number of, our competitors will increase, and as a result, the growth rate in
our license fees in the future may not be as high as the growth rate in such
license fees achieved in the past.
- Services. Revenues from services consist of maintenance, consulting and
training revenues. Revenues from services totaled $40.0 million for the six
months ended June 30, 1999, and $25.5 million for the prior year period,
representing a period-over-period increase of approximately $14.5 million, or
56.6%. The increase in revenues from services was due primarily to increases in
consulting and training revenues, and from increases in maintenance revenues
related to increases in our installed customer base and the renewal of support
contracts. The growth in our training revenues is directly related to the growth
in our license fees. Consulting revenues increased because of our emphasis in
the 1999 period on enhancing consulting services to drive sales of licenses of
our software products. We believe that consulting services are important to our
marketing efforts for our software products. As market penetration by, and the
number of, competitors increase, the growth rate of our installed customer base
and, consequently, the growth rate of our services revenues may not be as high
as growth rates achieved in the past. We anticipate increasing our efforts to
sell consulting, training and maintenance services, and expect that service
revenues will continue to represent a significant portion of our total revenues.
COST OF REVENUES
The following table sets forth information regarding our cost of revenues
and period-to-period changes:
<TABLE>
<CAPTION>
SIX MONTHS ENDED
JUNE 30,
---------------------- PERIOD-TO-PERIOD
1998 1999 PERCENT CHANGE
-------- -------- ----------------
(DOLLARS IN THOUSANDS)
<S> <C> <C> <C>
Cost of license fees.................. $ 1,576 $ 1,957 24.2%
Percentage of license fee revenues.... 3.2% 2.9%
Cost of services...................... 10,349 17,126 65.5%
Percentage of services revenues..... 40.5% 42.8%
Total cost of revenues................ 11,925 19,083 60.0%
Percentage of total revenues........ 16.1% 17.8%
</TABLE>
- Cost of License Fees. Cost of license fees consists primarily of costs
incurred for materials, packaging, freight and royalties, and totaled $2.0
million for the six months ended June 30, 1999 compared to $1.6 million in the
prior year period. Cost of license fees as a percent of license fee revenues
decreased from approximately 3.2% for the six months ended June 30, 1998 to
approximately 2.9% for the six months ended June 30, 1999. We expect our cost of
license fees as a percentage of license fee revenues to remain substantially
consistent with the levels experienced in the six month periods ended June 30,
1998 and 1999 for the foreseeable future.
- Cost of Services. Cost of services consists primarily of personnel costs
associated with providing maintenance services, consulting and training, and
totaled $17.1 million for the six months ended June 30, 1999 compared to $10.3
million in the prior year period. Cost of services as a percent of service
revenues increased from 40.5% for the six months ended June 30, 1998 to 42.8%
for the six months ended June 30, 1999. The increase in cost of services as a
percent of the related revenues was primarily due to the change in mix of
services provided, with consulting services, which have a higher cost relative
to
24
<PAGE> 25
revenues than maintenance and training, representing an increasing portion of
total service revenues. The increase in expenses in absolute dollars was
primarily due to increases in headcount to support our service activities and,
to a lesser extent, to the subcontracting of consulting and training activities.
OPERATING EXPENSES
The following table sets forth information regarding the composition of our
operating expenses and period-to-period changes:
<TABLE>
<CAPTION>
SIX MONTHS ENDED
JUNE 30,
---------------------- PERIOD-TO-PERIOD
1998 1999 PERCENT CHANGE
-------- -------- ----------------
(DOLLARS IN THOUSANDS)
<S> <C> <C> <C>
Sales and marketing................... $41,564 $53,454 28.6%
Percentage of total revenues.......... 56.1% 49.9%
Research and development.............. 8,831 12,422 40.7%
Percentage of total revenues........ 11.9% 11.6%
General and administrative............ 6,768 9,152 35.2%
Percentage of total revenues........ 9.1% 8.6%
Total operating expenses.............. 57,163 75,028 31.3%
Percentage of total revenues........ 77.1% 70.1%
</TABLE>
- Sales and Marketing. Sales and marketing expenses consist primarily of
salaries, related benefits and sales commissions as well as amounts paid for
product promotion activities. Sales and marketing expenses totaled $53.5 million
for the six months ended June 30, 1999 compared to $41.6 million in the prior
year period. Sales and marketing expenses decreased as a percent of total
revenues from 56.1% for the six months ended June 30, 1998 to 49.9% for the
comparable period in 1999. The decrease in sales and marketing expenses as a
percent of total revenues for the six months ended June 30, 1999 was primarily
due to revenues growing at a faster rate than spending on sales and marketing
activities and increased operational efficiencies in the field sales
organization. The increase in sales and marketing expenses in absolute dollars
for both periods is attributable to the expansion of our sales and marketing
organization. Sales and marketing expenses are expected to continue to increase
in absolute dollars but may vary as a percent of revenues in the future.
- Research and Development. Research and development expenses consist
primarily of salaries, related benefits, third party consultant fees and other
costs. Research and development expenses totaled $12.4 million for the six
months ended June 30, 1999 compared to $8.8 million in the prior year period.
Research and development expenses decreased as a percent of total revenues from
approximately 11.9% for the six months ended June 30, 1998 to 11.6% for the
comparable period in 1999. The increase in absolute dollars in research and
development expenses from the six months ended June 30, 1998 to the comparable
period in 1999 is due to increased staffing and associated support required to
expand and enhance our product line. Research and development expenses are
expected to continue to increase in absolute dollars, but may vary as a percent
of revenues in the future.
Our policy is to capitalize eligible software development costs upon
achievement of technological feasibility subject to our expected ability to
recover our development costs. Based on our development process, technological
feasibility is generally established upon
25
<PAGE> 26
completion of a working model. Research and development costs prior to the
establishment of technological feasibility are expensed as incurred. Because the
period between achievement of technological feasibility and the general release
of our products has been of relatively short duration, costs qualifying for
capitalization were insignificant during the six months ended June 30, 1998 and
1999. There were no capitalized software development costs at June 30, 1999.
- General and Administrative. General and administrative expenses consist
primarily of salaries, related benefits, fees for professional services,
including legal and accounting services, and amortization of goodwill arising
from the acquisition of companies and ownership interest in subsidiaries.
General and administrative expenses totaled $9.2 million for the six months
ended June 30, 1999 compared to $6.8 million in the prior year period. General
and administrative expenses decreased as a percent of total revenues from 9.1%
for the six months ended June 30, 1998 to 8.6% for the comparable period in
1999. The decrease in general and administrative expenses as a percent of total
revenues is primarily due to revenues growing at a faster rate than spending on
general and administrative expenses and operational efficiencies. The increase
in general and administrative expenses in absolute dollars is primarily due to
increased amortization of goodwill and increases in staffing to support our
growth. Goodwill amortization expense is included in general and administrative
expenses and totaled $1.3 million and $600,000 for the six months ended June 30,
1999 and 1998, respectively. The increase in amortization expense in the 1999
period was due to the acquisition of a Dutch consulting firm and the remaining
20% interest in our Italian distributor, both of which were accounted for under
the purchase method of accounting. General and administrative expenses are
expected to continue to increase in absolute dollars but may vary as a percent
of revenues in the future.
INTEREST AND OTHER INCOME, NET
Interest and other income, net totaled $1,216,000 for the six months ended
June 30, 1999 compared to $785,000 in the prior year period. Net interest income
increased from $756,000 for the six months ended June 30, 1998 to $1,192,000 for
the six months ended June 30, 1999, primarily due to the increased interest
resulting from the increase in cash and cash equivalents and the investment of a
greater percentage of our cash balances in the first six months of 1999 as
compared to the first six months of 1998. Cash, cash equivalents and short-term
investments increased from $53.6 million at June 30, 1998 to $79.0 million at
June 30, 1999. Net foreign currency exchange gains totaled $24,000 for the six
months ended June 30, 1999 versus $29,000 for the comparable period during 1998.
INCOME TAXES
The following table sets forth information regarding our income taxes:
<TABLE>
<CAPTION>
SIX MONTHS ENDED
JUNE 30,
---------------------- PERIOD-TO-PERIOD
1998 1999 PERCENT CHANGE
------- ------- ----------------
(DOLLARS IN THOUSANDS)
<S> <C> <C> <C>
Provision for income taxes............. $2,380 $5,804 144%
Effective tax rate..................... 41% 41% --
</TABLE>
Provision for income taxes totaled $5.8 million for the six months ended
June 30, 1999 compared to $2.4 million in the prior year period. This
represented an effective
26
<PAGE> 27
income tax rate of 41% for both periods. The increase in income taxes in dollars
from 1998 to 1999 was due to the increased pretax income.
FISCAL YEARS ENDED DECEMBER 31, 1996, 1997 AND 1998
REVENUES
The following table sets forth information regarding the composition of our
revenues and period-to-period changes:
<TABLE>
<CAPTION>
PERCENT PERCENT
1996 CHANGE 1997 CHANGE 1998
------- ------- -------- ------- --------
(DOLLARS IN THOUSANDS)
<S> <C> <C> <C> <C> <C>
License fees................ $64,451 21.8% $ 78,478 38.6% $108,761
Percentage of total
revenues.................... 75.7% 68.7% 65.2%
Services.................... 20,686 72.9% 35,775 62.5% 58,133
Percentage of total
revenues............... 24.3% 31.3% 34.8%
Total revenues.... 85,137 34.2% 114,253 46.1% 166,894
</TABLE>
Total revenues from our main geographic markets were as follows:
<TABLE>
<CAPTION>
PERCENT PERCENT
1996 CHANGE 1997 CHANGE 1998
------- ------- -------- ------- --------
(DOLLARS IN THOUSANDS)
<S> <C> <C> <C> <C> <C>
Europe...................... $52,459 36.8% $ 71,804 47.3% $105,812
North America............... 28,429 22.8% 34,905 36.1% 47,493
Rest of World............... 4,249 77.5% 7,544 80.1% 13,589
------- ---- -------- ---- --------
Total revenues............ 85,137 114,253 166,894
</TABLE>
Note: These amounts have been reclassified to reflect a change effective in
1999 in management analysis of geographic territories.
Total revenues increased to $166.9 million in 1998, up from $114.3 million
in 1997 and $85.1 million in 1996, representing increases of 46.1% from 1997 to
1998 and 34.2% from 1996 to 1997. In each year presented, a majority of our
total revenues was derived from license fees for BUSINESSOBJECTS and related
products. Our services revenues were comprised of revenues from maintenance,
consulting services and training activities related to licenses of
BUSINESSOBJECTS.
- License Fees. Revenues from license fees increased approximately $30.3
million or 38.6% in 1998 over the level achieved in 1997. This compares to an
increase of $14.0 million or 21.8% during 1997 over the level achieved in 1996.
These increases in license fees reflected increased unit licenses of
BUSINESSOBJECTS, its platform for internet-based installations, WEBINTELLIGENCE,
and related software products in all geographic areas into which we sell.
- Services. Revenues from services increased approximately $22.4 million or
62.5% from 1997 to 1998. This compares to an increase of $15.1 million or 72.9%
from 1996 to 1997. The increase in revenues from services during both years was
due primarily to increases in maintenance revenues related to increases in our
installed customer base and increases in consulting and training revenues
associated with the increased level of licenses of BUSINESSOBJECTS product and
related products or platforms. In addition, in 1998 we began to emphasize our
consulting services as a vehicle to drive additional sales of our products.
27
<PAGE> 28
COST OF REVENUES
The following table sets forth information regarding our cost of revenues
and period-to-period changes:
<TABLE>
<CAPTION>
PERCENT PERCENT
1996 CHANGE 1997 CHANGE 1998
------ ------- ------ ------- ------
(DOLLARS IN THOUSANDS)
<S> <C> <C> <C> <C> <C>
Cost of license fees............. $3,235 16.6% $3,773 (13.3)% $3,272
Percentage of license fee
revenues......................... 5.0% 4.8% 3.0%
Cost of services................. 6,780 93.3% 13,107 82.3% 23,899
Percentage of services
revenues.................... 32.8% 36.6% 41.1%
Total cost of revenues...... 10,015 68.5% 16,880 61.0% 27,171
Percentage of total revenues... 11.8% 14.8% 16.3%
</TABLE>
- Cost of License Fees. Cost of license fees decreased approximately
$500,000 or 13.3% in 1998 over the level experienced in 1997. This compares to
an increase of approximately $500,000 or 16.6% in 1997 over the level
experienced in 1996. Cost of license fees as a percentage of license fee
revenues decreased slightly from 5.0% for 1996 to 4.8% for 1997 and to 3.0% for
1998. This decrease was primarily due to the improved management of inventory
levels, freight costs and production costs.
- Cost of Services. Cost of services increased approximately $10.8 million
or 82.3% in 1998 over the level experienced in 1997. This compares to an
increase of $6.3 million or 93.3% in 1997 over the level experienced in 1996.
The increases in such costs in absolute dollars during both years were primarily
due to increases in the number of personnel involved in our consulting, training
and maintenance activities and, to a lesser extent, to costs associated with
subcontracting some training activities. Cost of services as a percentage of
service revenues increased from 32.8% in 1996 to 36.6% in 1997 and 41.1% in
1998. The increase in cost of services reflects our strategic decision to expand
the scope of our service offerings to include in particular consulting services,
which has a lower margin, both as a vehicle to increase service revenues and as
a stimulus for increased license fees.
OPERATING EXPENSES
The following table sets forth information regarding the composition of our
operating expenses and period-to-period changes:
<TABLE>
<CAPTION>
PERCENT PERCENT
1996 CHANGE 1997 CHANGE 1998
------- ------- ------- ------- --------
(DOLLARS IN THOUSANDS)
<S> <C> <C> <C> <C> <C>
Sales and marketing.......... $50,038 36.1% $68,115 30.8% $ 89,118
Percentage of total
revenues..................... 58.7% 59.6% 53.4%
Research and development..... 10,634 32.1% 14,050 38.3% 19,434
Percentage of total
revenues................ 12.5% 12.3% 11.6%
General and administrative... 7,402 49.6% 11,076 39.0% 15,394
Percentage of total
revenues................ 8.7% 9.7% 9.2%
Total operating
expenses.............. 68,074 37.0% 93,241 32.9% 123,946
Percentage of total
revenues................ 79.9% 81.6% 74.2%
</TABLE>
- Sales and Marketing. Sales and marketing expenses were $89.1 million, or
53.4% of total revenues, in 1998 as compared to $68.1 million, or 59.6% of total
revenues, in
28
<PAGE> 29
1997, and $50.0 million, or 58.7% of total revenues, in 1996. Sales and
marketing expenses increased in absolute amount in each period as we expanded
our sales and marketing organization. This organization grew from 298 people at
December 31, 1996 to 401 people at December 31, 1997 and to 601 people at
December 31, 1998. The increase in sales and marketing personnel was due to
expansion of personnel in existing offices. Sales and marketing expenses as a
percentage of total revenues decreased in 1998 over the prior period, as we
experienced better productivity in our sales and marketing organization.
- Research and Development. Research and development expenses were $19.4
million in 1998, $14.1 million in 1997 and $10.6 million in 1996. Research and
development expenses represented 12.5% of total revenues in 1996, 12.3% of total
revenues in 1997 and 11.6% of total revenues in 1998. The increase in research
and development expenses in absolute dollars is due to increased staffing and
associated support for software engineers required to expand and enhance our
product line. From December 31, 1997 to December 31, 1998, our research and
development organization grew from 116 to 155 people. The slight decrease in
such expenses as a percentage of total revenues reflects the higher rate of
revenue growth over the periods.
- General and Administrative. General and administrative expenses were
$15.4 million, or 9.2% of total revenues, in 1998 as compared to $11.1 million,
or 9.7% of total revenues, in 1997 and $7.4 million, or 8.7% of total revenues,
in 1996. General and administrative expenses increased in absolute dollars in
each period as we increased our staffing to support our growth, and experienced
higher expenditures for legal and accounting services associated with operating
a larger company. In addition, general and administrative expenses included the
amortization of goodwill related to the acquisition of distributors in 1997 and
1998. Goodwill amortization expense totaled $1.3 million in 1998 and $600,000 in
1997. No goodwill amortization expense was recorded in 1996.
INTEREST AND OTHER INCOME, NET
The following table sets forth information regarding the composition of our
net interest and other income and period-to-period changes:
<TABLE>
<CAPTION>
PERCENT PERCENT
1996 CHANGE 1997 CHANGE 1998
------ ------- ------ ------- ------
(DOLLARS IN THOUSANDS)
<S> <C> <C> <C> <C> <C>
Net interest income.............. $1,556 (30.1)% $1,088 77.5% $1,931
Net exchange gain................ 293 99.7% 585 (74.9)% 147
</TABLE>
Interest and other income, net represents primarily net interest income and
expense and net gains and losses resulting from foreign currency exchange rate
changes. Interest and other income, net totaled $2.1 million in 1998, $1.7
million in 1997, and $1.8 million in 1996. The increase in net interest income
in 1998 was primarily due to an increase in our cash available for short-term
investing. The decrease in interest income in 1997 compared to 1996 was
predominantly due to lower cash balances for investment purposes and lower
interest rates. The decrease in net exchange gains in 1998 was predominantly due
to losses on U.S. dollar denominated intercompany receivables caused by the
general weakening of the U.S. dollar against the French franc.
29
<PAGE> 30
INCOME TAXES
The following table sets forth information regarding our income taxes:
<TABLE>
<CAPTION>
PERCENT PERCENT
1996 CHANGE 1997 CHANGE 1998
------ ------- ------ ------- ------
(DOLLARS IN THOUSANDS)
<S> <C> <C> <C> <C> <C>
Provision for income taxes....... $3,737 (15)% $3,184 130% $7,316
Effective tax rate............... 42% 55% 41%
</TABLE>
Provision for income taxes totaled $7.3 million in 1998, $3.2 million in
1997, and $3.7 million in 1996. This represented an effective income tax rate of
41% in 1998, 55% in 1997, and 42% in 1996. The increase in the effective tax
rate in 1997 was primarily due to limitations on our ability to offset net
losses for tax purposes in certain jurisdictions against taxable income in other
jurisdictions, as well as the increase in the French statutory tax rate from
36.7% to 41.7% effective January 1, 1997. The decrease in our effective tax rate
in 1998 reflects a return to a more normal effective income tax rate.
30
<PAGE> 31
QUARTERLY INFORMATION
The following tables set forth statements of income data for each of the
six quarters in the period ended June 30, 1999 in dollars and as a percentage of
total revenues. This unaudited quarterly information has been prepared on the
same basis as the annual information presented elsewhere in this prospectus and,
in management's opinion, includes all adjustments, consisting only of normal
recurring accruals, necessary for a fair presentation of the information for the
quarters presented. The operating results for any quarter are not necessarily
indicative of results for any future period.
<TABLE>
<CAPTION>
THREE MONTHS ENDED
----------------------------------------------------------------
MAR. 31, JUNE 30, SEPT. 30, DEC. 31, MAR. 31, JUNE 30,
1998 1998 1998 1998 1999 1999
-------- -------- --------- -------- -------- --------
(IN THOUSANDS, EXCEPT PER SHARE DATA)
<S> <C> <C> <C> <C> <C> <C>
CONSOLIDATED STATEMENTS OF
OPERATIONS DATA:
Revenues:
License fees..................... $23,422 $25,157 $26,232 $33,950 $31,534 $35,533
Services......................... 11,143 14,395 15,025 17,570 17,974 22,010
------- ------- ------- ------- ------- -------
Total revenues................. 34,565 39,552 41,257 51,520 49,508 57,543
Cost of revenues:
License fees..................... 687 889 781 915 815 1,142
Services......................... 4,787 5,562 6,253 7,297 8,276 8,850
------- ------- ------- ------- ------- -------
Total cost of revenues......... 5,474 6,451 7,034 8,212 9,091 9,992
------- ------- ------- ------- ------- -------
Gross margin....................... 29,091 33,101 34,223 43,308 40,417 47,551
Operating expenses:
Sales and marketing.............. 19,796 21,768 22,214 25,340 25,348 28,106
Research and development......... 4,134 4,697 4,956 5,647 5,996 6,426
General and administrative....... 3,216 3,552 3,692 4,934 4,198 4,954
------- ------- ------- ------- ------- -------
Total operating expenses....... 27,146 30,017 30,862 35,921 35,542 39,486
------- ------- ------- ------- ------- -------
Income from operations............. 1,945 3,084 3,361 7,387 4,875 8,065
Interest and other income, net..... 387 398 618 675 571 645
------- ------- ------- ------- ------- -------
Income before minority interest and
provision for income taxes....... 2,332 3,482 3,979 8,062 5,446 8,710
Provision for income taxes......... (952) (1,428) (1,631) (3,305) (2,233) (3,571)
Minority interest.................. -- (74) (40) (138) -- --
------- ------- ------- ------- ------- -------
Net income......................... $ 1,380 $ 1,980 $ 2,308 $ 4,619 $ 3,213 $ 5,139
======= ======= ======= ======= ======= =======
Net income per share -- basic...... $ 0.08 $ 0.12 $ 0.14 $ 0.27 $ 0.18 $ 0.29
======= ======= ======= ======= ======= =======
Shares used in computing net income
per share -- basic............... 16,782 16,942 16,975 17,153 17,427 17,621
Net income per share -- diluted.... $ 0.08 $ 0.11 $ 0.13 $ 0.26 $ 0.17 $ 0.27
======= ======= ======= ======= ======= =======
Shares used in computing net income
per share -- diluted............. 17,439 17,950 17,624 18,030 19,070 19,017
</TABLE>
31
<PAGE> 32
<TABLE>
<CAPTION>
THREE MONTHS ENDED
----------------------------------------------------------------
MAR. 31, JUNE 30, SEPT. 30, DEC. 31, MAR. 31, JUNE 30,
1998 1998 1998 1998 1999 1999
-------- -------- --------- -------- -------- --------
(IN THOUSANDS, EXCEPT PER SHARE DATA)
<S> <C> <C> <C> <C> <C> <C>
AS A PERCENTAGE OF TOTAL REVENUES:
Revenues:
License fees..................... 67.8% 63.6% 63.6% 65.9% 63.7% 61.8%
Services......................... 32.2 36.4 36.4 34.1 36.3 38.2%
----- ----- ----- ----- ----- -----
Total revenues................. 100.0% 100.0% 100.0% 100.0% 100.0% 100.0%
===== ===== ===== ===== ===== =====
Cost of revenues:
License fees..................... 2.0 2.2 1.9 1.7 1.7 2.0
Services......................... 13.8 14.1 15.2 14.2 16.7 15.4
----- ----- ----- ----- ----- -----
Total cost of revenues......... 15.8 16.3 17.1 15.9 18.4 17.4
----- ----- ----- ----- ----- -----
Gross margin....................... 84.2 83.7 82.9 84.1 81.6 82.6
Operating expenses:
Sales and marketing.............. 57.2 55.0 53.8 49.2 51.2 48.8
Research and development......... 12.0 11.9 12.0 11.0 12.1 11.2
General and administrative....... 9.3 9.0 8.9 9.6 8.5 8.6
----- ----- ----- ----- ----- -----
Total operating expenses....... 78.5 75.9 74.7 69.8 71.8 68.6
----- ----- ----- ----- ----- -----
Income from operations............. 5.7 7.8 8.2 14.3 9.8 14.0
Interest and other income, net..... 1.1 1.0 1.5 1.3 1.2 1.1
----- ----- ----- ----- ----- -----
Income before minority interest and
provision for income taxes....... 6.8 8.8 9.7 15.6 11.0 15.1
Provision for income taxes......... (2.8) (3.6) (4.0) (6.4) (4.5) (6.2)
Minority interest.................. (0.0) (0.2) (0.1) (0.2) -- --
----- ----- ----- ----- ----- -----
Net income......................... 4.0% 5.0% 5.6% 9.0% 6.5% 8.9%
===== ===== ===== ===== ===== =====
</TABLE>
LIQUIDITY AND CAPITAL RESOURCES
<TABLE>
<CAPTION>
AS OF AND FOR THE
AS OF AND FOR THE SIX MONTHS
YEAR ENDED ENDED PERIOD-TO-PERIOD
DECEMBER 31, 1998 JUNE 30, 1999 PERCENT CHANGE
------------------- ----------------- ----------------
<S> <C> <C> <C>
Working capital............... $51,104 $49,536 (3.1)%
Cash, cash equivalents and
short-term investments........ 71,713 78,972 10.1%
Net cash provided by operating
activities.................. 34,314 21,183 *
Net cash used for investing
activities.................. (5,237) (8,112) *
Net cash provided by financing
activities.................. 4,484 3 *
</TABLE>
- -------------------------
* Not meaningful.
As of June 30, 1999, we had cash, cash equivalents and short-term
investments of $79.0 million, an increase of $7.2 million from December 31,
1998. Net cash provided by operating activities for the six-months ended June
30, 1999 was $21.2 million. Net cash provided by operating activities was $4.1
million in 1996, $8.9 million in 1997 and $34.3 million in 1998. The increase in
net cash provided by operating activities in the six
32
<PAGE> 33
months ended June 30, 1999 primarily resulted from higher net income and faster
collection cycles.
Accounts receivable decreased to $40.6 million at June 30, 1999 from $42.2
million at December 31, 1998 resulting from a decrease in days sales
outstanding. Accounts receivable days sales outstanding was 63 days as of June
30, 1999 and 79 days at December 31, 1998. The decrease in days sales
outstanding in 1999 is the result of our increased collection efforts in 1999.
We do not expect days sales outstanding to decrease from current levels, and it
will likely increase in the future. In general, due to the level of European
sales which tend to have longer collection cycles than North American sales, and
the historical pattern of revenue generation towards the end of each quarter, we
anticipate that accounts receivable and days sales outstanding will continue to
be substantial in the future.
Our investing activities in each year presented consisted primarily of the
purchase and sale of short-term investments totaling $2.5 million in 1998, $15.6
million in 1997 and $9.9 million in 1996, the acquisition of increased interests
in distributors totaling $1.0 million in 1998 and $2.6 million in 1997, and
expenditures for fixed assets totaling $6.8 million in 1998, $6.3 million in
1997 and $8.3 million in 1996. Our investing activities for the six months ended
June 30, 1999 consisted primarily of the acquisition of increased interests in
our distributors totaling $1.9 million, the acquisition of a consulting firm for
$3.1 million of cash and notes payable of $3.0 million and expenditures for
fixed assets totaling $3.7 million. We had no significant capital commitments as
of June 30, 1999 and we currently anticipate that additions to property and
equipment for the next year will be comparable to recent past years.
In the six months ended June 30, 1999, and in 1998, 1997 and 1996, our
financing activities provided $4.6 million, $4.5 million, $1.3 million and $2.2
million, respectively, from the issuance of shares upon the exercise of employee
stock options and the sale of shares under employee stock purchase plans. The
Board of Directors and shareholders have authorized Business Objects to
repurchase shares in the open market for purposes of distribution under employee
benefit plans. In the six months ended June 30, 1999, we repurchased an
aggregate of 191,500 shares at an average price of $24.08 per share pursuant to
this authority.
We believe that cash from operations together with existing cash and cash
equivalents will be sufficient to meet our cash requirements for at least the
foreseeable future.
YEAR 2000 COMPLIANCE
Many computer programs define references to applicable years by using two
digits rather than four. As a result, many computer programs or hardware that
have date-sensitive software or embedded chips may recognize a date using "00"
as the Year 1900 rather than the Year 2000. This could result in a system
failure or miscalculations that disrupt our operations. For example, computer
systems failures resulting from improper date references may temporarily disrupt
our ability to process transactions, send invoices, or engage in similar normal
business activities. We have initiatives underway to evaluate the potential
impact of Year 2000 issues relating to our products, our internal information
and management systems and the third parties with whom we do business.
33
<PAGE> 34
PRODUCTS
We have developed our current core software tools, BUSINESSOBJECTS and its
platform for internet-based installations, WEBINTELLIGENCE, to comply with the
Year 2000 Conformity Requirements developed by the British Standards Institute.
We have conducted testing on our BUSINESSOBJECTS and WEBINTELLIGENCE software.
Although we believe our software to be compliant under most customer
environments, we have identified a limitation -- for the specific customer
operation of importing and exporting data in certain file formats -- which is
due to the regional setting of the user's environment and can be changed by the
user. This limitation is only present in version 4.1.6 and earlier versions of
our software BUSINESSOBJECTS, and version 2.0.1 and earlier versions of our
platform WEBINTELLIGENCE. We believe this limitation is applicable to a limited
number of customer environments. We have developed a workaround for this
limitation that can easily be implemented by the customer.
Because our product and platforms are used in conjunction with underlying
operating systems, and database, middleware and other software programs, they
are necessarily subject to the limitations, including Year 2000 related
limitations of third party software. In order to minimize potential Year 2000
compliance issues, we recommend to our customers that they use our current
software in conjunction with the most current releases of any third party
software. As new versions of the third party software used by our customers
become available, we intend to continue to design and test our software as used
with the respective third party software against the British Standards Institute
definition of Year 2000 Conformity Requirements. However, because we are
dependent upon our customers' use of third party software in connection with
their use of our software, we cannot assure you that the implementation of our
software will not be affected in the future by Year 2000 issues related to
modification or revisions in the respective third party software.
Furthermore, some of our customers continue to operate older versions of
our products that may experience problems associated with the Year 2000 issues.
We have been encouraging these customers to migrate to current versions of our
software, but some of them may not do so prior to January 1, 2000.
INTERNAL SYSTEMS
We are currently using a four step process to address the Year 2000 issues
associated with our internal management information systems: assessment,
remediation, testing and implementation. We have completed the assessment phase
for our key information technology systems and are in the process of evaluating
our non-information technology systems. The assessment phase of our information
technology systems indicated that some of our critical information technology
systems may not be Year 2000 compliant. We have implemented corrections to and
are developing contingency plans for our critical information technology
systems, and have retained external consultants to assist in this process.
THIRD PARTIES
We are conducting an assessment of our key suppliers and vendors that
provide us with products, services, and systems, as well as others with whom we
transact business on a local and worldwide basis. We have also evaluated the
ability of key indirect sales channel partners such as system integrators,
value-added resellers and consultants, to
34
<PAGE> 35
supply Year 2000 compliant products and services and to maintain continuous
operations. We have found that some of these third parties offer products or
services, or operate business systems, that may expose us to Year 2000 problems.
We are working with these third parties to determine what approaches, if
any, they are proposing to address their Year 2000 issues, and we are developing
contingency plans as appropriate.
REMEDIATION
We are developing contingency plans to remediate, to the extent possible,
any Year 2000 deficiencies, and we have retained external consultants to assist
us in this process. We believe that the need for contingency plans must be
evaluated on a case-by-case basis, and will vary considerably in nature
depending on the Year 2000 issue involved.
We expect to complete our Year 2000 remediation, testing and implementation
processes prior to the end of 1999. We currently anticipate to incur
approximately $500,000 in costs in connection with the entire process. However,
if we are unable to successfully complete this process before the end of 1999,
both our day-to-day business operations and operating results could be
significantly adversely affected. Furthermore, other factors relating to the
year 2000, including litigation, may seriously affect our business, financial
condition and operating results.
DISCLOSURES ABOUT MARKET RISK
The following discusses our exposure to market risk related to changes in
interest rates, equity prices and foreign currency exchange rates. This
discussion contains forward-looking statements that are subject to risks and
uncertainties. Actual results could vary materially as a result of a number of
factors including those set forth in the Risk Factors section.
As of June 30, 1999, all of our investments were classified as cash
equivalents with maturities at the date of purchase of less than three months.
The principal portion of our investments are not subject to interest rate risk;
however, declines in interest rates over time will reduce our interest income.
We do not have any investments in equity or debt securities traded in the
public markets. Therefore, we do not currently have any direct equity price
risk.
We conduct a significant portion of our business in currencies other than
the U.S. dollar, the currency in which we report our financial statements.
Assets and liabilities of our subsidiaries are translated into U.S. dollars at
exchange rates in effect as of the applicable balance sheet date, and any
resulting translation adjustments are included as an adjustment to shareholders'
equity. Revenues and expenses generated from these subsidiaries are translated
at average exchange rates during the quarter the transactions occur. Gains and
losses from these currency transactions are included in net earnings.
Historically, we have generated a significant portion of our revenues and
incurred a significant portion of our expenses in French francs, British pounds
sterling, Japanese yen and Italian lira and we expect to generate a significant
portion of our revenues and expenses in the Euro in the future. As a result, our
operating results have been in the past, and may be in the future, adversely
impacted by currency exchange rate fluctuations on the U.S. dollar value of
foreign currency-denominated revenues and expenses. Although we
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expect this pattern to continue, the acceptance of the Euro and its use as the
primary European currency is expected to alleviate these fluctuations with
respect to most of our European activities. However, we cannot assure you that
these fluctuations will not continue and will not be significant. We cannot
predict the effect of exchange rate fluctuations upon our future operating
results. As of June 30, 1999, we were not engaged in a foreign currency hedging
program to cover our currency transaction exposure. A variation of 1% of the
exchange rates of the main currencies in which we conduct business -- the Euro,
the British pound sterling and the Japanese yen -- against the U.S. dollar would
generate a 0.65% variation of our revenues.
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RECENT DEVELOPMENTS
RECENT FINANCIAL RESULTS
The following table sets forth certain unaudited consolidated statements of
operations data for the quarter and nine months ended September 30, 1999,
together with prior year data.
<TABLE>
<CAPTION>
THREE MONTHS ENDED NINE MONTHS ENDED
SEPTEMBER 30, SEPTEMBER 30,
------------------- -------------------
1998 1999 1998 1999
-------- -------- -------- --------
(IN THOUSANDS, EXCEPT FOR
PER SHARE AND PER ADS DATA)
<S> <C> <C> <C> <C>
CONSOLIDATED STATEMENT OF OPERATIONS
DATA
Revenues:
License fees.......................... $26,232 $37,302 $ 74,811 $104,369
Services.............................. 15,025 22,464 40,563 62,448
------- ------- -------- --------
Total revenues..................... 41,257 59,766 115,374 166,817
Cost of revenues:
License fees.......................... 781 1,232 2,357 3,188
Services.............................. 6,253 8,995 16,602 26,122
------- ------- -------- --------
Total cost of revenues............. 7,034 10,227 18,959 29,310
------- ------- -------- --------
Gross margin............................ 34,223 49,539 96,415 137,507
Operating expenses:
Sales and marketing................... 22,214 28,668 63,778 82,122
Research and development.............. 4,956 6,500 13,787 18,922
General and administrative............ 3,380 4,107 9,531 12,007
Goodwill.............................. 312 808 929 2,060
------- ------- -------- --------
Total operating expenses........... 30,862 40,083 88,025 115,111
------- ------- -------- --------
Income from operations.................. 3,361 9,456 8,390 22,396
Interest and other income, net.......... 618 533 1,403 1,749
------- ------- -------- --------
Income before minority interest and
provision for income taxes............ 3,979 9,989 9,793 24,145
Provision for income taxes.............. (1,631) (4,096) (4,011) (9,900)
Minority interest....................... (40) -- (114) --
------- ------- -------- --------
Net income.............................. $ 2,308 $ 5,893 $ 5,668 $ 14,245
======= ======= ======== ========
Net income per ADS and share -- basic... $ 0.14 $ 0.33 $ 0.34 $ 0.80
======= ======= ======== ========
ADS and shares used in computing net
income per ADS & per share -- basic... 16,975 18,007 16,903 17,727
======= ======= ======== ========
Net income per ADS and
share -- diluted...................... $ 0.13 $ 0.30 $ 0.32 $ 0.74
======= ======= ======== ========
ADS and shares and common share
equivalents used in computing net
income per ADS & per
share -- diluted...................... 17,624 19,719 17,661 19,305
======= ======= ======== ========
</TABLE>
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The following table sets forth certain consolidated balance sheet data as
of September 30, 1999 and December 31, 1998.
<TABLE>
<CAPTION>
DEC. 31, SEPT. 30,
1998 1999
-------- ---------
(IN THOUSANDS)
(UNAUDITED)
<S> <C> <C>
CONDENSED CONSOLIDATED BALANCE SHEET DATA
ASSETS
Current assets:
Cash and cash equivalents................................ $ 71,713 $ 93,863
Accounts receivable, net................................. 42,236 40,579
Other current assets..................................... 7,993 11,784
-------- --------
Total current assets.................................. 121,942 146,226
Property and equipment, net................................ 13,804 13,695
Goodwill, net.............................................. 1,460 5,583
Other assets............................................... 879 1,961
-------- --------
Total assets.......................................... $138,085 $167,465
======== ========
LIABILITIES AND SHAREHOLDERS' EQUITY
Current liabilities:
Accounts payable......................................... $ 10,439 $ 10,899
Accrued payroll and related expenses..................... 16,597 17,556
Deferred revenue......................................... 21,684 27,802
Other current liabilities................................ 22,118 27,797
-------- --------
Total current liabilities............................. 70,838 84,054
Notes payable.............................................. -- 1,000
Shareholders' equity....................................... 67,247 82,411
-------- --------
Total liabilities and shareholders' equity............ $138,085 $167,465
======== ========
</TABLE>
Third quarter revenues were $59.8 million, an increase of 45% compared to
revenues of $41.3 million for the quarter ended September 30, 1998. This was the
ninth consecutive quarter in which we have realized year-over-year revenue
growth of greater than 40%. Net income for the third quarter was $5.9 million,
compared to $2.3 million for the same period last year, representing a 155%
increase. Diluted net income per share and per ADS for the quarter ended
September 30, 1999 were $0.30, compared to $0.13 in the third quarter of last
year.
Revenues for the nine months ended September 30, 1999 were $166.8 million,
an increase of 45 percent compared to revenues of $115.4 million during the same
period last year. Net income for the nine months ended September 30, 1999 was
$14.2 million, compared to $5.7 million for the same period last year. Diluted
income per share and per ADS for the nine months ended September 30, 1999 were
$0.74, compared to $0.32 in the prior year nine month period.
In the third quarter we saw continued strength in the North American
market, with sales in this region increasing 55% over the prior year level. We
also saw solid contribution from our indirect channels, which accounted for 46%
of total revenues for the quarter. Business Objects also expanded its customer
base in the third quarter, adding over 125,000 new licenses for a total of
1,442,000 worldwide.
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Our balance sheet continued to be strong with $93.9 million in cash and
cash equivalents. Total assets at September 30, 1999 were $167.5 million,
compared to $138.1 million at December 31, 1998.
OTHER RECENT DEVELOPMENTS
In October 1999, we acquired Next Action Technology, Ltd ("NAT"), a
UK-based developer of set-based analysis technology for customer selection and
segmentation applications. Prior to the acquisition, we were reselling NAT's
principal product under the name BUSINESS OBJECTS SET ANALYZER. The purchase
price for NAT was approximately $8.0 million which will be paid in cash between
the closing and December 31, 2002. The founders of NAT have joined Business
Objects. Payment of approximately $3 million of the consideration for NAT is
conditioned upon the continued employment of the founders of NAT.
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<PAGE> 40
BUSINESS
OUR COMPANY
Business Objects develops, markets and supports business intelligence
software for client/server environments, intranets, extranets and the internet.
Business intelligence software allows users within an enterprise to access,
analyze and share corporate data for better decision making, and to share
corporate information with the enterprise's own customers, suppliers and
partners. Business intelligence software tools are designed to help companies
turn data into useful business information, thereby leading to increased
competitive advantage, new business opportunities, improved customer service,
corporate agility and ultimately, increased revenues and profit.
Our core software tool, BUSINESSOBJECTS(TM), and its platform for
internet-based installations, WEBINTELLIGENCE(TM), enable end-users to access
and interact with information available to enterprises from a wide range of
sources, including database systems, such as those developed by Oracle, IBM,
Sybase and Microsoft, business applications, such as those developed by SAP,
PeopleSoft and Baan, and data warehouses. Users can create new queries or
reports, access catalogs of reports and do simple or complex analysis of the
data. Instead of struggling with complex and technical database terminology,
users interact with data using business representations of information, or
"business objects," with which they are familiar. The reports they create or
access can be shared with other users through sophisticated distribution and
security systems. Our software tools also enable our customers to share their
information with their own customers, suppliers and other business partners
through the internet and extranets.
From our inception in 1990 through June 30, 1999, we have sold over 1.3
million licenses to over 8,600 customers around the world. Dataquest, an
independent market research firm, estimates that the market for business
intelligence software and related services will grow from approximately $1.7
billion in 1997 to approximately $7.9 billion in 2003.
INDUSTRY BACKGROUND
HISTORY
In the past, organizations around the world have invested in an array of
business software applications in order to better run their operations and
better manage their businesses. These applications are commonly referred to as
online transaction processing, or OLTP, systems, because their primary
requirement was the ability to process and record the large number of
transactions handled by an organization in the course of its operations.
During the 1980s, these applications were typically built in-house using
application development tools and relational database management systems. The
early 1990s brought a revolution in packaged enterprise business applications as
customers began to purchase their software solutions from third parties rather
than develop such software internally. As a result, organizations invested
heavily in enterprise resource planning systems and other packaged business
applications from vendors such as SAP, PeopleSoft, Oracle and Baan.
While the ultimate goal of deploying these business applications was to
both automate the execution of business processes and make information more
readily available to business users, the software industry historically
succeeded in delivering the former goal
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and failed in the latter. In other words, while the increased use of online
transaction processing and enterprise resource planning systems have resulted in
organizations possessing unprecedented amounts of data about their customers,
products, revenues and operations, that data largely remained inaccessible to
the business users who needed it. Realizing that the strategic business value of
information technology lies not in process automation itself, but in exploiting
the information captured by process automation, these enterprises began looking
for ways in which to access and utilize that information.
THE EMERGENCE OF BUSINESS INTELLIGENCE
As a result, the 1990s brought a strong focus on the delivery of business
intelligence software tools designed to work in conjunction with an enterprise's
operational online transactional processing or enterprise resource planning
applications, but built with the specific goal of providing information access
to users throughout an organization. Business intelligence software tools were
typically built in conjunction with data warehouses and data marts, which are
dedicated databases set up and designed to provide end users with access to
business information.
Business intelligence tools were developed to allow non-technical users to
generate queries, structure reports and share the results of analyses of common
business questions such as the following:
SALES. What were sales by region for the past four quarters? Which
regions are over-performing their plan?
FINANCE. Which departments are more than 10% over budget? What are the
three departments that have spent closest to their plan?
HUMAN RESOURCES. What is the hiring deficit by department for all
departments that are not fully staffed? What is the turnover by
department for the ten departments with the highest turnover?
MARKETING. What is the repeat purchase rate for customers who have
purchased in the last five years? What were the top three sales lead
generating programs in 1998?
THE IMPACT OF THE INTERNET
The emergence and growth of the internet has brought many changes to the
business intelligence software market, including the following:
Faster Enterprise Deployments. New internet technologies, such as Java and
the hypertext markup language, have made it possible to create business
intelligence software tools that eliminate the need to install and maintain
personal computer application database connectivity software on a user's desktop
personal computer. As a result, organizations can now deploy business
intelligence tools in an environment that requires minimal administration by
information technology departments at a greatly reduced cost. Accordingly, it
has become cost-effective for organizations to deploy business intelligence
software tools more widely within an organization to the increasing number of
individuals empowered to make business decisions.
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More data collected from new sources. Organizations are now collecting and
storing an increasing amount of data through the internet, including customer
profiles, data regarding users' navigation through the internet, customer
purchasing patterns and other e-commerce data. Organizations need to analyze
this data in order to implement applications such as:
- Fine-grained customer segmentation, or dividing their customer base into
segments and delivering tailored market messages to these segments.
- One-to-one marketing, which is advanced fine-grained market segmentation
where each customer is given personalized marketing messages based on a
detailed profile of its preferences and past behaviors.
- Customer loyalty, profitability, retention and lifetime value analysis.
Extranets. The internet also enables organizations to differentiate their
products and services from competitive offerings by supplementing the products
and services with online, value-added, internet-based information services.
Organizations are realizing that value-added information can also improve
customer service and drive both revenue and profit growth. Examples of ways in
which these extranet applications have been used successfully include:
- A telecommunications company providing online billing information to its
customers as a way to differentiate its commodity local voice telephone
service.
- An insurance firm providing its commercial clients with real-time claims
information so its clients can spot accident patterns quickly, and take
steps to prevent future accidents before they happen.
- A medical products distributor positioning itself as an information
middleman between the hospitals it serves and the suppliers it
represents, allowing the hospitals to better analyze their purchasing
patterns and supplier fill rates, and suppliers to analyze purchasing
patterns across hospitals.
As a summary, the internet is having a positive impact on the business
intelligence software market because it increases the business potential in
three principal ways, among others:
- It lowers the cost of deployment and therefore increases the number of
users within an organization;
- It enables companies to get more data about their customers, which in
turn results in a more significant need for business intelligence; and
- It enables extranet applications, which significantly increases the
number of users of business intelligence software tools, from just users
within an organization to users outside of the organization, including
customers, suppliers and partners.
However, in order to take advantage of this increased business opportunity,
business intelligence software has to meet new requirements, including:
- a pure internet-based architecture with robust engines resident on the
servers and Java-based query applets -- which are small software
applications capable of executing queries -- on the desktops;
- scalability to the large numbers of users required by larger internal
deployments and extranet usage as well as a larger volume of data;
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- robust security features; and
- an easy migration path between client/server-based
applications -- today's prevalent environment -- and internet-based
applications.
BUSINESS OBJECTS' SOLUTION
We provide our customers with an easy to use, scalable and integrated
business intelligence solution designed to meet the demanding requirements of
today's competitive world. Our principal software tool, BUSINESSOBJECTS, and its
platform for internet-based installations, WEBINTELLIGENCE, act as an
information access front-end for end-users on top of corporate databases,
business applications and data warehouses. The key advantages of our solution
include:
- Ease of use and learning. Our software tools are designed to ensure
maximum ease of use and learning. They allow users to develop queries
consisting of commonly used business terms and phrases. For example,
users can combine objects or terms such as "sales revenue," "products" or
"customers" to develop their queries. Further, users do not need to
understand the technical details of database structures, such as the
location of the data, or the relationship between different database
tables. In addition, we provide sophisticated online documentation and a
computer-based training tool for highly cost-effective training.
- Access to all enterprise data sources. Our software tools can access over
100 different relational and non-relational data sources. Due to our
powerful query generation technology, our software tools can access data
stored not only in relational data warehouses and data marts built for
analytical purposes, but also any existing relational database. We also
offer specific interfaces for popular packaged business applications such
as those provided by SAP, PeopleSoft and Baan.
- Shared infrastructure for client/server and internet environments.
Because we built our internet platform, WEBINTELLIGENCE, based on the
architecture of our client/server software, BUSINESSOBJECTS, our software
platforms share a common architecture. This enables our customers to
expand easily their existing client/server installations to include
internet-based users and to migrate their systems from
client/server-based systems to internet applications.
- Optimized for e-business. We believe that extranet applications are key
business opportunities for the future. Accordingly, our internet software
tools have been developed based on an HTML/Java architecture that works
in extranet environments. Extranets are shared networks that use the
internet to link businesses with their suppliers, customers and partners.
Our internet software tools offer a business intelligence solution that
allows our customers to share selected information with their suppliers,
customers and partners with the protection of security protocols that
have been designed to provide effective security across internet
firewalls.
- Information technology control and security. Our software tools are
designed to provide non-technical business users with the ability to
access, analyze and share information stored in their company databases,
while at the same time allowing information technology departments to
control and manage that access throughout the enterprise. Business
representations of such information are contained in a central repository
where the information technology staff can maintain control over data
access and security throughout the enterprise, as well as for remote
users accessing the database through an extranet or the internet.
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- Scalability. Because of our powerful administration and security tools,
as well as a centralized business intelligence repository, our software
tools are capable of scaling from deployments as small as ten users to
deployments of thousands of users.
BUSINESS STRATEGY
Our objective is to become the leading supplier of business intelligence
software tools worldwide. Our business strategy to achieve our objective is
focused on five key areas:
Expand products and services for the internet and e-business
applications. We believe that the internet represents a tremendous opportunity
for business intelligence technology. We developed WEBINTELLIGENCE to extend the
business intelligence capabilities of BUSINESSOBJECTS from its original
client/server environment into intranet, internet and extranet environments. We
intend to continue developing and optimizing our products for use on the
internet, intranets and extranets.
Maintain enterprise-wide focus. We believe that enterprise-wide deployments
will continue to represent a significant business opportunity for us. To
capitalize on this opportunity, we intend to ensure that our software can be
used throughout the enterprise by the maximum number of users. To this end, we
intend to continue to enhance the administration and security features of our
software. We also intend to increase our focus on delivering products that
complement packaged business applications, including enterprise resource
planning systems, such as those offered by SAP, Oracle, Baan and PeopleSoft.
Finally, we intend to continue to optimize our products for use on intranets,
which we believe will be the primary platform for corporate software deployment.
Pursue the emerging market of analytical applications. We believe that
corporations today are focusing more and more on the relationships with their
customers, and that business intelligence has an important role to play in the
customer relationship management market. To that end, we have created a new
analytical applications business unit focused on delivering front-end customer
intelligence, or analysis, applications. We expect to develop these applications
to be complementary to operational and collaborative customer relationship
management applications such as those from companies like Siebel, Vantive and
Clarify. We expect to begin shipping analytical applications in the year 2000.
Expand our strategic relationships. We believe that our relationships with
key enterprise software vendors, systems integrators and value-added resellers
are important to our success. We currently have marketing relationships with
several large relational data base management, enterprise resource planning and
other software vendors, including SAP and IBM, to promote our solution in their
respective markets, which we believe will improve our competitive position. We
also have reseller agreements with indirect sales channel partners to expand our
market coverage, as well as provide a source of revenue at attractive margins.
Finally, we have relationships with system integrators who not only install our
products with larger systems solutions, but have also generated revenues for us
by recommending our products to their customer base. We intend to continue to
pursue and develop these relationships to expand our market opportunity.
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Broaden our customer service capabilities. We believe that customer service
is very important for end user satisfaction and a key ingredient to build and
maintain a long term relationship with customers. To that end we intend to
invest more of our resources in our customer service capabilities to offer more
complete solutions to our customers. This includes:
- Delivering a tiered technical support service program to more closely
match the individual needs of our customers.
- Strengthening our consulting organization to expand the professional
services we offer our customers, including installation and setup to
provide them with complete business intelligence solutions.
- Strengthening our education programs, including the delivery of
computer-based training programs for customers.
PRODUCTS
Business Objects offers a complete suite of business intelligence software
tools which include query, reporting, online analytical processing, set-based
analysis and data mining features (which automatically detects patterns in data)
for the end user and administration tools that enable information technology
professionals to set up and deploy our products across the enterprise.
USER PRODUCTS
To provide greater flexibility to our customers, our core software can be
deployed in client/server or internet environments.
Our client/server business intelligence software tool, BUSINESSOBJECTS,
provides integrated query, reporting and online analytical processing
capabilities, in order to enable non-technical end users to easily access,
analyze and share corporate data. The latest release of this product,
BUSINESSOBJECTS 5.0, began shipping in July 1999. BUSINESSOBJECTS 5.0 introduces
analytical reporting which integrates new enterprise reporting functions such as
report distribution and management, with traditional decision support functions
such as ad hoc access to corporate data, report creation, and online analytical
processing functions such as "drill" and "slice and dice." Drilling refers to
looking at data in increasing levels of detail, for example by starting at sales
by region and then drilling or conducting further queries to see sales by
district for a given region. Slice and dice refers to the complex data analysis
function where a user views or analyzes data based on variables in different
ways, for example by analyzing sales by region and then changing the variables
to analyze regions by sales.
WEBINTELLIGENCE, our platform for internet-based installations, allows end
users to perform ad hoc query, reporting and analysis over the internet.
WEBINTELLIGENCE has a distributed architecture with core functionality resident
on the server and Java-based applets running on the desktop. WEBINTELLIGENCE
eliminates the need for installation and maintenance of both application
software and database middleware on each user's desktop personal computer, which
provides organizations with a cost-effective way to broadly deploy business
intelligence software capabilities, and extend it beyond the organization to
reach suppliers, partners and customers through extranets. Customers are
currently pursuing extranet deployments for applications in industries including
finance, manufacturing, telecommunications, insurance, healthcare, publishing,
logistics and govern-
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ment. Launched at the end of 1997, WEBINTELLIGENCE represents an increasing
proportion of our license units sold, growing from 17% in the second quarter of
1998 to 40% in the second quarter of 1999.
The latest release of this platform, WEBINTELLIGENCE 2.5, began shipping in
July 1999 on Windows NT. In addition, we expect to begin shipping
WEBINTELLIGENCE 2.5 for leading Unix servers in the near future. WEBINTELLIGENCE
2.5 also has new programmability features including a new WEBINTELLIGENCE
application programming interface allowing customers to change its look and feel
to be consistent with their own internet site.
Both BUSINESSOBJECTS and WEBINTELLIGENCE are packaged as a number of core
integrated modules that allow users to access data, build reports, do
multidimensional analysis and share the information with other users. Customers
can start with the core business intelligence portal module and add
functionality over time by adding additional modules, or purchase all of the
core modules at the same time for maximum functionality.
Core Modules. The core integrated modules of BUSINESSOBJECTS and
WEBINTELLIGENCE are
- INFOVIEW. INFOVIEW is a business intelligence portal that allows users to
view, search, open, print, refresh and read reports. INFOVIEW is
particularly useful for users who only need a basic level of business
intelligence functionality, as well as for large companies who want to
deploy reports to a large number of users across the enterprise.
- REPORTER. REPORTER is the module for ad hoc query and reporting that can
be added to INFOVIEW to enable end users to retrieve information and
build their own reports, including a variety of multidimensional charts
and graphs.
- EXPLORER. EXPLORER is our online analytical processing module that can be
added to INFOVIEW to enable end users to conduct integrated
multidimensional analysis of data, such as slice, dice and drill,
directly in reports.
Add-On Products. In addition, we provide the following add-on products to
enhance the functionality of the integrated modules of BUSINESSOBJECTS and
WEBINTELLIGENCE:
- BUSINESSQUERY for Excel. BUSINESSQUERY is an add-on for Microsoft Excel
that provides end users with the ability to extract information from
corporate databases and load it into Microsoft Excel for charting and
analysis.
- BUSINESSMINER. BUSINESSMINER is a desktop data mining tool used for
uncovering trends hidden in data. BUSINESSMINER displays this information
in the form of a decision tree to facilitate user analysis.
- SET ANALYZER. SET ANALYZER is a high performance, set-based analysis tool
for very large databases. SET ANALYZER extends the functionality of
BUSINESSOBJECTS and WEBINTELLIGENCE, by adding more powerful analysis
functions and increasing the speed of complex data queries within very
large databases.
- BUSINESSOBJECTS PERSONAL TRAINER. BUSINESSOBJECTS PERSONAL TRAINER is a
computer based training product for users of our software products.
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ADMINISTRATION TOOLS
To assist information technology professionals in setting up and
maintaining our business intelligence software, we provide the following
administration tools:
- DESIGNER. DESIGNER enables information technology staff to design and
maintain universes of objects in just a few steps. DESIGNER is a
graphical tool that also includes powerful routines for automatic design
checking, including loop detection and resolution.
- SUPERVISOR. SUPERVISOR is our object-based security tool that allows an
enterprise's information technology staff to assign and modify the access
rights granted to end users, individually and in groups. Using
SUPERVISOR, information technology professionals can easily manage access
to the resources available through BUSINESSOBJECTS and WEBINTELLIGENCE,
including documents, universes, objects, and even specific functions.
- BROADCAST AGENT. BROADCAST AGENT is our integrated reporting and
broadcast server. It is a robust, multi-tier server that is designed to
enable non-technical users to publish, push, and broadcast pre-built or
ad hoc reports quickly and easily through the repository or e-mail, or
devices such as pagers and faxes to other users throughout the
enterprise.
- DEVELOPER SUITE. DEVELOPER SUITE is a business intelligence platform that
enables value-added resellers or end users to develop packaged,
analytical, or custom business intelligence applications. DEVELOPER SUITE
utilizes Microsoft Visual Basic for Applications, and also includes
licenses of BUSINESSOBJECTS, WEBINTELLIGENCE, DESIGNER, SUPERVISOR,
advanced documentation, and sample programs.
- Rapid Deployment Templates. We have also developed a series of rapid
deployment templates for organizations that wish to directly access data
stored in packaged applications from vendors such as SAP, Oracle, Baan,
and PeopleSoft. A rapid deployment template is a deployment starter kit
that consists of predefined objects of information which map directly to
the application packages.
PRICING
With the exception of SET ANALYZER, which lists for $60,000, U.S. list
prices for a typical configuration ranges from U.S. $395 to U.S. $1,185 per
user. The U.S. list prices for our administration tools range from U.S. $1,995
to $9,995.
SERVICES
We provide the following services in connection with our product offerings:
Post-Sales Customer Support and Software Maintenance. Our three regional
customer support centers (Americas -- San Jose, California;
Europe -- Maidenhead, United Kingdom; and Asia/Pacific -- Tokyo, Japan) are
staffed by highly trained support engineers who answer customer inquiries by
telephone. All customer support centers use a common global case tracing,
knowledge base and problem reporting system designed to enable engineers to
share their knowledge and experiences, improve the quality of our responses to
customers and reduce our response time for customer inquiries. Technical support
is also provided by our value-added resellers, systems integrators, consulting
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partners and distributors, whom we support with our regional Business Objects
support centers.
To help our customers become more self-sufficient, we provide an online
technical support internet site, available 24 hours a day and 7 days a week.
Customers can use a high powered search engine to query the multiple technical
repositories we have available to find a solution to their inquiries, or the
customer may log a case directly from our internet site to their local support
center. Our online customer support internet site provides our customers with
access to up-to-date technical information, the ability to download service
packs and patches for our software tools, tips on using our software tools,
product documentation, technical papers and our support newsletter. This
internet site provides customers with access to up-to-date technical information
and helps customers independently resolve inquiries.
Currently we offer telephone and electronic support, which is designed for
customers who require both telephone and electronic support services. In
addition, we are currently considering adding several levels of customer support
designed to meet specific customer needs.
Software maintenance releases and post-sales technical support are provided
to customers for an annual maintenance fee. As is customary in the software
industry, maintenance fees are charged in addition to the initial product
license.
Customer Education and Training. We offer a comprehensive education and
training program to our customers, and to third-party consultants who support
our products. Courses range from entry level sessions for users, to more
advanced courses for information technology professionals. Every student is
provided a complete hands-on experience to help reinforce learning with
practical exercises.
We offer training classes through in-house facilities at our offices in San
Jose, California and Chicago, Illinois in the United States, in the United
Kingdom, France and other locations in Europe. These facilities are complemented
by a network of independent certified training centers in our principal markets
throughout the world. In addition, we also provide onsite training services upon
customer request. Training service fees are charged to a customer on a per
participant per day basis.
Consulting Services. We provide consulting services to our customers
through our own staff and through certified consulting partners. We have
recently been increasing our in-house consulting staff through hiring and the
acquisition of a small European based consulting firm. We believe that providing
consulting services directly through our own staff and our certified partners
generates more demand for our products in two ways. First, by providing
consulting services for the initial installation of our products, we can provide
our customers a complete installation so that our customers do not have to rely
on third party consultants that may have competing interests. Second, we are
able to market more directly to our customers additional products and services
that we provide. Our consulting services allow us to assist our customers in all
stages of their development life cycle, from initial analysis through deployment
of products. Our involvement can range from an advisory status to managing the
entire installation process. Typical consulting projects include:
- building data warehouses and data marts;
- project scoping, planning, and management;
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- prototyping and development;
- implementation planning and deployment;
- applications integration (Oracle, SAP, PeopleSoft, Baan, Lawson); and
- ad-hoc and production reporting.
Our consultants have wide ranging industry, operational and technical
knowledge of numerous database systems, and all have in-depth knowledge of our
product line. Our consulting services are charged to a customer on a per
consultant per day basis.
SALES AND MARKETING
We market and sell our products and services through a direct sales
organization in the United States, France, the United Kingdom, Germany, Belgium,
Luxembourg, Italy, Spain, Canada, Australia, Sweden, the Netherlands, Japan,
Singapore and Switzerland. In addition, we utilize indirect sales channels, such
as value-added resellers, system integrators, consulting partners and
distributors to cover North America, Europe, Asia, Latin America and South
Africa where we have no direct sales presence.
Our sales and marketing organization is comprised of sales teams, each
consisting of employees engaged in field sales, field technical support,
telemarketing and telesales activities. Each sales and marketing organization is
responsible for the coordination of both direct and indirect sales in its
assigned country. We believe that focusing our direct sales efforts on
identified customers while supporting our indirect sales channels to service our
channel partners' customers maximizes the utilization of our direct sales
personnel.
We focus our initial sales efforts on the information technology staff of a
particular organization while also seeking to involve end users through
demonstrations and product trials. Typically, we perform one demonstration for
an organization's information technology staff, which is then followed by a
trial period during which the information technology staff develops a prototype
with our assistance. The information technology staff then use the prototype to
conduct demonstrations for their end users. Our sales cycle varies from customer
to customer, typically requiring several months from initial contact to closing
a sale. For large customers, the sales cycle can be over a year.
To support our sales efforts, we conduct marketing programs, including
advertising, direct mail, public relations, seminars and demonstrations at
customer sites and at our offices, appearances at trade shows and ongoing
customer communications programs.
PRODUCT DEVELOPMENT
We believe that innovation, timeliness of product releases, and high
product quality are essential to maintain our competitive position.
Consequently, we dedicate considerable resources to development efforts to
enhance our existing products and to develop new products. To date, we have
relied primarily on internal development of our products, but have in the past
and may in the future continue to license or acquire technology or products from
third parties.
As of June 30, 1999, our development group consisted of 168 persons as of
June 30, 1999, located in Levallois-Perret, France and 15 persons located in San
Jose, California. The development group is responsible for the design,
development and release of product enhancements, upgrades and new products. We
also occasionally use third-party resources
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<PAGE> 50
to expand the capacity and technical expertise of our internal research and
development group.
Our development group is divided into product teams consisting of program
managers, development engineers, quality assurance engineers and documentation
specialists. Each team is responsible for defining its product and scheduling
product development throughout the product development cycle. The product
development cycle consists of three stages:
- The planning stage, in which a vision statement of the product is
developed, the initial design and prototype of the product is completed,
specifications of the product are written, a testing strategy is
developed and the basic documentation of the product is started.
- The development stage, in which the product code is written and tested,
bugs are identified and fixed, the product is tested and documentation
continues.
- The stabilization stage, in which the product undergoes further testing,
including beta testing, final release testing and bug fixing, the visual
interface and results of the testing and bug fixes are reviewed, and
final sign-off prior to commercial shipments are commenced. In addition,
during this phase, the product group runs a field readiness program to
ensure that all departments in our organization are ready to sell and
support the new release or product.
Typically, the duration of a product development cycle from initial vision
of a product to shipping a final product is twelve to eighteen months.
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CUSTOMERS
Our customers represent a wide, cross-industry spectrum of large global
organizations, major governmental institutions and educational institutions.
Customers who have purchased at least $100,000 of software licenses from us
include:
<TABLE>
<S> <C>
Financial Government/Research
Chase Global Bank U.S. Department of Defense
Chemical Bank Health Affairs
Citibank U.S. DOE/Lawrence Livermore
Fidelity Investment U.S. Navy/NavAir
Goldman Sachs U. S. Navy/NavSea
Merrill Lynch NASA
Smith Barney U.S. Federal Government
T. Rowe Price US Naval Academy
Health/Medical Telecommunications
Allegiance AirTouch
Blue Cross Blue Shield AT&T
Healthnet Bell Atlantic
Kaiser Permanente Bell South
Medtronic British Telecom
Omni Healthcare China Telecom
Owens & Minor Deutsche Telekom
France Telecom
Chemical/Energy Lucent Technologies
Southwestern Bell
Baltimore Gas & Electric Telecom Italia
BP Oil
Chevron Pharmaceuticals
CITGO Petroleum Corp.
Dow Chemical Abbott Labs
Duke Energy Ciba Geigy
Electricite de France Eli Lilly
Mitsubishi Chemicals Glaxo
Mobil Mallinkrodt
Shell Oil SmithKline Beechman
</TABLE>
COMPETITION
The market for our software is highly competitive, rapidly evolving and
subject to rapidly changing technology. We compete principally with providers of
business intelligence software, data warehousing and data mining software, and
query and reporting software. Our direct competitors include Brio Technology,
Inc., Cognos Incorporated, Hummingbird Communications, Ltd., Information
Advantage, Inc., Microstrategy, Inc., Oracle Corporation,
Platinum/ComputerAssociates, Inc. and Seagate Technology, Inc. We also
indirectly compete with suppliers of enterprise application software, including
Microsoft Corporation. A report from Dataquest indicates that, in 1998, we had
an 11.8% market share in the query, reporting and OLAP market. A number of our
competitors and potential competitors have significantly greater financial and
other resources than us which may enable them to address more effectively new
competitive opportunities. In addition, some
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of our competitors, particularly companies that offer relational database
management software systems and enterprise resource planning software systems,
have well-established relations with some of our existing and targeted
customers.
We believe that the principal competitive factors that impact the market we
serve include: price, performance and scalability, ease of use, functionality,
product architecture, product quality and reliability, scope of distribution,
customer support and name recognition. We believe that we are successfully
addressing each of these competitive factors. Nonetheless, we expect to face
increasing competitive pressures from both current and future competitors in the
markets we serve.
MANUFACTURING
We rely upon third party suppliers to perform our CD duplication, print our
user manuals, package our products, and manufacture related materials
incorporated into our products. To date, we have not experienced any material
difficulties or delays in manufacture by our third party suppliers.
PATENTS AND INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY PROTECTION
We believe that we own or have licensed all proprietary rights relating to
our software products. Our success depends in part on our ability to protect our
property rights in our intellectual property. To protect our proprietary
information, we use a combination of protections provided by:
- patent, copyright, and trademark laws;
- trade secret laws;
- confidentiality agreements; and
- licensing arrangements, including confidentiality provisions.
We currently have one patent issued in the United States, number 5,555,403,
relating to a "Relational Database Access System Using Semantically Dynamic
Objects." We also have obtained a trademark in the United States, France and
other countries for our name, together with our logo. Despite our efforts, we
may not successfully protect our proprietary property from misappropriation.
While our competitive position may be affected by our ability to protect our
proprietary information, we believe that factors such as the technical expertise
and innovation skills of our personnel, our name recognition, and ongoing
product support and enhancement may be more significant in maintaining our
competitive position.
Litigation may be necessary to protect our proprietary property. For
example, we recently engaged in litigation asserting that one of our
competitors, Brio Technology, Inc., was infringing upon our rights under our
patent. Litigating claims relating to our intellectual property can be very
expensive in terms of management time and resources.
Occasionally, we license a portion of our technology to third parties. SPSS
Inc., Alsoft, StatSoft, and ESRI have licensed our query technology and
incorporated it into their products, as follows:
- BusinessQuery for SPSS from SPSS Inc.;
- BusinessQuery for GeoConcept from Alsoft;
- BusinessQuery for Statistica from StatSoft; and
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- BusinessQuery for ArcView GIS from ESRI.
In addition, we license software programs from third parties and
incorporate these programs into our software products or sub-license them
directly to our customers. For example, we license our object request broker,
which allows messaging between software components, from Inprise (formerly
Visigenic) and our Visual Basic Application functionality from Microsoft
Corporation. This licensed software is imbedded in our products. In addition, we
license our BUSINESSMINER and PERSONAL TRAINER products from third parties,
which licensed products are sold directly to end users as stand-alone add-on
products.
EMPLOYEES
As of June 30, 1999 we had 1,126 full-time employees, including:
- 183 in research and development;
- 699 in sales and marketing;
- 106 in customer service and support; and
- 138 in finance and administration.
Our employees are not represented by any collective bargaining
organization, and we have never experienced a work stoppage.
Under French law, management is required to hold monthly meetings with a
delegation of elected employee representatives, called the comite d'entreprise,
to discuss, in particular, employment matters and our economic condition and to
provide appropriate information and documents relating to these matters. As
required under French law, one employee representative is entitled to be present
at meetings of our Board of Directors, but does not have any voting rights.
EMPLOYEE EDUCATION -- BUSINESS OBJECTS UNIVERSITY
Our newly hired employees may complete an orientation course, ranging from
one to five weeks in length, presented by Business Objects University, our
in-house education program. Generally, all employees complete at least a one
week orientation course at our facilities. Our engineers and other technical
staff generally complete a four week training course, in addition to the one
week orientation, at our Paris facilities. Our extended training program
consists of lectures, problem sets and independent and group projects relating
to data warehousing, enterprise resource planning, and our products. In
addition, we also train our technical employees in C++, CORBA and Java
programming languages. We believe this emphasis on training yields highly
qualified employees and promotes camaraderie among all of the Business Objects
staff.
PROPERTIES
Our corporate headquarters are located in Levallois-Perret, France, a
suburb of Paris, in a leased facility consisting of approximately 71,000 square
feet. The lease term expires in 2005; however, we have the option to cancel the
lease without penalty in 2002. In addition, we lease approximately 58,000 square
feet in San Jose, California, for our U.S. headquarters under a lease that
expires in 2001. We lease additional facilities and offices in Puteaux, France;
Maidenhead, England; Koln, Germany; Nieuwegein, the Netherlands;
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<PAGE> 54
Sydney, Australia; Tokyo, Japan; Madrid, Spain; Stockholm, Sweden; Zaventem,
Belgium; Rome and Milan, Italy; Geneva and Zurich, Switzerland; Toronto, Canada;
and in the United States in California, Colorado, Connecticut, Georgia,
Illinois, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, New Jersey, New York,
Pennsylvania and Texas.
LEGAL PROCEEDINGS
We are involved in various legal proceedings arising in the ordinary course
of business.
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MANAGEMENT
The following table sets forth information with respect to the executive
officers and directors of Business Objects as of June 30, 1999.
<TABLE>
<CAPTION>
NAME AGE POSITION
---- --- --------
<S> <C> <C>
Bernard Liautaud........... 37 Chairman of the Board, Chief Executive Officer
and President
Clifton Weatherford........ 52 Senior Group Vice President and Chief Financial
Officer
John Powell................ 42 Senior Group Vice President, Worldwide Operations
David Kellogg.............. 36 Senior Group Vice President, Marketing
Lawrence Lieberman......... 49 Senior Group Vice President, Corporate
Development
Philippe Claude............ 51 Director
Bernard Charles............ 42 Director
Albert Eisenstat........... 68 Director
Arnold Silverman........... 60 Director
Vincent Worms.............. 46 Director
</TABLE>
BERNARD LIAUTAUD is a founder of Business Objects and has served as
Chairman of the Board and Chief Executive Officer of Business Objects since its
inception in August 1990. Prior to the founding of Business Objects, Mr.
Liautaud was the Sales Marketing Manager with Oracle France. Mr. Liautaud's term
of office on the Board of Directors expires in 2000. Mr. Liautaud is the
son-in-law of Mr. Silverman, a Director of Business Objects. Mr. Liautaud does
not hold directorships other than in subsidiaries of Business Objects.
CLIFTON WEATHERFORD joined Business Objects in August 1997 as Chief
Financial Officer and is responsible for our worldwide finance and
administration organization. He has more than 25 years of financial management
experience, most recently, from January 1996 to August 1997, as Chief Financial
Officer of NETCOM On-Line Communication Services, Inc., a global internet
service provider recently acquired by MindSpring Enterprises, Inc. Prior to
joining NETCOM, Mr. Weatherford served as Chief Financial Officer of Logitech,
Inc., a manufacturer of computer peripheral products, from February 1994 to
December 1995. He has also held senior financial positions at Texas Instruments,
Schlumberger, and Tandem Computers. Mr. Weatherford does not hold directorships
other than in subsidiaries of Business Objects.
JOHN POWELL joined Business Objects in 1991 as the Country Manager for the
United Kingdom, and has served as Senior Vice President of U.K. Operations and
as Vice President for the Atlantic division (consisting of the U.K., France and
the Middle East) prior to being promoted to Senior Group Vice President,
Worldwide Operations in April 1999. Since 1998, Mr. Powell was responsible for
operations in the Atlantic division, covering our largest region, and is
currently responsible for all of our worldwide operations. Prior to coming to
Business Objects, Mr. Powell was the District Manager -- Hospitals and
Telecommunications with Oracle U.K.
DAVID KELLOGG joined Business Objects in May 1995 as Vice President of
Product Marketing, was promoted to Vice President of Corporate Marketing in 1997
and further promoted to Senior Group Vice President, Marketing in May 1999. Mr.
Kellogg is responsible for corporate marketing at Business Objects, including
product, product line, and strategic marketing, as well as corporate
communications. Mr. Kellogg has more than
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12 years of experience in the database and business intelligence software tools
industry. Before joining Business Objects, he was vice president of marketing at
Versant Object Technology, a provider of enterprise database management systems,
from June 1992 to April 1995.
LAWRENCE LIEBERMAN joined Business Objects in October 1996 and is in charge
of global corporate development activities, including mergers and acquisitions,
technology licensing, and strategic initiatives. Mr. Lieberman was promoted to
Senior Group Vice President in October 1999. Mr. Lieberman has more than 15
years of experience in the software industry, with a special emphasis on
finance, licensing, corporate investments, planning, and structuring strategic
alliances. From 1993 to October 1996, Mr. Lieberman served as an independent
consultant and investor in the healthcare technology and wireless communications
industry. Mr. Lieberman's experience also involved senior level positions at
Kaleida Labs, a joint venture of Apple and IBM, and in Apple's Strategic
Investment Group. From 1976-1981, he served as Director of Admissions for the
Stanford Business School. Mr. Lieberman is a director of Instranet, Inc.
PHILIPPE CLAUDE has been a General Partner of Atlas Venture, a venture
capital firm, since 1993. Prior to his nomination as a Director of Business
Objects in July 1994, Mr. Claude served as a permanent representative of Paribas
Europe Investment V.O.F., a shareholder of Business Objects and a member of the
Board from 1991 until that date, and as permanent representative of Atlas
Venture, a shareholder of Business Objects and a member of the Board from 1992
until that date. Mr. Claude is a director of Ilog S.A., Cosmos Bay S.A.,
Spotfire, Inc., Temposoft, Lexiquest., Mixad S.A., Netonomy, Inc. and Alafolie
S.A. Mr. Claude's term of office on the Board of Directors expires in 2000.
BERNARD CHARLES has been President of Dassault Systemes, a worldwide leader
in computer aided design (CAD) since September 1995. From 1988 to September
1995, he was President of the Research & Development department of Dassault
Systemes. Mr. Charles is a director of a number of Dassault Systemes'
subsidiaries, Deneb Robotics Inc., Enovia Corp., Solidworks Corp., and Invention
Machine Corp. Mr. Charles' term of office expires in 2001.
ALBERT EISENSTAT has been a consultant and private investor since 1993. Mr.
Eisenstat was a Director and Executive Vice President for Corporate Development
and Corporate Secretary of Apple Computer Inc. from 1988 to 1993. Mr. Eisenstat
is a Director of Commercial Metals Co., Sungard Data Systems, Benham Group of
Mutual Funds and SPL Worldgroup. Mr. Eisenstat joined the Business Objects Board
of Directors in June 1995, and his term on the Board of Directors expires in
2001.
ARNOLD SILVERMAN is a consultant and private investor. Mr. Silverman was
the President of ICOT Corporation from 1979 to 1985 and a director of Oracle
Corporation from 1984 to 1991. Mr. Silverman is a director in Time Ten
Performance Software Company, Luna Information Systems, Exemplary Corporation,
Nishan Systems, Promtu Corporation and Quiq Corporation. Mr. Silverman is the
father-in-law of Mr. Liautaud. Mr. Silverman joined the Business Objects Board
of Directors in February of 1991, and his term on the Board of Directors expires
in 2001.
VINCENT WORMS has been, since 1982, a General Partner of Partech
International Inc., a venture capital firm. Prior to his nomination as a
director of Business Objects in July 1994, Mr. Vincent Worms served as a
permanent representative of Paribas Europe Investment V.O.F., a shareholder of
Business Objects and a member of the Board from
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1991 until that date. Mr. Worms is a director of SangStat Medical, DrugAbuse
Sciences, Informatica Corporation and Aptix Corporation. Mr. Worm's term of
office on the Board of Directors expires in 2002.
In accordance with French law governing a societe anonyme, our business is
managed by our Board of Directors and by our Chairman, President and Chief
Executive Officer, who has full executive authority to manage the affairs of
Business Objects, subject to the prior authorization of our Board of Directors
or of our shareholders for certain decisions specified by law.
BOARD OF DIRECTORS
French law requires that our Board of Directors be composed of no fewer
than three nor more than 24 members. The actual number of directors may be fixed
in the statuts, our charter document, or determined by a vote of our
shareholders at an ordinary general meeting of shareholders. The number of
directors may be increased only by a vote of our shareholders. Under French law,
each director of Business Objects must be a shareholder of Business Objects, and
be either an individual or a corporation, except that the Chairman of the Board
must be an individual. Further, the number of directors over 70 years of age may
not exceed one-third of the total number of directors comprising our Board.
Our Board of Directors currently consists of six members. Each of our
directors is elected for a three-year term on a staggered basis. By way of
illustration, over the next three years our directors will be elected as
follows: two directors will be elected in 2000, three directors will be elected
in 2001, and one director will be elected in 2002. As a result, a portion of our
board of directors will be elected each year. There is no limitation on the
number of terms that any of our directors may serve. Our directors are elected
by the shareholders, and serve until the expiration of their respective term, or
until their resignation, death or removal, with or without cause, by the
shareholders. Vacancies in the Board of Directors may be filled by the Board of
Directors pending the next shareholders' meeting.
BOARD COMMITTEES
Our Board of Directors has two standing committees: an Audit Committee and
a Compensation Committee. Each of the Committees makes recommendations to the
Board of Directors, for final decision by our Board.
Our Audit Committee, which currently consists of Messrs. Claude and
Silverman, is responsible for the following:
- recommending engagement of our independent auditors;
- approving the services performed by our auditors;
- consulting with our auditors and reviewing with them the results of their
examination;
- reviewing and approving any material accounting policy changes that
affect our operating results;
- reviewing our control procedures; and
- reviewing and evaluating our accounting principles and our system of
internal accounting controls.
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The Compensation Committee, which currently consists of Messrs. Eisenstat
and Worms, is responsible for reviewing the compensation and benefits of our
Chief Executive Officer and other executive officers.
COMPENSATION OF DIRECTORS
With the exception of Mr. Liautaud, our Directors receive fees of U.S.
$3,000 per quarterly Board meeting attended and a U.S. $2,000 quarterly
retainer. Our Directors are also reimbursed for reasonable expenses incurred in
attending Board and committee meetings.
WARRANTS ISSUED TO DIRECTORS
In June 1995, our shareholders approved the issuance of warrants to
purchase 12,000 shares to Mr. Eisenstat with an exercise price of FF 72.7875 per
share, that vest at a rate of 33.33% per year from June 22, 1995. As of the date
of this prospectus, all of the warrants remain outstanding.
In June 1997, our shareholders approved the issuance of warrants to
purchase 12,000 shares to each of Messrs. Claude, Eisenstat, Silverman and
Worms. These warrants have an exercise price of FF55.328 per share, and vest
monthly over three years from January 1, 1997. As of the date of this
prospectus, all of the warrants remain outstanding.
In June 1998, our shareholders approved the issuance of warrants to
purchase an aggregate of 70,000 shares to Messrs. Claude (10,000 shares),
Eisenstat (15,000 shares), Silverman (15,000 shares), Worms (5,000 shares) and
Charles (25,000 shares). These warrants have an exercise price of FF 96.66 per
share. Warrants granted to Messrs. Eisenstat, Silverman and Charles vest
annually over three years starting June 18, 1998. Warrants granted to Mr. Claude
vest annually over two years starting June 18, 1998. Warrants granted to Mr.
Worms became fully vested on June 18, 1999. As of the date of this prospectus,
all of the warrants remain outstanding.
In May 1999, our shareholders approved the issuance of warrants to purchase
an aggregate of 15,000 shares at an exercise price of FF 149.31 per share to Mr.
Worms. These warrants were fully vested as of May 4, 1999. As of the date of
this prospectus, all of the warrants remain outstanding.
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BENEFICIAL SHARE OWNERSHIP BY
PRINCIPAL SHAREHOLDERS AND MANAGEMENT
The following table sets forth the beneficial ownership of our ordinary
shares and American depositary shares, as applicable, as of October 1, 1999 by:
- each person or entity who is known by us to own beneficially more than 5%
of our outstanding shares;
- each of our directors;
- our Chief Executive Officer and each of our other executive officers,
collectively referred to elsewhere in this prospectus as our named
executive officers; and
- all of our directors and executive officers as a group.
The table assumes that the underwriters have not exercised their
over-allotment option.
<TABLE>
<CAPTION>
PERCENTAGE PERCENTAGE
NAME AND ADDRESS OF 5% SHAREHOLDERS, NUMBER OF SHARES BENEFICIALLY OWNED BENEFICIALLY OWNED
DIRECTORS AND NAMED EXECUTIVE OFFICERS BENEFICIALLY OWNED PRIOR TO OFFERING AFTER THE OFFERING
- -------------------------------------- ------------------ ------------------ ------------------
<S> <C> <C> <C>
5% SHAREHOLDERS
AIM Advisers(1)................... 1,148,850 6.4% 6.0%
INVESCO Global Asset Management(1)... 1,103,558 6.1% 5.8%
Putnam Investments(1)............. 1,073,660 6.0% 5.7%
DIRECTORS
Bernard Liautaud(2)............... 712,196 3.9% 3.8%
Philippe Claude(3)................ 16,331 * *
Albert Eisenstat(4)............... 30,331 * *
Arnold Silverman(5)............... 107,622 * *
Vincent Worms(6).................. 194,163 1.1% 1.0%
Bernard Charles(7)................ 8,334 * *
NAMED EXECUTIVE OFFICERS
Clifton Weatherford(8)............ 18,802 * *
John Powell(9).................... 49,180 * *
David Kellogg(10)................. 14,553 * *
Lawrence Lieberman(11)............ 59,224 * *
All directors and executive officers
as a group (9 persons)(12)...... 1,210,736 6.7% 6.4%
</TABLE>
- -------------------------
* Less than 1%.
Applicable percentage ownership in the above table is based on 18,028,702
shares outstanding as of October 1, 1999, which excludes 191,500 shares held in
treasury.
Unless otherwise indicated below, each shareholder named in the table above
has sole voting and investment power, or shares these powers with his or her
spouse, with respect to all shares beneficially owned.
(1) Information obtained from Beacon Hill Partners, Inc., a New York based
market intelligence firm.
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(2) Mr. Liautaud is also President and Chief Executive Officer and a Director
of the Company. Includes 19,791 shares issuable upon the exercise of stock
options exercisable on or before November 30, 1999.
(3) Includes 16,330 shares issuable upon the exercise of share warrants
exercisable on or before November 30, 1999.
(4) Includes 28,330 shares issuable upon the exercise of share warrants
exercisable on or before November 30, 1999.
(5) Includes 16,330 shares issuable upon the exercise of share warrants
exercisable on or before November 30, 1999.
(6) Includes 36,330 shares issuable upon the exercise of share warrants
exercisable on or before November 30, 1999. Also includes shares held by
certain funds affiliated with Mr. Worms, for which he disclaims beneficial
ownership except as to his pecuniary interests therein, as follows: AXA
U.S. Growth Fund, L.L.C. (45,000 shares), Paribas U.S. Growth Fund Partners
C.V. (70,000 shares) and Partech International S.A. (4,623 shares). Mr.
Worms could be deemed to beneficially own these shares.
(7) Includes 8,333 shares issuable upon exercise of share warrants exercisable
on or before November 30, 1999
(8) Includes 15,205 shares issuable upon the exercise of stock options
exercisable on or before November 30, 1999.
(9) Includes 46,339 shares issuable upon the exercise of stock options
exercisable on or before November 30, 1999.
(10) Includes 10,960 shares issuable upon the exercise of stock options
exercisable on or before November 30, 1999.
(11) Includes 50,880 shares issuable upon the exercise of stock options
exercisable on or before November 30, 1999.
(12) Includes 248,828 shares issuable upon the exercise of stock options and
warrants exercisable on or before November 30, 1999.
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DESCRIPTION OF SHARE CAPITAL
The following describes our share capital pursuant to our statuts, our
bylaws and applicable French law. This description of our share capital and the
related summary information are qualified in their entirety by reference to our
statuts which have been filed as an exhibit to the registration statement of
which this prospectus is a part.
COMPOSITION OF SHARE CAPITAL
We have only one class of share capital. As of October 1, 1999, this class
consisted of 18,028,702 ordinary shares, nominal value FF1 per share. The shares
are fully paid.
At an extraordinary general shareholders' meeting held on May 4, 1999, our
shareholders authorized the conversion of our share capital from French francs
into Euros. This conversion will change the nominal value of our shares from FF1
to 0.15 Euro but will have no impact on the number of our outstanding shares. We
expect to effect this conversion after the completion of this offering and prior
to the end of 1999.
A holder of our ordinary shares may obtain American depositary shares if
the holder desires to trade the shares on the Nasdaq National Market. In order
to obtain the American depositary shares, a shareholder is required to deposit
his or her shares with our custodian, Paribas, or, our depositary, the Bank of
New York. Upon deposit of the ordinary shares, our depositary will issue the
corresponding number of American depositary shares. The shareholder is also
required to pay a per share fee to the Bank of New York, as well as any
applicable taxes and governmental charges. Holders of American depositary shares
may also obtain ordinary shares by surrendering the American depositary shares,
along with the payment of applicable fees, taxes and governmental charges to the
depositary. Under French law, no fractional shares may be issued.
CHANGES IN SHARE CAPITAL
Except as set forth below, our share capital may be increased only with the
approval of our shareholders at an extraordinary general meeting, following a
recommendation by our Board of Directors. Increases in our share capital may be
effected either by the issuance of additional shares, including the creation of
a new class of shares, or by an increase in the nominal value of existing
shares. Additional shares may be issued as follows:
- for cash;
- in satisfaction of indebtedness incurred by us;
- for assets contributed in kind;
- upon the conversion, exchange or redemption of debt securities previously
issued by us;
- upon the exercise of stock options, warrants or other similar securities
comprising rights to subscribe for shares; or
- by capitalization of reserves.
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French law permits different classes of shares to have different
liquidation, voting and dividend rights. Our statuts provide that share
dividends may be distributed in lieu of payment of cash dividends.
Our share capital may be decreased only with the approval of the
shareholders at an extraordinary general meeting. This may be accomplished
either by decreasing the nominal value of the shares or by reducing the number
of outstanding shares. The conditions under which our share capital may be
reduced will vary depending on whether the reduction is attributable to losses
incurred by us. Under French company law, all shareholders must be treated
equally. If the reduction is not attributable to losses, each shareholder will
be offered an opportunity to participate in the capital reduction. The number of
outstanding capital shares may be reduced either by an exchange of shares or by
our repurchase and cancellation of our shares. Further, if, as a consequence of
losses, our net assets (capitaux propres) are reduced below one half of our
share capital, the Board of Directors must, within four months from the approval
of the accounts showing this loss, convene an extraordinary general meeting of
shareholders to decide whether Business Objects should be dissolved before our
statutory term. If dissolution is not declared, the capital must, by no later
than the end of the second fiscal year following the fiscal year during which
the losses were acknowledged, and subject to the legal provisions concerning the
minimum capital of societes anonymes, be reduced by an amount at least equal to
the losses which could not be charged on reserves, unless during that period the
net assets have been restored up to an amount at least equal to one half of our
share capital.
We have been authorized by our shareholders to effect increases in our
share capital by issuing new shares, bonds convertible, exchangeable or
redeemable into our shares, or warrants to subscribe for our shares. We have
also been authorized to increase our share capital by incorporation of share
premiums, reserves or retained earnings. This authorization to increase our
share capital could be used in the context of a tender offer. However, at the
discretion of our Board, these issuances may be subject to the preemptive rights
of our shareholders, or, in the event our shares are offered to the public,
without shareholder preemptive rights. Our Board does not have the authority to
issue shares to a particular party, which limits the anti-takeover effect of a
share issuance made in the context of a tender offer or exchange offer. The
total aggregate amount of the nominal value of the ordinary shares issued or to
be issued upon conversion, exchange or redemption of bonds or exercise of
warrants, or upon incorporation of share premiums, reserves or retained
earnings, may not exceed FF 15,000,000 (2,286,735 Euros), corresponding to
15,000,000 ordinary shares. Unless otherwise repealed by our shareholders, these
authorizations to increase our share capital will be in effect until August 18,
2000, except that, with respect to increases in the context of a tender offer or
exchange offer, authorization expires on the date of the annual general
shareholders' meeting for the year ending December 31, 1999. Except as described
above, the authorizations described in this paragraph cannot be used to effect
non-public offerings of our shares, to issue our shares for a consideration
other than cash or in satisfaction of indebtedness, or to issue our shares in
connection with a merger or acquisition.
PREEMPTIVE SUBSCRIPTION RIGHTS
Unless previously waived, holders of our shares have preemptive rights to
subscribe for additional shares issued by us for cash on a pro rata basis. Our
shareholders may waive these preemptive subscription rights at an extraordinary
general meeting under certain
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circumstances. Preemptive subscription rights, if not previously waived, are
transferable during the subscription period.
ATTENDANCE AND VOTING AT SHAREHOLDERS' MEETINGS
French law provides for two types of general meetings of shareholders,
ordinary and extraordinary.
Ordinary general meetings of shareholders are required for matters such as
the following:
- the election of directors;
- the appointment of statutory auditors;
- the approval of our annual report prepared by the Board of Directors;
- the approval of our annual accounts;
- the declaration of dividends and the issuance of bonds; and
- in general, those matters not specifically reserved by French law to
extraordinary general meetings.
Extraordinary general meetings of shareholders are required for approval of
matters such as the following:
- amending our statuts;
- amending our shareholders' rights;
- increases or decreases in our share capital, including the possible
waiver by our shareholders of their preferential subscription rights;
- the creation of a new class of capital stock;
- the authorization to issue investment certificates or securities
convertible or exchangeable into our shares; and
- the approval of mergers, acquisitions for stock, and the like.
In particular, shareholder approval is required for any and all mergers in
which Business Objects is not the surviving entity or in which Business Objects
is the surviving entity and we issue a portion of our share capital to the
acquired entity. In addition, the rights of a holder of shares of any class of
capital stock can be amended only after an extraordinary general meeting of all
shareholders of the affected class has taken place and the proposal to amend the
rights has been approved by the holders of two-thirds of the shares of the
affected class present in person or represented by proxy at the meeting.
At an ordinary general meeting, a simple majority of the votes cast is
required to pass a resolution. At an extraordinary general meeting, a two-thirds
majority of the votes cast is required. However, a unanimous vote is required to
increase the liabilities of our shareholders. Abstention by those present or
represented by proxy is deemed a vote against the resolution submitted to a
vote.
Our Board of Directors is required to convene an annual ordinary general
meeting of shareholders, to be held within six months of the end of our fiscal
year. However, the president of the commercial court (tribunal de commerce) may
extend this six-month period. Other ordinary or extraordinary meetings may be
convened at any time during the year. Meetings of shareholders may be convened
by the Board of Directors or, if the Board
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of Directors fails to call any, by our statutory auditors, currently Ernst &
Young Audit, and Mr. Pierre Dupuy, or by a court-appointed agent. The court may
be requested to appoint an agent either by one or more shareholders holding at
least 10% of our share capital or by any interested party in cases of urgency.
The presence in person or by proxy of shareholders holding not less than
25%, in the case of an ordinary general meeting, or 33 1/3%, in the case of an
extraordinary general meeting, of the shares entitled to vote is necessary for a
quorum. If a quorum is not present at any meeting, then the meeting is
adjourned. Upon re-convening of an adjourned meeting, there is no quorum
requirement in the case of an ordinary general meeting; however, the presence in
person or by proxy of shareholders holding not less than 25% of the shares
entitled to vote is necessary for a quorum in the case of a re-convened
extraordinary general meeting.
A notice of each general shareholders' meeting must be sent by mail to all
holders of registered shares who have held their shares for more than one month,
at least fifteen days before the date of the meeting. If a quorum is not
obtained, a second notice must be distributed at least six days prior to the
meeting date. The notice must be published in a local legal newspaper (journal
d'annonces legales) unless all shares issued and outstanding are in registered
form, in which case sending a letter to each registered shareholder is
sufficient.
With respect to listed companies, French law further requires that a notice
of each general shareholders' meeting be sent to the French securities
authority, the Commission des Operations de Bourse, and published in the
Bulletin des Annonces Legales Obligatoires, at least 30 days prior to the
meeting. The Commission des Operations de Bourse also recommends that the notice
be published in a newspaper of national circulation in France.
The notice must include the agenda of the meeting and a draft of the
resolutions to be submitted to the shareholders' vote at the meeting. Within 10
days of publication for listed companies and 25 days at least prior to the
shareholders' meeting for non-listed companies, one or more shareholders holding
a required percentage of the share capital, 2.93% for a FF 17,412,069 share
capital, may propose additional resolutions. If the company is listed, a duly
authorized association of shareholders having held their shares in registered
form for at least two years and holding a required percentage of the voting
rights capital, 4.29% for a FF 17,412,069 share capital, may propose additional
resolutions. Any shareholder of a non-listed company may request that a
preliminary written notice (avis de reunion) be sent to it by registered mail at
such shareholder's cost no later than 35 days before the date set for any
ordinary or extraordinary general meeting.
In addition to being entitled to certain information regarding Business
Objects, any holder of ordinary shares may, during the two-week period preceding
a shareholders' meeting, submit to the Board of Directors written questions
relating to the agenda for the meeting. The Board of Directors is required to
respond to these questions during the meeting, unless it is in a company's best
interests not to -- for example, to avoid the disclosure of confidential
information or trade secrets.
Attendance and the exercise of voting rights at ordinary and extraordinary
general meetings of shareholders are subject to certain conditions. Only those
shareholders registered in our shareholders' registry at least one business day
prior to a meeting may attend the meeting. This requirement necessarily excludes
holders of American depositary shares who have not properly registered their
shares as ordinary shares. Shareholders who
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<PAGE> 65
have properly registered their ordinary shares may participate in general
meetings in person, by proxy or by mail, and may vote in proportion to the
number of shares held. Each share carries the right to one vote except for
shares held by entities controlled directly or indirectly by Business Objects
that are not entitled to any voting rights under French law. Proxies may be
granted by a shareholder as follows:
- to his or her spouse;
- to another shareholder;
- to a legal representative, in the case of a corporation; or
- automatically, by sending a proxy in blank to Business Objects without
designating any representative.
In the case of a blank proxy, the chairman of the meeting of shareholders
will vote the shares, with respect to which the blank proxy has been given, in
favor of all resolutions proposed by the Board of Directors and against all
others.
Our American depositary shares are voted by the depositary in accordance
with the depositary agreement. Holders of American depositary shares receive
notices of shareholder meetings and other reports and communications, in
English, as are generally made available to the holders of our ordinary shares.
Shareholder meeting notices are distributed to holders of American depositary
shares in general at least thirty (30) days prior to the meeting date. The
holders of American depositary shares vote their shares by completing and
submitting a voting instruction card to the depositary. If a voting instruction
card is not returned to the depositary, or if the voting instruction card is
returned but it is improperly completed, the depositary will vote the shares in
favor of each proposal recommended or approved by our Board of Directors and
against each other proposal. Alternatively, a holder may exchange his or her
American depositary shares for ordinary shares at least one day before the
shareholders' meeting and vote the ordinary shares directly.
DIVIDEND AND LIQUIDATION RIGHTS
Net profits in each fiscal year, after deduction for depreciation and
reserves, as increased or reduced, as the case may be, by any profit or loss
carried forward from prior years, are available for distribution to our
shareholders as dividends, subject to the requirements of French law and our
statuts. Dividends may also be distributed from reserves, subject to approval by
our shareholders and as described more fully below.
We are legally required under French law to establish and maintain a legal
reserve by making a minimum transfer of 5% of our net profits each year to a
legal reserve as may be necessary to maintain it at a level equal to 10% of the
aggregate nominal value of our share capital, as may be increased or reduced
from time to time. The legal reserve is distributable only upon the liquidation
of Business Objects. Our statuts also provide that our distributable profits,
after deduction of any amounts required to be allotted to the legal reserve, can
be allocated to one or more special purpose reserves or distributed as
dividends, as may be determined at an ordinary general meeting of shareholders.
Dividends are paid if approved by the shareholders at an ordinary general
meeting of shareholders at which the annual accounts are approved. Dividends are
distributed to shareholders pro rata based on their respective holdings of
shares. The dividend payment date is determined by the shareholders at the
ordinary general meeting approving the
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declaration of the dividends, or by the Board of Directors in the absence of a
determination by the shareholders. If authorized, payment of the dividends must
occur within nine months of the end of our fiscal year. Under French law,
dividends not claimed within five years of their payment date revert to the
French State. Our statuts authorize our shareholders, at an annual ordinary
general meeting, to grant each shareholder an option to receive all or part of
any annual or interim dividends in cash or shares. A shareholder may not request
that his or her dividends be paid partly in shares and partly in cash.
If our net profits for the year in which dividends are paid are sufficient,
our Board of Directors has the authority, subject to French law and regulations,
to distribute interim dividends without prior approval of our shareholders.
Interim dividends may not exceed our net income.
We have not paid any cash dividends on our ordinary shares since our
inception. We currently anticipate that we will retain all future earnings for
use in our business and we do not anticipate paying any dividends in the
foreseeable future.
If Business Objects were liquidated, our assets remaining after payment of
our debts, liquidation expenses and all of our remaining obligations would first
be used to repay in full the nominal value of our ordinary shares, and the
surplus, if any, would be distributed among the holders of ordinary shares in
proportion to the nominal value of their shareholding subject to any special
rights granted to holders of priority shares, if any.
REPURCHASE OF ORDINARY SHARES
Under French law, a company may acquire its own shares for the following
reasons:
- to reduce its share capital under certain circumstances with the approval
of the shareholders at an extraordinary general meeting;
- to provide shares for distribution to employees under a profit-sharing or
stock option plan; and
- for a specific purpose approved by the shareholders at an ordinary
general meeting, such as the stabilization of quotations on a French
regulated stock exchange.
Share repurchases for a specific purpose may be made only by companies
whose shares are admitted for trading on a "regulated market." Under French law,
the term "regulated market" does not currently include the Nasdaq National
Market. Further, purchases by a company of its own shares may not result in the
company holding more than 10% of its own shares. If a repurchase were to result
in the company holding more than 10% of its issued shares, it would be required
to transfer any shares in excess of the 10% threshold within one year. French
law further requires that any shares in excess of the 10% limit, not transferred
within the one-year period, be cancelled. Shares purchased for a specific
purpose may be cancelled by an extraordinary general shareholders' meeting,
although no more than 10% of the registered capital may be cancelled within any
single 24-month period.
French company law requires listed companies to prepare a prospectus (note
d'information) prior to any shareholders' meeting called to authorize the
purchase of shares for a specific purpose. The Commission des Operations des
Bourse must be notified by the company in advance and on a monthly basis
thereafter of any trading program in its
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own shares. A company is also required to report all tradings made in its own
shares to the Commission des Operations de Bourse, and, on a monthly basis, to
the Conseil des Marches Financiers.
Shares repurchased must be held in registered form and be fully paid. They
are deemed to be outstanding under French law, but are not entitled to any
dividends or voting rights. In addition, no preferential subscription rights may
be exercised in connection with the repurchased shares. Further, the
shareholders, at an extraordinary general meeting, may decide not to take the
repurchased shares into account in determining the preferential subscription
rights attached to other shares. In the absence of such a decision, the rights
attached to any shares held by the company itself must either be sold on the
market before the end of the subscription period or distributed to other
shareholders on a pro rata basis.
In May 1999 we repurchased on the Nasdaq National Market a total of 191,500
of our shares at an average price per share of $24.08. In compliance with French
law applicable to us prior to this offering, the shares will be used for
distribution under our employee stock option and stock purchase plans.
Further, at the shareholders' meeting held on May 4, 1999, our shareholders
authorized the repurchase of our ordinary shares or American depositary shares
for a specific purpose in accordance with French law. The shareholder
authorization to repurchase our shares is effective only in the event our shares
are admitted for trading on a French regulated market, such as the
ParisBourse(SBF) S.A. Under this authorization, the maximum number of ordinary
shares that we can repurchase is 1,000,000 shares of a nominal value of 1 FF
each, or the Euro equivalent of the French franc nominal value. The maximum
purchase price per share may not exceed FF 177 or approximately U.S. $30, or the
Euro equivalent. In accordance with applicable French law, the share repurchase
program could be used, among other things, to:
- minimize the dilutive effect of an issuance of our shares;
- stabilize the market price of our shares;
- provide for shares to be used in the context of the implementation of
employee stock purchase plans;
- provide for shares to be used as consideration in the context of an
acquisition or an exchange; or
- make use of excess cash balances.
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The following table shows certain financial information as of December 31,
1998 and June 30, 1999, on an actual and pro forma basis as if we had
repurchased 1,000,000 shares at a price of $27.87, corresponding to FF 177 using
the exchange rate of June 30, 1999 (US$1 = FF 6.3509). The pro forma
calculations assume a cost of capital of 3.8% and an income tax rate of 41.7%.
<TABLE>
<CAPTION>
DECEMBER 31, 1998 JUNE 30, 1999
------------------------- -------------------------
ACTUAL PRO FORMA ACTUAL PRO FORMA
------------ --------- ------------ ---------
(IN THOUSANDS,)EXCEPT FOR EQUITY AND INCOME PER SHARE
<S> <C> <C> <C> <C>
Shareholders equity......... 67,247 38,778 74,531 46,062*
Number of shares
outstanding............... 17,255 16,255 17,782 16,782
Shareholders equity per
share..................... 3.90 2.39 4.19 2.74
Net income.................. 10,287 9,718 8,352 7,783
Number of shares used for
basic earning per share
and per ADS............... 16,966 15,966 17,525 16,525
Basic net income per share
and per ADS............... 0.61 0.61 0.48 0.47
Percent increase (decrease)
of basic net income per
share and per ADS......... 0.38% (1.19)%
Number of shares used for
diluted earning per share
and per ADS............... 17,741 16,741 19,051 18,051
Diluted net income per share
and per ADS............... 0.58 0.58 0.44 0.43
Percent increase (decrease)
of diluted net income per
share and per ADS......... 0.11% (1.68)%
</TABLE>
- -------------------------
* Excludes the effect of the repurchase of 191,500 shares completed in May 1999
for an aggregate amount of $4.6 million.
We are aware that U.S. and French securities laws impose certain
restrictions on our ability to repurchase our own shares. We intend to fully
comply with these laws in connection with any repurchases we may make.
CROSS SHAREHOLDINGS AND HOLDING OF BUSINESS OBJECTS SHARES BY OUR SUBSIDIARIES
French law prohibits a company from holding our shares if we hold more than
10% of that company's share capital. Likewise, we may not own any interest in a
French company holding more than 10% of our share capital. In the event of a
cross shareholding violation, the company owning the smaller percentage of
shares in the other company must sell its interest. Until sold, the shares are
deprived of their voting rights. Failure by the officers and directors of a
company to sell the shares is a criminal offense.
REQUIREMENT FOR HOLDINGS EXCEEDING CERTAIN PERCENTAGES
French law provides that any individual or entity directly or indirectly
holding more than 5%, 10%, 20%, 33 1/3%, 50% or 66 2/3% of the outstanding
voting shares or voting rights of a company listed on a regulated market, such
as the ParisBourse(SBF) S.A., or that
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increases or decreases its shareholding or voting rights by any of the
percentage thresholds, is required to notify the company by registered letter
with return receipt, within 15 calendar days of crossing any of the applicable
percentage thresholds, of the number of shares and voting rights held by it. The
individual or entity must also notify the Conseil des Marches Financiers, which
has general regulatory authority over the French stock exchanges, and whose
members include representatives of French stockbrokers, by registered letter
with return receipt within five trading days of crossing any of the percentage
thresholds. Any shareholder who fails to comply with these requirements may have
all or part of its voting rights suspended for up to five years by the relevant
commercial court at the request of the company's chairman, any of its
shareholders or the Commission des Operations de Bourse.
The thresholds applicable under the above mandatory regulations may be
lowered in a company's statuts upon approval by the shareholders. At the general
meeting of shareholders held on May 4, 1999, our statuts were amended to provide
that the notification obligation will apply under the same conditions each time
the percentage reaches 5% of the share capital or voting rights, or any multiple
thereof. The notification obligations also applies each time the percentage of
capital or voting rights falls under 5%, or a multiple thereof. Further, in the
event a shareholder fails to notify us, one or several shareholders holding
together at least 5% of our share capital or voting rights may request that the
shares or voting right certificates be deprived from voting rights until
notification is completed and for a two-year period thereafter.
FORM AND HOLDING OF ORDINARY SHARES
FORM OF ORDINARY SHARES
Our statuts provide that our ordinary shares may be held only in registered
form. A resolution was adopted by our shareholders on May 4, 1999, which permits
our shares, once listed on a regulated market, to be held in either registered
or bearer form at the option of each shareholder, subject to applicable
regulations regarding the form of the shares held by certain legal or natural
persons.
Shares of companies listed on the Premier Marche are cleared and settled
through Sicovam, a continuous net settlement system. These companies may use the
procedure known as titres au porteur identifiable according to which Sicovam
may, upon request, disclose the name, nationality, address, and number of shares
held by each shareholder. This information may only be requested by the listed
company itself and may not be communicated to third parties.
HOLDING OF ORDINARY SHARES
In accordance with the provisions of French law regarding uncertificated
securities, the ownership rights of shareholders are represented by book entries
instead of share certificates. Shares are registered in the name of their
respective owners in individual shareholder accounts maintained by or on behalf
of Business Objects.
Each shareholder's account shows the name of the holder and the number of
shares held by it. We will issue or cause to be issued confirmations
(attestations d'inscription en compte) as to holdings of shares registered in a
shareholder's account to the persons in whose names the shares are registered.
These confirmations do not constitute documents of title.
Shares of a listed company may also be issued in bearer form. Shares held
in bearer form are held and registered on the shareholder's behalf in an account
maintained by an accredited
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financial intermediary and are credited to an account at Sicovam maintained by
the intermediary. Each accredited financial intermediary maintains a record of
shares held through it and issues certificates of inscription for the shares it
holds. Transfers of shares held in bearer form may only be made through
accredited financial intermediaries and Sicovam.
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FRENCH TAXATION
The following contains a description of the principal French tax
consequences of purchasing, owning and disposing of our ordinary shares. The
statements relating to French tax law set forth below are based on laws in force
as of the date of this prospectus, and are subject to any changes occurring
after this date in applicable French laws or in any applicable double taxation
conventions or treaties with France and another country or territory.
This discussion is intended only to be a summary and does not purport to be
a complete analysis of all potential tax effects of the purchase or ownership of
our ordinary shares. Those considering the purchase of our ordinary shares are
urged to consult their own tax advisors concerning the consequences of purchase,
ownership and disposition of our ordinary shares.
TAXATION ON SALE OR DISPOSITION OF ORDINARY SHARES
Subject to more favorable provisions of any relevant double taxation
treaty, persons who are not residents of France for the purpose of French
taxation and who have held not more than 25 percent, directly or indirectly, of
the dividend rights (benefices sociaux) associated with our ordinary shares at
any time during the preceding five years, are not generally subject to any
French income tax or capital gains tax or registration duties on any sale or
other disposition of our ordinary shares.
If a share transfer is evidenced by a written agreement, that agreement is,
in principle, subject to registration formalities and therefore to a 1%
registration duty payable by the transferee and assessed on the higher of the
purchase price and the market value of the shares, subject to a maximum
assessment of FF 20,000 per transfer. Generally, no duty is due only if the
transfer of shares is not evidenced by a written agreement or if such agreement
is executed outside of France. No stock exchange stamp tax is payable on the
sale of shares by non-French residents. If you decide to invest in our ordinary
shares, you should consult your own advisors concerning the applicability of
French transfer tax to any agreement evidencing the transfer of your shares.
TAXATION OF DIVIDENDS ON SHARES
Under French law, our dividends are paid out of our after-tax income.
French residents are entitled to a tax credit, known as the avoir fiscal, equal
to 50% of any dividend we pay. Since January 1, 1999, the rate of the avoir
fiscal available in respect of dividends paid to companies is generally equal to
45% of the dividend paid and the avoir fiscal available in respect of dividends
paid to individuals is equal to 50% of the dividend paid. Dividends paid to
non-French residents generally are subject to a 25% French withholding tax and
non-French residents are not eligible for the benefit of the avoir fiscal.
However, non-French resident holders that are entitled to and that comply with
the procedures for claiming benefits under an applicable tax treaty may, under
certain conditions, be subject to a reduced rate of withholding tax, and may be
entitled to receive a refund of the avoir fiscal, as described below.
France has entered into income tax treaties with the following countries,
territories and Territoires d'Outre-Mer under which qualifying non-French
residents (other than German tax residents) are entitled to obtain, from the
French tax authorities, a reduction of generally 15% of all or part of the
French withholding tax, and a refund of the avoir
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fiscal (not of applicable withholding tax). German tax residents may obtain from
the German tax authorities a tax credit in an amount generally equal to the
amount of the applicable avoir fiscal and the amount of the applicable
withholding tax. The list below contains only treaties that are effective as of
the date of this prospectus, and does not contain treaties, amendments,
protocol, or exchange of letters that are not yet effective. Treaties with some
of the countries or territories listed below contain specific limitations
applicable to a corporate entity's eligibility to the benefit of the avoir
fiscal or limit the right to that refund strictly to individual residents, as
opposed to corporate entities.
Countries
<TABLE>
<S> <C> <C>
Australia Israel Pakistan
Austria Italy Senegal
Belgium Ivory Coast Singapore
Bolivia Japan South Korea
Brazil Luxembourg Spain
Burkina Faso Malaysia Sweden
Cameroon Mali Switzerland
Canada Malta Togo
Finland Mauritius Turkey
Gabon Mexico United Kingdom
Ghana Netherlands United States of
Germany New Zealand America
Iceland Niger Venezuela
India Norway
</TABLE>
Territoires d'Outre Mer and Others
Mayotte
New Caledonia
Saint-Pierre et Miquelon
Dividends paid to non-residents of France benefiting from the avoir fiscal
in accordance with a tax treaty, other than German residents, will be subject,
at the time of payment, to withholding tax at the reduced rate, as provided in
the applicable treaty (subject to certain filing formalities), rather than to
the 25% French withholding tax later reduced to the treaty rate, provided that
they establish their entitlement to the reduced rate before the payment of the
dividend.
Dividends distributed by French companies out of profits which have not
been taxed at the ordinary corporate income tax rate or which have been earned
and taxed more than five years before the distribution are subject to a
precompte (or prepayment). The distributing company pays the precompte to the
French tax authorities. The precompte is generally equal to one-half of the net
dividends before withholding tax. However, the precompte may be reduced to 45%
in respect of dividends distributed to holders who are entitled to use the avoir
fiscal at the rate of 45% rather than the rate of 50%. However, the distributing
company must certify it has distributed such dividends to such beneficiaries.
When a tax treaty does not provide for a refund of the avoir fiscal to a
non-resident investor or when such non-resident investor is not entitled to such
refund but otherwise is
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entitled to the benefits of a tax treaty, that investor may generally obtain
from the French tax authorities a refund, net of applicable withholding tax, of
the precompte, paid in cash by the company, if any.
ESTATE AND GIFT TAX
France imposes estate and gift tax on the shares of a French company
acquired by inheritance or gift from a non-resident of France. France has
entered into estate and gift tax treaties with a number of countries under
which, assuming certain conditions are met, residents of the treaty countries
may be exempted from estate and gift taxes or may obtain a tax credit. If you
intend to acquire any ordinary shares you should consult your own advisors
concerning the applicability of French estate and gift tax to your investment in
our shares and the availability of, and the conditions for claiming exemption
under, an applicable treaty.
WEALTH TAX
The French wealth tax (impot de solidarite sur la fortune) does not apply
to non-French resident individual investors owning directly or indirectly less
than 10% of our share capital.
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UNDERWRITING AND SALE
We and the underwriters for the offering named below have entered into an
underwriting agreement with respect to the offering of 900,000 ordinary shares,
including 90,000 ordinary shares being offered in an open price public offering
in France (an offre a prix ouvert). Subject to certain conditions, each
underwriter has severally agreed to purchase the number of ordinary shares
indicated in the following table.
<TABLE>
<CAPTION>
NUMBER OF
INTERNATIONAL UNDERWRITERS ORDINARY SHARES
-------------------------- ---------------
<S> <C>
Paribas..................................................... 405,000
Goldman Sachs International................................. 405,000
-------
Total..................................................... 810,000
=======
</TABLE>
In addition, each underwriter participating in the public offering in
France has severally agreed to underwrite on a standby basis the shares offered
in the open price public offering in France which are not subscribed by
investors, up to the maximum number of ordinary shares indicated in the
following table.
<TABLE>
<CAPTION>
NUMBER OF
FRENCH UNDERWRITERS ORDINARY SHARES
------------------- ---------------
<S> <C>
Paribas..................................................... 45,000
Goldman Sachs Paris Inc. et Cie............................. 45,000
-------
Total..................................................... 90,000
=======
</TABLE>
If the underwriters sell more ordinary shares than the total number set
forth in the table above, they have an option to buy up to an additional 135,000
ordinary shares from us to cover such sales. They may exercise this option until
the close of business in Paris on the day prior to the Closing Date. If any
ordinary shares are purchased pursuant to this option, the underwriters will
severally purchase such ordinary shares in approximately the same proportion as
set forth in the table above.
The following table shows the per share and total underwriting discounts
and commissions to be paid to the underwriters by us. Such amounts are shown
assuming both no exercise and full exercise of the underwriters' option to
purchase the 135,000 additional ordinary shares.
<TABLE>
<CAPTION>
NO EXERCISE FULL EXERCISE
----------- -------------
<S> <C> <C>
Per Ordinary Share................................... E 2.86 E 2.86
----------- -----------
Total................................................ E 2,574,000 E 2,960,100
=========== ===========
</TABLE>
Ordinary shares sold by the underwriters to the public will initially be
offered at the public offering price of 71.50 Euros. Any ordinary shares sold by
the underwriters to securities dealers may be sold at a discount of up to
approximately 1.72 Euros per share from the public offering price. If all the
ordinary shares are not sold at the public offering price, the underwriters may
change the offering price and the other selling terms.
The ordinary shares are being offered outside the United States and have
not been registered under the Securities Act for offer or sale as part of their
initial distribution. Each underwriter has represented and agreed that it has
not offered or sold and will not offer or sell ordinary shares within the United
States as part of its initial distribution. The ordinary shares have been
registered under the Securities Act solely for resale from time to time in the
United States in transactions that require registration under the Securities
Act.
74
<PAGE> 75
Each underwriter has represented and agreed that (i) it has not offered or
sold and prior to six months after the Closing Date of this Offering will not
offer or sell any shares in the United Kingdom, except to persons whose ordinary
activities involve them in acquiring, holding, managing or disposing of
investments (as principal or agent) for the purpose of their business or
otherwise in circumstances which have not resulted and will not result in an
offer to the public in the United Kingdom within the meaning of the Public
Offers of Securities Regulations 1995, (ii) it has and will comply with all
provisions of the Financial Services Act 1986 with respect to anything done by
it in relation to the Offered Shares in, from or otherwise involving the United
Kingdom and (iii) it has only issued or circulated, and will only issue or
circulate, in the United Kingdom a document received by it in connection with
the issue of the shares to a person who is of a kind described in Article 11(3)
of the Financial Services Act 1986 (Investment Advertisements) (Exemptions)
Order 1996 (as modified) or is a person to whom the document may otherwise
lawfully be issued.
We have agreed with the underwriters not to offer, sell, contract to sell
or otherwise dispose of, any of our ordinary shares or any of our securities
that are substantially similar to the ordinary shares, including but not limited
to any securities that are convertible into or exchangeable for, or that
represent the right to receive, ordinary shares or any such substantially
similar securities during the period from the date of this Prospectus continuing
through the date 90 days after the date of this Prospectus, except with the
prior written consent of Paribas and Goldman Sachs International. This agreement
does not apply to any of our existing employee stock option plans or any
convertible or exchangeable securities outstanding as of the date hereof.
The ordinary share have been approved for trading on the marche a reglement
mensuel or monthly settlement market of the Premier Marche of the
ParisBourse(SBF) S.A. See "French Market Information."
In connection with the offering, the underwriters may purchase and sell
ordinary shares or ADSs in the open market. These transactions may include short
sales, stabilizing transactions and purchases to cover positions created by
short sales. Short sales involve the sale by the underwriters of a greater
number of ordinary shares than they are required to purchase in the offering.
Stabilizing transactions consist of certain bids or purchases made for the
purpose of preventing or retarding a decline in the market price of the ordinary
shares while the offering is in progress.
The underwriters also may impose a penalty bid. This occurs when a
syndicate member repays to the underwriters a portion of the underwriting
discount received by it because the underwriters have repurchased ordinary
shares sold by or for the account of such syndicate member in stabilizing or
short covering transactions.
These activities by the underwriters may stabilize, maintain or otherwise
affect the market price of the ordinary shares. As a result, the price of the
ordinary shares may be higher than the price that otherwise might exist in the
open market. If these activities are commenced, they may be discontinued by the
underwriters at any time. These transactions may be effected on the Paris Stock
Exchange, the Nasdaq National Market, in the over-the-counter market outside the
United States or otherwise.
We estimate that the total expenses of the offering, excluding underwriting
discounts and commissions, will be approximately $2.4 million. This amount
includes $370,000 of expenses incurred by the underwriters that we have agreed
to reimburse.
We have agreed to indemnify the underwriters against certain liabilities,
including liabilities under the Securities Act of 1933.
75
<PAGE> 76
This Prospectus may be used by the underwriters and other dealers in
connection with offers and sales of ordinary shares initially sold by the
underwriters outside the United States in the offering insofar as such ordinary
shares are resold from time to time in the United States in transactions that
require registration under the Securities Act.
This Prospectus has not been submitted to the clearance procedures of the
Commission des Operations de Bourse and accordingly may not be used in
connection with any offer to purchase, subscribe or sell any ordinary shares in
France. For the purpose of the offering of ordinary shares in France, we have
prepared a prospectus in French which received the approval ("visa") of the
Commission des Operations de Bourse on November 2, 1999.
76
<PAGE> 77
WHERE YOU CAN FIND ADDITIONAL INFORMATION
REGARDING BUSINESS OBJECTS
We file annual, quarterly and special reports, proxy statements and other
information with the Securities and Exchange Commission (the "SEC"). Our SEC
filings are available to the public over the internet at the SEC's web site at
http://www.sec.gov. You may also read and copy any document we file with the SEC
at its Public Reference Room at 450 Fifth Street, N.W., Washington, D.C. 20549.
You can also obtain copies of the documents at prescribed rates by writing to
the Public Reference Section of the SEC at 450 Fifth Street, N.W., Washington,
D.C. 20549. Please call the SEC at 1-800-SEC-0330 for further information on the
operation of its Public Reference Room. Our SEC filings are also available at
the office of the National Association of Securities Dealers, Inc. For more
information on obtaining copies of our public filings at the National
Association of Securities Dealers, Inc., you should write to the National
Association of Securities Dealers, Inc., 1735 K Street, N.W., Washington, D.C.
20006.
We "incorporate by reference" into this prospectus the information we file
with the SEC, which means that we can disclose important information to you by
referring you to those documents. The information incorporated by reference is
an important part of this prospectus and information that we file subsequently
with the SEC will automatically update this prospectus. We incorporate by
reference the documents listed below and any filings we make with the SEC under
Sections 13(a), 13(c), 14, or 15(d) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 after
the initial filing of the registration statement that contains this prospectus
and prior to the time that we sell all the securities offered by this
prospectus:
- Annual Report on Form 10-K for the fiscal year ended December 31, 1998
(including information specifically incorporated by reference into our
Form 10-K from our 1998 Annual Report to Shareholders and our definitive
Notice and Proxy Statement for our 1999 Annual Meeting of Shareholders);
- Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q for the quarters ended March 31, 1999 and
June 30, 1999; and
- The description of our American Depositary Receipts contained in the
registration statement on Form 8-A (Commission File No. 0-24720) and any
amendment or reports filed to update that description after the date of
this prospectus.
You may request a copy of these filings (other than an exhibit to a filing
unless that exhibit is specifically incorporated by reference into that filing)
at no cost, by writing to us at 1 Square Chaptal, 92300, Levallois-Perret,
France, or at 2870 Zanker Road, San Jose, California 95134, U.S.A., or
telephoning us at 011-33-141-25-21-21 in France or at 1-408-953-6000 in the
United States.
You should rely only on the information presented or incorporated by
reference in this prospectus. We have not authorized anyone else to provide you
with different information. You should not assume that the information in this
prospectus is accurate as of any date other than the dates on the front of those
documents.
77
<PAGE> 78
CLEARING
The ordinary shares will be accepted for clearance through Sicovam, the
French securities clearing system, Euroclear System and Cedelbank, societe
anonyme. Euroclear System and Cedelbank, societe anonyme will make arrangements
to receive the ordinary shares through Sicovam.
LEGAL MATTERS
The validity of the issuance of the ordinary shares offered by this
prospectus is being passed upon for Business Objects S.A. by Stibbe Simont
Monahan Duhot & Giroux, Paris, France, its French counsel. Certain legal matters
will be passed upon for the underwriters by Cleary, Gottlieb, Steen & Hamilton,
Paris, France.
EXPERTS
Ernst & Young, LLP, independent auditors, have audited our consolidated
financial statements at December 31, 1997 and 1998, and for each of the three
years in the period ended December 31, 1998, as set forth in their report. We
have included our financial statements in the prospectus and elsewhere in the
registration statement in reliance on Ernst & Young LLP's report, given upon the
authority of such firm as experts in accounting and auditing.
78
<PAGE> 79
BUSINESS OBJECTS S.A.
INDEX TO CONSOLIDATED FINANCIAL STATEMENTS
<TABLE>
<CAPTION>
PAGE
----
<S> <C>
Report of Independent Auditors.............................. F-2
Consolidated Balance Sheets as of December 31, 1997 and
1998, and June 30, 1999 (unaudited)......................... F-3
Consolidated Statements of Income for the three years ended
December 31, 1998, and the six months ended June 30, 1998
(unaudited) and 1999 (unaudited).......................... F-4
Consolidated Statements of Shareholders' Equity for the
three years ended December 31, 1998, and the six months
ended June 30, 1999 (unaudited)........................... F-5
Consolidated Statements of Cash Flows for the three years
ended December 31, 1998, and the six months ended June 30,
1998 (unaudited) and 1999 (unaudited)..................... F-6
Notes to Consolidated Financial Statements.................. F-7
</TABLE>
F-1
<PAGE> 80
REPORT OF ERNST & YOUNG LLP, INDEPENDENT AUDITORS
The Board of Directors and Shareholders
Business Objects S.A.
We have audited the accompanying consolidated balance sheets of Business
Objects S.A. as of December 31, 1998 and 1997, and the related consolidated
statements of income, shareholders' equity, and cash flows for each of the three
years in the period ended December 31, 1998. These financial statements and
schedule are the responsibility of the Company's management. Our responsibility
is to express an opinion on these financial statements based on our audits.
We conducted our audits in accordance with generally accepted auditing
standards. Those standards require that we plan and perform the audit to obtain
reasonable assurance about whether the financial statements are free of material
misstatement. An audit includes examining, on a test basis, evidence supporting
the amounts and disclosures in the financial statements. An audit also includes
assessing the accounting principles used and significant estimates made by
management, as well as evaluating the overall financial statement presentation.
We believe that our audits provide a reasonable basis for our opinion.
In our opinion, the consolidated financial statements referred to above
present fairly, in all material respects, the consolidated financial position of
Business Objects S.A. at December 31, 1998 and 1997, and the consolidated
results of its operations and its cash flows for each of the three years in the
period ended December 31, 1998, in conformity with generally accepted accounting
principles in the United States.
/s/ Ernst & Young LLP
San Jose, California
January 29, 1999
F-2
<PAGE> 81
BUSINESS OBJECTS S.A.
CONSOLIDATED BALANCE SHEETS
(IN THOUSANDS, EXCEPT FOR PER ORDINARY SHARE AMOUNTS)
<TABLE>
<CAPTION>
DECEMBER 31,
------------------- JUNE 30,
1997 1998 1999
------- -------- -----------
(UNAUDITED)
<S> <C> <C> <C>
ASSETS
Current assets:
Cash and cash equivalents................................ $36,508 $ 71,713 $ 78,972
Short term investments................................... 2,505 -- --
Accounts receivable, net of allowances of $1,568,1,672
and $1,870 at December 31, 1998 and 1997 and June
30, 1999, respectively.............................. 35,113 42,236 40,585
Inventories........................................... 344 393 280
Deferred tax assets, net.............................. 1,185 3,958 4,001
Prepaid and other current assets...................... 4,365 3,642 6,358
------- -------- --------
Total current assets............................. 80,020 121,942 130,196
Goodwill, net............................................ 1,626 1,460 6,294
Property and equipment, net.............................. 12,020 13,804 13,513
Deposits and other assets................................ 674 879 1,577
------- -------- --------
Total assets..................................... $94,340 $138,085 $151,580
======= ======== ========
LIABILITIES AND SHAREHOLDERS' EQUITY
Current liabilities:
Accounts payable......................................... $ 8,089 $ 10,439 $ 10,393
Accrued payroll and related expenses..................... 9,944 16,597 15,578
Investment grant......................................... 668 -- --
Income taxes payable..................................... 1,269 7,337 9,636
Deferred revenue......................................... 16,825 21,684 26,542
Value added taxes payable................................ 2,901 4,450 4,856
Other current liabilities................................ 3,829 10,331 13,655
Current portion of capital lease obligations............. 16 -- --
------- -------- --------
Total current liabilities........................ 43,541 70,838 80,660
Notes payable.............................................. -- -- 1,000
Commitments and contingencies
Shareholders' equity: Ordinary shares, FF 1 nominal value
($0.16 U.S. as of June 30, 1999): authorized 36,243 at
December 31, 1998 and 37,452 at June 30, 1999; issued and
outstanding -- 16,788, 17,255 and 17,782 at December 31,
1998 and 1997 and June 30, 1999, respectively............ 3,084 3,166 3,251
Additional paid-in capital............................... 34,270 38,705 43,233
Treasury shares, 192 shares at June 30, 1999............. -- -- (4,611)
Retained earnings........................................ 18,107 28,394 36,746
Accumulated other comprehensive income................... (4,662) (3,018) (8,699)
------- -------- --------
Total shareholders' equity................................. 50,799 67,247 69,920
------- -------- --------
Total liabilities and shareholders' equity................. $94,340 $138,085 $151,580
======= ======== ========
</TABLE>
See accompanying notes.
F-3
<PAGE> 82
BUSINESS OBJECTS S.A.
CONSOLIDATED STATEMENTS OF INCOME
(IN THOUSANDS, EXCEPT PER ADS AND PER ORDINARY SHARE DATA)
<TABLE>
<CAPTION>
SIX MONTHS ENDED
YEAR ENDED DECEMBER 31, JUNE 30,
---------------------------- -------------------
1996 1997 1998 1998 1999
------- ------- -------- -------- --------
(UNAUDITED)
<S> <C> <C> <C> <C> <C>
Revenues:
License fees............................ $64,451 $78,478 $108,761 $48,579 $67,067
Services.............................. 20,686 35,775 58,133 25,538 39,984
------- ------- -------- ------- -------
Total revenues................... 85,137 114,253 166,894 74,117 107,051
Cost of revenues:
License fees.......................... 3,235 3,773 3,272 1,576 1,957
Services.............................. 6,780 13,107 23,899 10,349 17,126
------- ------- -------- ------- -------
Total cost of revenues........... 10,015 16,880 27,171 11,925 19,083
------- ------- -------- ------- -------
Gross margin............................ 75,122 97,373 139,723 62,192 87,968
Operating expenses:
Sales and marketing................... 50,038 68,115 89,118 41,564 53,454
Research and development.............. 10,634 14,050 19,434 8,831 12,422
General and administrative............ 7,402 11,076 15,394 6,768 9,152
------- ------- -------- ------- -------
Total operating expenses......... 68,074 93,241 123,946 57,163 75,028
------- ------- -------- ------- -------
Income from operations.................. 7,048 4,132 15,777 5,029 12,940
Interest and other income, net.......... 1,556 1,088 1,931 756 1,192
Net foreign currency exchange gain...... 293 585 147 29 24
------- ------- -------- ------- -------
Income before provision for income taxes
and minority interest................. 8,897 5,805 17,855 5,814 14,156
Provision for income taxes.............. (3,737) (3,184) (7,316) (2,380) (5,804)
Minority interest....................... -- 256 (252) (74) --
------- ------- -------- ------- -------
Net income.............................. $ 5,160 $ 2,877 $ 10,287 $ 3,360 $ 8,352
======= ======= ======== ======= =======
Net income per ADS and share -- basic... $ 0.32 $ 0.17 $ 0.61 $ 0.20 $ 0.48
======= ======= ======== ======= =======
ADS and shares used in computing net
income per ADS and per
share -- basic..................... 16,265 16,624 16,966 16,865 17,525
======= ======= ======== ======= =======
Net income per ADS and per
share -- diluted...................... $ 0.30 $ 0.17 $ 0.58 $ 0.19 $ 0.44
======= ======= ======== ======= =======
ADS and shares and common share
equivalents used in computing net
income per ADS and per
share -- diluted................... 16,924 16,876 17,741 17,683 19,051
======= ======= ======== ======= =======
</TABLE>
See accompanying notes.
F-4
<PAGE> 83
BUSINESS OBJECTS S.A.
CONSOLIDATED STATEMENTS OF SHAREHOLDERS' EQUITY
(IN THOUSANDS)
<TABLE>
<CAPTION>
ACCUMULATED
ORDINARY SHARES ADDITIONAL OTHER TOTAL
--------------- PAID-IN TREASURY RETAINED UNEARNED COMPREHENSIVE SHAREHOLDERS'
SHARES AMOUNT CAPITAL SHARES EARNINGS COMPENSATION INCOME EQUITY
------ ------ ---------- -------- -------- ------------ ------------- -------------
<S> <C> <C> <C> <C> <C> <C> <C> <C>
BALANCE AT DECEMBER 31,
1995........................ 16,083 $2,957 $30,870 -- $10,070 $(259) $ 2,823 $46,461
Issuance of stock pursuant to
employee stock option plans... 211 42 1,003 -- -- -- -- 1,045
Ordinary shares issued...... 91 18 1,129 -- -- -- -- 1,147
Compensation related to stock
option plans................ -- -- 35 -- -- 71 -- 106
Amortization of unearned
compensation related to
stock options............. -- -- -- -- -- 125 -- 125
Cancellation of options..... -- -- (1) -- -- 1 -- --
Components of comprehensive
income...................... --
Translation adjustment...... -- -- -- -- -- -- (2,208) (2,208)
Net income.................. -- -- -- -- 5,160 -- -- 5,160
-------
Total comprehensive income.... -- -- -- -- -- -- -- 2,952
------ ------ ------- ------- ------- ----- ------- -------
BALANCE AT DECEMBER 31,
1996........................ 16,385 3,017 33,036 -- 15,230 (62) 615 51,836
Issuance of stock pursuant
to employee stock option
plans..................... 286 49 406 -- -- -- -- 455
Ordinary shares issued...... 107 18 828 -- -- -- -- 846
Amortization of unearned
compensation related to
stock Options............. -- -- -- -- -- 62 -- 62
Components of comprehensive
income (loss)............... --
Translation adjustment...... -- -- -- -- -- -- (5,277) (5,277)
Net income.................. -- -- -- -- 2,877 -- -- 2,877
-------
Total comprehensive income
(loss)...................... -- -- -- -- -- -- -- (2,400)
------ ------ ------- ------- ------- ----- ------- -------
BALANCE AT DECEMBER 31,
1997........................ 16,778 3,084 34,270 -- 18,107 -- (4,662) 50,799
Issuance of stock pursuant
to employee stock option
plans..................... 319 56 2,719 -- -- -- -- 2,775
Ordinary shares issued...... 158 26 1,316 -- -- -- -- 1,342
Tax Benefit of Nonqualified
Stock Options............. -- -- 400 -- -- -- -- 400
Components of comprehensive
income...................... --
Translation adjustment...... -- -- -- -- -- -- 1,644 1,644
Net income.................. -- -- -- -- 10,287 -- -- 10,287
-------
Total comprehensive income.... -- -- -- -- -- -- -- 11,931
------ ------ ------- ------- ------- ----- ------- -------
BALANCE AT DECEMBER 31,
1998........................ 17,255 $3,166 $38,705 $ -- $28,394 $ -- $(3,018) $67,247
====== ====== ======= ======= ======= ===== ======= =======
Issuance of stock pursuant
to employee stock option
plans (unaudited)......... 370 60 3,002 -- -- -- -- 3,062
Ordinary shares issued
(unaudited)............... 157 25 1,526 -- -- -- -- 1,551
Purchase of treasury shares
(unaudited)............... -- -- (4,611) -- -- -- (4,611)
Components of comprehensive
income (unaudited).......... --
Translation adjustment
(unaudited)............... -- -- -- -- -- -- (5,681) (5,681)
Net income (unaudited)...... -- -- -- -- 8,352 -- -- 8,352
-------
Total comprehensive income
(unaudited)................. -- -- -- -- -- -- -- 2,671
------ ------ ------- ------- ------- ----- ------- -------
BALANCE AT JUNE 30, 1999
(UNAUDITED)................. 17,782 $3,251 $43,233 $(4,611) $36,746 $ -- $(8,699) $69,920
====== ====== ======= ======= ======= ===== ======= =======
</TABLE>
See accompanying notes.
F-5
<PAGE> 84
BUSINESS OBJECTS S.A.
CONSOLIDATED STATEMENTS OF CASH FLOWS
(IN THOUSANDS)
<TABLE>
<CAPTION>
SIX MONTHS ENDED
YEAR ENDED DECEMBER 31, JUNE 30,
-------------------------------- -------------------
1996 1997 1998 1998 1999
--------- -------- ------- -------- -------
(UNAUDITED)
<S> <C> <C> <C> <C> <C>
CASH FLOWS FROM OPERATING ACTIVITIES:
Net income................................................ $ 5,160 $ 2,877 $10,287 $ 3,360 $ 8,352
Adjustments to reconcile net income to net cash provided
by operating activities:
Depreciation and amortization......................... 2,075 4,179 5,385 2,494 3,114
Recognition of investment grant....................... -- -- (712) -- --
Amortization of goodwill.............................. -- 598 1,254 618 1,252
Compensation expense.................................. 197 62 -- -- --
Deferred income taxes................................. 135 (257) (2,768) -- 134
Changes in operating assets and liabilities:
Accounts receivable, net............................ (7,178) (12,914) (6,056) 2,200 (797)
Inventories......................................... (259) 131 (28) (265) 83
Prepaid and other current assets.................... (653) (2,326) (475) (509) (2,971)
Deposits and other assets........................... (250) (151) (162) (121) 64
Accounts payable.................................... 1,221 4,017 2,043 611 841
Accrued payroll and related expenses................ 1,130 3,089 9,673 3,730 505
Income taxes payable................................ (3,918) 1,310 6,160 1,743 2,397
Deferred revenue.................................... 4,407 7,007 4,323 1,303 6,071
Value added taxes and other current liabilities..... 2,028 1,297 5,390 2,855 2,138
--------- -------- ------- -------- -------
Net cash provided by operating activities................. 4,095 8,919 34,314 18,019 21,183
CASH FLOWS FROM INVESTING ACTIVITIES:
Purchases of property and equipment..................... (8,260) (6,332) (6,787) (3,212) (3,685)
Business acquisitions, net of cash acquired............. -- (2,640) (972) (982) (4,427)
Purchases of short term investments..................... (175,408) (70,374) -- (26,133) --
Proceeds from sales of short-term investments........... 185,279 86,047 2,505 20,462 --
Long term investment.................................... -- -- 17 -- --
--------- -------- ------- -------- -------
Net cash provided by (used for) investing activities.... 1,611 6,701 (5,237) (9,865) (8,112)
CASH FLOWS FROM FINANCING ACTIVITIES:
Principal payments on capital lease obligations......... (170) (93) (16) (16) --
Issuance of shares...................................... 2,195 1,301 4,500 1,373 4,614
Purchase of treasury shares............................. -- -- -- -- (4,611)
--------- -------- ------- -------- -------
Net cash provided by financing activities............... 2,025 1,208 4,484 1,357 3
Effect of foreign exchange rate changes on cash and cash
equivalents........................................... (514) (2,182) 1,643 (642) (5,815)
--------- -------- ------- -------- -------
Net increase in cash and cash equivalents............... 7,217 14,646 35,205 8,869 7,259
Cash and cash equivalents at the beginning of the
year.................................................. 14,645 21,862 36,508 36,508 71,713
--------- -------- ------- -------- -------
Cash and cash equivalents at end of the year............ $ 21,862 $ 36,508 $71,713 $ 45,377 $78,972
========= ======== ======= ======== =======
Supplemental disclosures of non-cash activities:
Supplemental disclosures of cash flow information:
Cash paid for income taxes............................ $ 7,510 $ 1,837 $ 6,903 $ 650 $ 2,900
</TABLE>
See accompanying notes.
F-6
<PAGE> 85
BUSINESS OBJECTS, S.A.
NOTES TO CONSOLIDATED FINANCIAL STATEMENTS --
BUSINESS OBJECTS S.A.
(Information as of and for the six months
ended June 30, 1998 and 1999 is unaudited)
1. ORGANIZATION AND SUMMARY OF SIGNIFICANT ACCOUNTING POLICIES
- Organization and Basis of Presentation. Business Objects S.A. (the
Company) was organized in 1990 as a societe anonyme, or limited liability
company, under the laws of the Republic of France. The Company develops,
markets, and supports enterprisewide business intelligence software tools.
During 1998, the Company acquired an additional 29% of the outstanding
shares of its Italian distributor, increasing its ownership to 80%. In March
1999, the Company exercised its option to purchase the remaining 20% of
outstanding shares. The transactions have been recorded using the purchase
method.
During March 1999, the Company acquired 9.5% of the outstanding shares of
its Norwegian distributor in a transaction recorded using the cost method of
accounting. In April 1999, the Company acquired all the outstanding shares of a
Dutch consulting firm. This transaction has been recorded using the purchase
method.
The accompanying consolidated financial statements include the accounts of
the Company and its wholly-owned and majority controlled subsidiaries, after
elimination of intercompany transactions and balances.
The consolidated financial statements have been prepared in accordance with
generally accepted accounting principles in the United States, applied on a
consistent basis. The preparation of financial statements in conformity with
U.S. generally accepted accounting principles requires management to make
estimates and assumptions that affect the amounts reported in the financial
statements and accompanying footnotes. Actual results could differ from those
estimates.
- Interim financial information. The financial information at June 30, 1999
and for the six months ended June 30, 1998 and 1999 is unaudited but include all
adjustments consisting only of normal recurring entries that management
considers necessary for fair presentation. Operating results for the six months
ended June 30, 1999 are not necessarily indicative of the results that may be
expected for any future periods.
- Translation of Financial Statements of Foreign Entities. The functional
currency of the Company and its subsidiaries is the applicable local currency in
accordance with Statement of Financial Accounting Standards No. 52, "Foreign
Currency Translation," while the Company's reporting currency is the U.S.
dollar. Assets and liabilities of the Company and its subsidiaries with
functional currencies other than the U.S. dollar are translated into U.S. dollar
equivalents at the rate of exchange in effect on the balance sheet date.
Revenues and expenses are translated at the weighted average exchange rates for
the year. Translation gains or losses are recorded as a separate component of
shareholders' equity, and transaction gains and losses are reflected in net
income.
Due to the number of currencies involved, the constant change in currency
exposures, and the substantial volatility of currency exchange rates, the effect
of exchange rate
F-7
<PAGE> 86
BUSINESS OBJECTS, S.A.
NOTES TO CONSOLIDATED FINANCIAL STATEMENTS --
BUSINESS OBJECTS S.A. (CONTINUED)
(Information as of and for the six months
ended June 30, 1998 and 1999 is unaudited)
fluctuations upon future operating results could be significant. To date, the
Company has not undertaken hedging transactions to cover any currency exposure.
- Revenue Recognition. Beginning in January 1, 1998, the Company adopted
Statement of Position 97-2 "Software Revenue Recognition" as amended by
Statement of Position 98-4. The effect of adoption did not have a material
impact on the Company's results of operations.
The Company derives its revenues from license fees and from charges for
services, consisting of post-sale customer support, consulting and training
services. The Company generally recognizes software license fees upon delivery
of the software product to the end user. The Company recognizes revenues from
its customer support services on a straight-line basis over the period during
which it provides the support services. The Company recognizes consulting and
training service revenues as the services are provided. In software arrangements
that include rights to multiple software products, post-contract customer
support, and/or other services, the Company allocates the total arrangement fee
among each deliverable based on the relative fair value of each of the
deliverables determined based on vendor-specific objective evidence.
- Sales Returns and Warranties. The Company's distributors do not have the
right to return merchandise for credit or refund. Any other potential sales
returns are covered by the Company's allowance for sales returns and doubtful
accounts. The Company provides for the costs of warranty when specific problems
are identified. The Company has not experienced any significant warranty claims
to date.
- Net Income Per ADS and Per Share. The Company adopted Statement of
Financial Accounting Standards No. 128, "Earnings per Share" (FAS 128),
beginning with the Company's fourth quarter of 1997. FAS 128 replaced the
calculation of primary and fully diluted earnings per share with basic and
diluted earnings per American depositary share and per share. Unlike primary
earnings per share, basic earnings per American depositary shares and per share
excludes any dilutive effects of options, warrants, and convertible securities.
Diluted earnings per share are very similar to the previously reported fully
diluted earnings per American depositary share and per share.
Net income per share and per American depositary share reflects the
adjustment in May of 1996 of the conversion ratio between ordinary shares and
American Depositary Shares from two-Ordinary-Shares-to-one-American depositary
share to one-Ordinary-Share-to-one-American depositary share, producing the same
results as a two-for-one stock split.
- Cash, Cash Equivalents, and Short-Term Investments. The Company considers
all highly liquid investments purchased with an original maturity of three
months or less to be cash equivalents. Investments with maturity dates of
greater than three months and less than one year are considered to be short-term
investments. Cash equivalents and short-
F-8
<PAGE> 87
BUSINESS OBJECTS, S.A.
NOTES TO CONSOLIDATED FINANCIAL STATEMENTS --
BUSINESS OBJECTS S.A. (CONTINUED)
(Information as of and for the six months
ended June 30, 1998 and 1999 is unaudited)
term investments include marketable securities that are principally money market
funds, certificates of deposit, term deposits, and commercial paper.
Management classifies investments as held-to-maturity or available-for-sale
at the time of purchase and periodically reevaluates such designation under the
provisions of Statement of Financial Accounting Standards No. 115, "Accounting
for Certain Investments in Debt and Equity Securities" (FAS 115). Debt
securities not classified as held-to-maturity are classified as
available-for-sale and are reported at fair value. Unrecognized gains or losses
on available-for-sale securities are included, net of tax, in equity until their
disposition. Realized gains and losses and declines in value judged to be
other-than-temporary on available-for-sale securities are included in net
interest income. The cost of securities sold is based on the specific
identification method.
All the Company's cash equivalents and short-term investments are
classified as available-for-sale at December 31, 1997 and 1998, and at June 30,
1999, and are carried at amortized cost, which approximates estimated fair value
based on quoted market prices.
- Inventories. Inventories consist principally of software media and
related documentation stated at the lower of cost (first-in, first-out) or
market.
- Software Development Costs. The Company capitalizes eligible software
development costs upon achievement of technological feasibility subject to net
realizable value considerations. Based on the Company's development process,
technological feasibility is generally established upon completion of a working
model. Research and development costs prior to the establishment of
technological feasibility are expensed as incurred. Because the period between
achievement of technological feasibility and the general release of the
Company's products has been of relatively short duration, costs qualifying for
capitalization were insignificant during the years ended December 31, 1997 and
1998, and during the six month periods ended June 30, 1998 and 1999. There were
no capitalized software development costs at December 31, 1997 and 1998, and at
June 30, 1999.
- Property and Equipment. Property and equipment are stated at cost. Office
and computer equipment is depreciated using the straight-line method over
estimated useful lives ranging from three to five years. Assets under capital
leases are amortized over the shorter of the asset life or the lease term.
Leasehold improvements are depreciated over the shorter of the asset life or the
remaining lease term.
- American Depositary Shares. On May 10, 1996, the Company amended its
Deposit Agreement with the Bank of New York, changing the ratio at which the
Company's ordinary shares are converted into ADSs. Under the original Deposit
Agreement, two ordinary shares converted into one ADS. Following the amendment,
one ordinary share converts into one American depositary share. All American
depositary share and per American depositary share amounts have been restated to
reflect this change.
- Concentration of Credit Risk. The Company sells its products to various
companies across several industries throughout the world. The Company performs
ongoing credit
F-9
<PAGE> 88
BUSINESS OBJECTS, S.A.
NOTES TO CONSOLIDATED FINANCIAL STATEMENTS --
BUSINESS OBJECTS S.A. (CONTINUED)
(Information as of and for the six months
ended June 30, 1998 and 1999 is unaudited)
evaluations of its customers and maintains reserves for potential credit losses.
Such losses have been within management's expectations. The Company generally
requires no collateral from its customers. Substantially all revenues of the
Company have been derived from the successive releases of one product and, as a
consequence, any factor adversely affecting any release of this product would
have a material adverse effect on the Company.
- Employee Stock Option Plans. The Company has elected to follow Accounting
Principles Board Opinion No. 25, "Accounting for Stock Issued to Employees" (APB
25), and related interpretations in accounting for its employee stock options
because the alternative fair market value accounting provided for under
Statement of Financial Accounting Standards Statement No. 123, "Accounting for
Stock-Based Compensation" (FAS 123), requires the use of option valuation models
that were not developed for use in valuing employee stock options, and has
provided for additional disclosures required by FAS 123. The Company generally
grants stock options for a fixed number of shares to employees with an exercise
price equal to the fair market value of the shares at the date of grant, and no
compensation expense is recorded. When the exercise price of the Company's
employee stock options is less than the market price of the underlying shares of
the date of the grant, compensation expense is recognized.
- Advertising Costs. The Company expenses advertising expenses as incurred.
Advertising expenses totaled $1,492,000, $1,672,000 and $1,189,000 for the years
ended December 31, 1996, 1997, and 1998, respectively.
Recent Pronouncements. In March 1998, the Accounting Standards Board issued
Statement of Position 98-1, "Accounting for the Costs of Computer Software
Developed or Obtained for Internal Use" (SOP 98-1). SOP 98-1 is effective for
years beginning after December 15, 1998. SOP 98-1 will require the
capitalization of certain costs incurred after the date of adoption in
connection with developing or obtaining software for internal use. The Company
currently expenses such costs as incurred. The Company does not believe that SOP
98-1 will have a significant impact on its consolidated financial position,
results of operations, or cash flows.
In June 1998, the Financial Accounting Standards Board issued Statement No.
133, "Accounting for Derivative Instruments and Hedging Activity" (FAS 133),
which is required to be adopted in years beginning after June 15, 1999. FAS 133
permits early adoption as of the beginning of any fiscal quarter. FAS 133
requires the recognition of all derivatives on the balance sheet at fair value.
Derivatives that are not hedges of underlying transactions must be adjusted to
fair value through income. If the derivative is a hedge, depending on the nature
of the hedge, changes in the fair value of derivatives will either be offset
against the change in fair value of the hedged assets, liabilities, or firm
commitments through earnings or recognized in other comprehensive income until
the hedged item is recognized in earnings. The ineffective portion of a
derivative's change in fair value will be immediately recognized in earnings.
The Company does not believe that FAS 133 will have a significant impact on its
consolidated financial position, results of operations, or cash flows.
F-10
<PAGE> 89
BUSINESS OBJECTS, S.A.
NOTES TO CONSOLIDATED FINANCIAL STATEMENTS --
BUSINESS OBJECTS S.A. (CONTINUED)
(Information as of and for the six months
ended June 30, 1998 and 1999 is unaudited)
Statement of Position 98-9, "Modification of SOP 97-2, Software Revenue
Recognition, With Respect to Certain Transactions" (SOP 98-9) was issued in
December 1998 and addresses software revenue recognition as it applies to
certain multiple-element arrangements. SOP 98-9 also amends Statement of
Position 98-4, "Deferral of the Effective Date of a Provision of SOP 97-2," to
extend the deferral of application of certain passages of Statement of Position
97-2 through fiscal years beginning on or before March 15, 1999. All other
provisions of SOP 98-9 are effective for transactions entered into in fiscal
years beginning after March 15, 1999. The Company will comply with the
requirements of SOP 98-9 as they become effective and this is not expected to
have a significant effect on the Company's revenues and earnings.
- Introduction of the European Economic and Monetary Union (EMU). On
January 1, 1999, 11 of the 15 member countries of the European Union
established a fixed conversion rate between their sovereign currencies
and adopted the Euro as their common legal currency. As a result, the
Euro now trades on currency exchanges and is available for non-cash
transactions. The Company expended resources, reviewed and modified
pricing policies in the new economic environment, analyzed the legal and
contractual implications for contracts, evaluated system capabilities,
and ensured that banking vendors support its operations in Euro-related
transactions. The Company has modified its business operations and
systems to accommodate the Euro conversion, and as of June 30, 1999, the
cost of these modifications has not significantly affected its operating
results.
- Reclassifications. Certain prior year amounts have been reclassified to
conform with current year presentation.
2. CASH AND CASH EQUIVALENTS AND SHORT-TERM INVESTMENTS
The Company's cash and cash equivalents and short-term investments are as
follows (in thousands):
<TABLE>
<CAPTION>
DECEMBER 31,
------------------ JUNE 30,
1997 1998 1999
------- ------- --------
<S> <C> <C> <C>
Cash and cash equivalents:
Cash..................................... $29,739 $48,631 $39,915
Money market funds..................... 6,769 23,082 39,057
------- ------- -------
Total cash and cash equivalents..... $36,508 $71,713 $78,972
======= ======= =======
Short-term investments:
Certificates of deposit................ $ 2,505 $ -- $ --
------- ------- -------
Total cash, cash equivalents and
short-term investments............ $39,013 $71,713 $78,972
======= ======= =======
</TABLE>
F-11
<PAGE> 90
BUSINESS OBJECTS, S.A.
NOTES TO CONSOLIDATED FINANCIAL STATEMENTS --
BUSINESS OBJECTS S.A. (CONTINUED)
(Information as of and for the six months
ended June 30, 1998 and 1999 is unaudited)
Unrealized holding gains and losses on available-for-sale securities at
December 31, 1997 and 1998, and at June 30, 1999 and gross realized gains and
losses on sales of available-for-sale securities during 1996, 1997, 1998 and for
the six months ended June 30, 1998 and 1999 were insignificant.
3. PROPERTY AND EQUIPMENT
Property and equipment consists of the following (in thousands):
<TABLE>
<CAPTION>
DECEMBER 31,
------------------ JUNE 30,
1997 1998 1999
------- -------- --------
<S> <C> <C> <C>
Office and computer equipment.................... $16,552 $ 22,287 $ 24,356
Leasehold improvements........................... 2,900 4,421 4,488
------- -------- --------
Total property and equipment........ 19,452 26,708 28,844
Accumulated depreciation and amortization........ (7,432) (12,904) (15,331)
------- -------- --------
Property and equipment, net.................... $12,020 $ 13,804 $ 13,513
======= ======== ========
</TABLE>
Depreciation and amortization expense on property and equipment totaled
$2,075,000, $4,179,000, and $5,385,000 for the years ended December 31, 1996,
1997, and 1998, respectively, and $2,494,000 and $3,114,000 for the six month
periods ended June 30, 1998 and 1999, respectively.
4. COMPREHENSIVE INCOME (LOSS)
As of January 1, 1998, the Company adopted Financial Accounting Standards
Board Statement No. 130, "Reporting Comprehensive Income" (FAS 130), which
establishes new rules for the reporting and display of comprehensive income and
its components; however, the adoption of this Statement had no impact on the
Company's results of operations or shareholders' equity. FAS 130 requires
unrealized gains or losses on the Company's available-for-sale securities and
the foreign currency translation adjustments, which prior to adoption were
reported separately in shareholders' equity, to be included in other
comprehensive income. Prior year financial statements have been reclassified to
conform to the requirements of FAS 130.
F-12
<PAGE> 91
BUSINESS OBJECTS, S.A.
NOTES TO CONSOLIDATED FINANCIAL STATEMENTS --
BUSINESS OBJECTS S.A. (CONTINUED)
(Information as of and for the six months
ended June 30, 1998 and 1999 is unaudited)
The components of accumulated other comprehensive income (loss), net of
related tax, were as follows (in thousands):
<TABLE>
<CAPTION>
INCOME
BEFORE-TAX TAX (EXPENSE) NET-OF-TAX
AMOUNT OR BENEFIT AMOUNT
---------- ------------- ----------
<S> <C> <C> <C>
Cumulative Translation Adjustment at
December 31, 1996................. $ (3,807) $ 1,599 $(2,208)
Cumulative Translation Adjustment at
December 31, 1997................... (11,727) 6,450 (5,277)
Cumulative Translation Adjustment at
December 31, 1998................. 2,786 (1,142) 1,644
Cumulative Translation Adjustment at
June 30, 1999..................... $ (9,629) $(3,948) $(5,681)
</TABLE>
5. INVESTMENT GRANT
In May 1992, the Company was awarded a grant from the French Ministry of
the Economy, Finance, and the Budget. The Company received FF 2,500,000 in
August 1992 and FF 1,500,000 in December 1993 from this grant. Due to the
achievement of certain milestones, this grant was recognized as income and
booked as other income during 1998. Using the end of period exchange rate at
December 31, 1998, the dollar equivalent of the grant recognized was $711,000.
6. CAPITAL LEASE OBLIGATIONS
The Company leases certain of its equipment under capital leases.
Capitalized costs of approximately $491,000 are included in property and
equipment at December 31, 1997 and approximately $523,000 at December 31, 1998
and June 30, 1999, respectively. These leased assets were fully amortized as of
December 31, 1998.
7. ACQUISITIONS
During April 1997, the Company exercised its option to acquire 51% of the
outstanding shares of a division of Datamat Ingegneria dei Sistemi S.p.A.
("Datamat"), its Italian distributor, in exchange for $1,300,000 in cash. During
April 1998, the Company exercised its option to acquire an additional 29% of the
outstanding shares of its Italian distributor in exchange for $982,000,
increasing the Company's ownership interest to 80%. During March 1999, the
Company exercised its option to the remaining 20% of the outstanding shares in
exchange for $1,024,000 in cash. The cost of the originally purchased shares and
the additional shares has been fully allocated to goodwill, and is being
amortized over a three-year period beginning in April 1997.
F-13
<PAGE> 92
BUSINESS OBJECTS, S.A.
NOTES TO CONSOLIDATED FINANCIAL STATEMENTS --
BUSINESS OBJECTS S.A. (CONTINUED)
(Information as of and for the six months
ended June 30, 1998 and 1999 is unaudited)
During May 1997, the Company acquired all the outstanding shares of Delphi
Software A.G. ("Delphi"), its Swiss distributor, in exchange for approximately
$864,000 in cash. Goodwill of approximately $1,058,000 was recorded as a result
of the purchase, and is being amortized over three years.
During April 1999, the Company acquired all the outstanding shares in
Prophecy Holding B.V., the sole shareholder of Prophecy Automatisering B.V.
("Prophecy"), a Dutch consulting firm predominately focused on decision support
solutions as they relate to packaged applications. The aggregate purchase price,
including direct acquisition costs, was $3,075,000 in cash plus notes payable
totaling $3,000,000. The notes are payable in two installments, with $2,000,000
payable in April 2000 and the remaining $1,000,000 payable in April 2001,
subject to certain contingencies relating to continuing employment of the
principals of Prophecy. $5,278,000 of the purchase price has been allocated to
goodwill and will be amortized over a five year period beginning in April 1999.
The Company has accounted for the acquisition of Datamat, Delphi and
Prophecy using the purchase method, and accordingly, the operating results of
the acquired companies have been included in the accompanying consolidated
financial statements from their dates of acquisition. Accumulated amortization
of goodwill totaled $598,000 at December 31, 1997, $1,852,000 at December 31,
1998, and $3,103,000 at June 30,1999.
During March 1999, the Company purchased 9.5% of the outstanding shares of
its Norwegian distributor, Component Software Nordic A.S. in exchange for
$864,000 in cash. This acquisition has been accounted for under the cost method
of accounting.
8. COMMITMENTS AND CONTINGENCIES
Commitments. The Company leases its facilities and certain equipment under
operating leases that expire through 2004. Future minimum lease payments under
operating leases due for the fiscal years ending December 31 are as follows (in
thousands):
<TABLE>
<S> <C>
1999.......................................... $ 7,338
2000.......................................... 5,779
2001.......................................... 4,001
2002.......................................... 1,207
2003.......................................... 174
Thereafter.................................... 70
-------
Total....................................... $18,569
=======
</TABLE>
Rent expense under all operating leases was approximately $3,900,000,
$5,800,000, and $7,000,000 for the years ended December 31, 1996, 1997, and
1998, respectively, and $3,321,000 and $4,108,000 for the six month periods
ended June 30, 1998 and 1999, respectively.
F-14
<PAGE> 93
BUSINESS OBJECTS, S.A.
NOTES TO CONSOLIDATED FINANCIAL STATEMENTS --
BUSINESS OBJECTS S.A. (CONTINUED)
(Information as of and for the six months
ended June 30, 1998 and 1999 is unaudited)
The Company leases certain facilities under operating leases that contain
free rent periods. Rent expense under these leases has been recorded on a
straight-line basis over the lease term. The difference between amounts paid and
rent expense is recorded as deferred rent and is included in other current
liabilities. The deferred rent liability under these leases was $382,000,
$618,000 and $626,000 at December 31, 1997 and 1998 and at June 30, 1999,
respectively.
Contingencies. The Company is involved in various legal proceedings arising
in the ordinary course of business. The Company believes that the ultimate
resolution of these matters will not have a material effect on the Company's
financial position, results of operations, or cash flows. See Note 14 of Notes
to Consolidated Financial Statements -- "Subsequent Event" for a description of
an infringement claim brought against the Company by Brio Technology, Inc.
9. SHAREHOLDERS' EQUITY
- Dividend Rights. Net income in each fiscal year after deduction for legal
reserves is available for distribution to shareholders of the Company as
dividends, subject to the requirements of French law and the Company's
"statuts," or articles of association. Dividends may also be distributed from
reserves of the Company, subject to approval by the shareholders and certain
limitations. Dividend distributions, if any, will be made in French francs.
Payment of dividends is fixed by the ordinary general meeting of shareholders at
which the annual accounts are approved following recommendations of the Board of
Directors. If net income is sufficient, the Board of Directors has the
authority, subject to French law and regulation and without the approval of
shareholders, to distribute interim dividends. The Company has not distributed
any dividends since its inception.
The Company is required to maintain a legal reserve equal to 10% of the
aggregate nominal value of its share capital, funded by a transfer of at least
5% of the Company's net income per year to such legal reserve. The legal reserve
balance requirement was $317,000 and $308,000 as of December 31, 1998 and 1997,
respectively. The legal reserve is distributable only upon the liquidation of
the Company. The Company's statuts also provide that distributable profits,
after deduction of any amounts required to be allocated to the legal reserve,
can be allocated to one or more special purpose reserves or distributed as
dividends as may be determined by the general meeting of shareholders.
- Liquidation Rights. In the event that the Company is liquidated, the
assets of the Company remaining after payment of debts, liquidation expenses,
and all remaining obligations will be distributed first to repay in full the
capital of any outstanding shares. The surplus, if any, will then be distributed
pro rata among the shareholders in proportion to the nominal value of their
share holdings and subject to special rights granted to holders of priority
shares, if any.
F-15
<PAGE> 94
BUSINESS OBJECTS, S.A.
NOTES TO CONSOLIDATED FINANCIAL STATEMENTS --
BUSINESS OBJECTS S.A. (CONTINUED)
(Information as of and for the six months
ended June 30, 1998 and 1999 is unaudited)
- Preemptive Subscription Rights. Shareholders have preemptive rights to
subscribe for additional shares issued by the Company for cash on a pro rata
basis. Shareholders may waive such preemptive subscription rights at an
extraordinary general meeting of shareholders under certain circumstances.
Preemptive subscription rights, if not previously waived, are transferable
during the subscription period relating to a particular offer of shares.
- Stock Repurchase Program. In October 1998, the Board of Directors
approved the implementation of a share repurchase program whereby the Company
may repurchase up to 1,000,000 of its ordinary shares or ADSs.
In May 1999, the Company repurchased on the Nasdaq National Market a total
of 191,500 shares for an aggregate cost of $4,611,000. In compliance with French
law, the shares will be used for distribution under our employee stock option
and stock purchase plans.
- Stock Option Plans. The Company's 1991 and 1993 Stock Option Plans (the
1991 and 1993 Plans) provide for the grant of stock options to certain employees
and executive officers of the Company. Under these plans, the Board of Directors
determines the vesting and exercise of the option grants. Generally options
granted under the 1991 and 1993 Plan vested at a rate of 25% per year subject to
a minimum of one year of continued service with the Company. The exercise price
per share, which was fixed at the date of grant, was determined by a formula
which was based on the share price applicable with respect to the last
subscription of the capital of the Company prior to the particular grant date of
the options granted to the employee. The share price formula also took into
consideration the number of days intervening between such subscription date and
the particular grant date and the revenues generated by the Company in the four
quarters preceding such grant date. No additional grants have been made under
the 1991 and 1993 Plans since the adoption of the 1994 Plan, and all options
available for grant under these plans have expired as of December 31, 1998.
On August 17, 1994, the shareholders of the Company authorized the creation
of a new stock option plan (the 1994 Plan) pursuant to which the Board of
Directors was authorized to issue options corresponding to 1,000,000 shares. The
1994 Plan was approved by the Company's shareholders at the 1995 Annual Meeting.
On June 13, 1996, the shareholders of the Company authorized an additional
1,000,000 shares reserved for issuance under the 1994 Plan. On June 19, 1997,
the shareholders of the Company authorized an additional 1,000,000 shares
reserved for issuance under the 1994 Plan. On June 18, 1998, the shareholders of
the Company authorized an additional 750,000 shares reserved for issuance under
the 1994 Plan. The 1994 Plan provides that the exercise price of options granted
will be based on the closing price of the ADSs on the Nasdaq National Market,
after converting the dollar closing price into French francs at the Noon Buying
Rate on the date prior to such grant. The shareholder authorizations to grant
options under the 1994 expire on August 16, 1999.
F-16
<PAGE> 95
BUSINESS OBJECTS, S.A.
NOTES TO CONSOLIDATED FINANCIAL STATEMENTS --
BUSINESS OBJECTS S.A. (CONTINUED)
(Information as of and for the six months
ended June 30, 1998 and 1999 is unaudited)
On May 4, 1999, the shareholders of the Company approved a new stock option
plan (the 1999 Plan) pursuant to which the Board of Directors was authorized to
issue options corresponding to 875,000 shares. The 1999 Plan provides, in
accordance with French regulations applicable to companies listed on a French
stock exchange, that the option price may not be less than the higher of (i)
100% of the closing price as reported on the French stock exchange on the last
trading day prior to the date of grant, or (ii) 80% of the average of the
closing prices on such market over the twenty trading days preceding the grant
date.
The 1994 and 1999 Plans are intended to qualify as incentive stock option
plans within the meaning of Section 422 of the Internal Revenue Code of 1986, as
amended. The Board of Directors determines the vesting schedule of option
grants, which generally vest at a rate of 25% per year subject to a minimum of
one year of continued service with the Company. The options granted under the
both Plans are exercisable up to ten years from the date of grant (other than
options granted to employees in the United Kingdom, which have a term of seven
years less one day).
Due to a decline in the market price of the Company's shares, the Board of
Directors implemented an Option Exchange Program in November 1996 (the 1996
Program), under which optionees were offered the opportunity to exchange their
outstanding options for new options at a lower exercise price. The 1996 Program
was restricted to outstanding options with an exercise price above 103 French
francs per share (equivalent to approximately $18 per share based on the
exchange rate at December 31, 1998). Members of the senior management of the
Company were not eligible to participate in the 1996 Program. In addition, in
consideration for the new lower exercise price, participating employees were
required to relinquish their rights to 10% of the number of underlying shares.
Approximately 144,000 options were cancelled and 130,000 options were granted as
a result of the 1996 Exchange Program.
The Board of Directors approved a second Option Exchange Program on July
28, 1997. The exchange period ended on September 2, 1997 (the 1997 Program). All
employees, including executive officers and officers, were eligible to
participate in the 1997 Program, with the exception, however, of the Chief
Executive Officer, Chief Operating Officer, and Chief Financial Officer. Under
the 1997 Program, participating employees were permitted to exchange one or more
of their outstanding options with an exercise price above 50 French francs per
share (equivalent to approximately $8 per share based on the exchange rate at
September 2, 1997, and equal to the fair market value of the stock as of that
date), on a one-for-one basis for new options. In consideration for the new
exercise price, the number of shares vested under the new option for the entire
twelve months following the exchange date was determined to be equal to only 50%
of the shares vested under the old option as of the exchange date. As of
September 2, 1998, the new options became exercisable to the same extent as the
old option would have been, had no exchange taken place. Specific exercisability
features of new options granted to French employees were provided in order to
eliminate any potential social security costs arising
F-17
<PAGE> 96
BUSINESS OBJECTS, S.A.
NOTES TO CONSOLIDATED FINANCIAL STATEMENTS --
BUSINESS OBJECTS S.A. (CONTINUED)
(Information as of and for the six months
ended June 30, 1998 and 1999 is unaudited)
from the exercise of the new options and disposition of underlying shares prior
to the expiration of a five-year period from the date of the exchange. For these
optionees, it was provided that no repriced option may be exercised prior to
September 2, 1999. After September 2, 1999, the new options shall be exercisable
to the same extent as the old options would have been had no exchange taken
place. Approximately 1,141,000 options were cancelled and granted as a result of
the 1997 Exchange Program.
In December 1996, the French parliament adopted a law that requires French
companies to pay French social contributions and certain salary-based taxes of
up to 45% for France-based employees on the difference between the exercise
price of a stock option and the fair market value of the underlying shares on
the exercise date, if the beneficiary disposes of the shares before a five-year
period following the grant of the option. The law applies to all options
exercised after January 1, 1997. However, the Company has not recorded a
liability for social charges on options granted prior to January 1, 1997 due to
the legislation passed in July 1998, which legislation removed under certain
conditions the retroactivity of social charges on options granted prior to such
date. Therefore, options granted by the Company prior to January 1, 1997 will
not give rise to social charges provided that they were exercised after March
31, 1998.
Options granted on or after January 1, 1997 are subject to social charges
on an exercise gain if the shares are sold or disposed of within five years from
the date of grant. Currently, for options issued after January 1, 1997, holders
of such options are not permitted to sell or dispose their shares within five
years of the date of grant and, therefore, no social charges will be due on
these options.
- Employee Stock Purchase Plans. The Company has an Employee Stock Purchase
Plan intended to qualify under the provisions of sections 421 and 423 of the
1986 Internal Revenue Code of the United States under which 165,000 shares were
authorized for issuance by the shareholders in June 1998, and an additional
260,000 shares were authorized for issuance in May 1999. Under the terms of this
plan, employees may contribute via payroll deductions up to 10% of their
compensation to purchase shares at a price equal to 85% of the lower of the fair
market value as of the beginning or end of the six-month offering period. The
Company issued approximately 91,000 shares under this plan during 1998, and
approximately 77,000 shares during the six month period ended June 30, 1999.
In addition, the Company also has an Employee Stock Purchase Plan available
to the Company's French employees as part of the Employee Savings Plan, which is
qualified under the provisions of French tax regulations. Under this plan,
135,000 shares have been authorized for issuance as of December 31, 1998, and an
additional 90,000 shares were authorized for issuance in May 1999. Stock
purchases are limited under this plan to 10% of an employee's compensation
received during the offering period. The Company issued approximately 68,000
shares under the Employee Savings Plan during 1998, and approximately 80,000
shares during the six month period ended June 30, 1999.
F-18
<PAGE> 97
BUSINESS OBJECTS, S.A.
NOTES TO CONSOLIDATED FINANCIAL STATEMENTS --
BUSINESS OBJECTS S.A. (CONTINUED)
(Information as of and for the six months
ended June 30, 1998 and 1999 is unaudited)
- Stock Based Compensation. Pro forma information regarding net income and
net income per share is required by FAS 123, and has been determined as if the
Company had accounted for its employee stock options under the fair value method
of FAS 123. The fair value for these options for 1996, 1997, and 1998 was
estimated at the date of grant using a Black-Scholes option pricing model
assuming no dividends, risk-free weighted average interest rates of 6%, 6%, and
5% for 1996, 1997, and 1998, respectively, and a weighted average expected
option life of six months and three years for options granted under Employee
Stock Purchase Plans and Stock Options Plans, respectively. The volatility
factor of the expected market price of the Company's ordinary shares was assumed
to be 60%, 70%, and 77% for 1996, 1997, and 1998, respectively.
The Black-Scholes option valuation model was developed for use in
estimating the fair value of traded options that have no vesting restrictions
and are fully transferable. The Black-Scholes model requires the input of highly
subjective assumptions including the expected stock price volatility. Because
the Company's employee stock options have characteristics significantly
different from those of traded options, and because the changes in the
subjective input assumptions can materially affect the fair value estimate, in
management's opinion, the existing models do not necessarily provide a reliable
single measure of the fair value of its employee stock options.
For purposes of pro forma disclosures, the estimated fair value of the
options is amortized to expense over the options' vesting period. The Company's
pro forma information is as follows (in thousands, except for net income and pro
forma net income per share information):
<TABLE>
<CAPTION>
1996 1997 1998
------ ------ -------
<S> <C> <C> <C>
Net income as reported............................. $5,160 $2,877 $10,287
Pro forma net income............................... $ 836 $ 291 $ 3,689
Net income per share as reported -- basic.......... $ 0.32 $ 0.17 $ 0.61
Pro forma net income per share -- basic............ $ 0.05 $ 0.02 $ 0.22
Net income per share as reported -- diluted........ $ 0.30 $ 0.17 $ 0.58
Pro forma net income per share -- diluted.......... $ 0.05 $ 0.02 $ 0.21
</TABLE>
The effects on pro forma disclosure of applying FAS 123 are not likely to
be representative of the effects on pro forma disclosures of future years.
Because FAS 123 is applicable only to options granted after December 31, 1994,
the pro forma effect will not be fully reflected until approximately 1999.
F-19
<PAGE> 98
BUSINESS OBJECTS, S.A.
NOTES TO CONSOLIDATED FINANCIAL STATEMENTS --
BUSINESS OBJECTS S.A. (CONTINUED)
(Information as of and for the six months
ended June 30, 1998 and 1999 is unaudited)
A summary of the Company's stock option activity under all Plans is
summarized as follows:
<TABLE>
<CAPTION>
OPTIONS OUTSTANDING
---------------------------
WEIGHTED
AVERAGE PRICE
OPTIONS NUMBER PER SHARE
AVAILABLE OF SHARES (IN FF)
---------- ---------- -------------
<S> <C> <C> <C>
BALANCE AT DECEMBER 31, 1995............ 721,151 1,378,131 54.93
Shares reserved......................... 1,000,000 -- --
Granted............................... (1,097,326) 1,097,326 108.84
Canceled.............................. 501,856 (501,856) 129.63
Exercised............................. -- (211,511) 25.12
---------- ----------
BALANCE AT DECEMBER 31, 1996............ 1,125,681 1,762,090 70.80
Shares reserved....................... 1,000,000 -- --
Granted............................... (2,176,576) 2,176,576 54.17
Canceled.............................. 1,464,038 (1,464,038) 82.54
Exercised............................. -- (285,366) 9.20
---------- ----------
BALANCE AT DECEMBER 31, 1997............ 1,413,143 2,189,262 54.32
Shares reserved....................... 750,000 -- --
Granted............................... (1,487,725) 1,487,725 84.89
Canceled.............................. 635,204 (635,204) 67.85
Exercised............................. -- (319,014) 49.31
Expired (1991 and 1993 Option
Plans)............................. (527,174) -- --
---------- ---------- ------
BALANCE AT DECEMBER 31, 1998............ 783,448 2,722,769 68.49
Shares reserved (unaudited)........... 875,000 -- --
Granted (unaudited)................... (632,875) 632,875 164.79
Canceled (unaudited).................. 102,277 (102,277) 127.36
Exercised (unaudited)................. -- (370,234) 50.98
---------- ---------- ------
BALANCE AT JUNE 30, 1999 (UNAUDITED).... 1,127,850 2,883,133 91.96
========== ========== ======
</TABLE>
Options to purchase approximately 821,000 shares were exercisable at June
30, 1999.
F-20
<PAGE> 99
BUSINESS OBJECTS, S.A.
NOTES TO CONSOLIDATED FINANCIAL STATEMENTS --
BUSINESS OBJECTS S.A. (CONTINUED)
(Information as of and for the six months
ended June 30, 1998 and 1999 is unaudited)
The following table summarizes the status of the Company stock options
outstanding and exercisable at June 30, 1999 (unaudited):
<TABLE>
<CAPTION>
STOCK OPTIONS
STOCK OPTIONS OUTSTANDING EXERCISABLE
---------------------------------------- ---------------------
WEIGHTED
AVERAGE WEIGHTED WEIGHTED
REMAINING AVERAGE AVERAGE
NUMBER CONTRACTUAL LIFE EXERCISE NUMBER EXERCISE
RANGE OF EXERCISE PRICES OF SHARES IN YEARS PRICE OF SHARES PRICE
- ------------------------ --------- ---------------- --------- --------- ---------
<S> <C> <C> <C> <C> <C>
FF 2.81 - FF 46.05 57,565 4.0 FF 17.80 57,565 FF 7.52
FF 46.06 - FF 69.07 825,703 7.5 FF 50.24 402,648 FF 48.03
FF 69.08 - FF 92.09 963,331 8.1 FF 81.60 270,450 FF 82.81
FF 92.10 - FF 115.11 417,974 8.5 FF 96.48 65,861 FF 100.76
FF 138.14 - FF 184.18 618,560 9.2 FF 155.80 1,000 FF 155.80
--------- --- --------- ------- ---------
All options 2,883,133 8.1 FF 90.77 820,654 FF 62.20
========= === ========= ======= =========
</TABLE>
For certain options granted under the 1991 and 1993 Plans, the Company
recognized as compensation the excess of the fair value of the common stock
issuable upon exercise of such options over the aggregate exercise prices of
such options. The compensation expense was amortized ratably over the vesting
period of the options. The compensation expense related to options granted was
$125,000, $62,000, and $0 for the years ended December 31, 1996, 1997, and 1998,
respectively. There was no compensation expense related to option grants for the
six month periods ended June 30, 1998 and 1999.
- Warrants. On April 25, 1995, the Board of Directors approved the issuance
of warrants to purchase 12,000 shares to a Director with an exercise price of FF
72.79 per share, vesting at a rate of 33.33% per year from June 22, 1995. The
warrants were issued in June 1995 after formal shareholder approval. The
difference between the exercise price and the estimated fair value of such
warrants was immaterial. All these warrants were outstanding as of June 30,
1999.
On April 28, 1997, the Board of Directors approved the issuance of warrants
to purchase 12,000 shares to four Directors, representing 48,000 shares in
total, with an exercise price of FF 55.33 per share. These warrants vest monthly
over three years commencing January 1, 1997. The warrants were issued in June
1997 after formal shareholder approval. The difference between the exercise
price and the estimated fair value of such warrants was immaterial. All these
warrants were outstanding as of June 30, 1999.
On April 28, 1998, the Board of Directors approved the issuance of warrants
to purchase 70,000 shares to five directors. The warrants were issued on June
18, 1998 after formal shareholder approval and have an exercise price of FF
96.66 per share, representing the French francs equivalent of the closing price
of one American Depositary Share of the Company as quoted on the Nasdaq National
Market on June 17, 1998. These warrants
F-21
<PAGE> 100
BUSINESS OBJECTS, S.A.
NOTES TO CONSOLIDATED FINANCIAL STATEMENTS --
BUSINESS OBJECTS S.A. (CONTINUED)
(Information as of and for the six months
ended June 30, 1998 and 1999 is unaudited)
vest annually over the remaining term of office of the recipient. All these
warrants were outstanding as of June 30, 1999.
In May 1999, our shareholders approved the issuance of warrants to purchase
an aggregate of 15,000 shares at an exercise price of FF 149.31 per share to a
director. These warrants were fully vested as of May 4, 1999. All these warrants
were outstanding as of June 30, 1999.
10. EMPLOYEE SAVINGS PLANS
During 1991, we established an Employee Savings Plan that allows voluntary
tax contributions by all full-time employees who are employed by our French
entity and have completed at least six months of service with us. In 1995, the
Employee Savings Plan was amended to allow these employees to purchase ordinary
shares of the Company. Eligible employees may contribute up to 25% of pretax
earnings to the Employee Savings Plan, of which a maximum of 10% of pre-tax
earnings may be used to purchase shares of the Company. See Note 9.
Shareholders' Equity -- Employee Stock Purchase Plans. The Company does not
match employee contributions.
The Company is subject to a Statutory Profit Sharing Plan (Statutory Plan)
for substantially all of the employees of its French entity. Contributions under
the Statutory Plan are based on a formula prescribed by French law. In addition,
employees of the Company's French entity may receive contributions from a
separate profit sharing plan sponsored by the Company (Company Plan).
Contributions under the Company Plan are based on the achievement of certain
goals established by the Board of Directors. Contributions under the Company
Plan are reduced by contributions required to be made under the Statutory Plan.
The Company has accrued for all contributions required by the Company for the
Plans as of December 31, 1997 and December 31, 1998.
The Company's subsidiary in the United States has a defined contribution
401(k) plan covering substantially all of its employees. In 1998 and 1997,
participants could elect to contribute up to 15% of their compensation to this
plan up to the statutory maximum amount. The Company could make discretionary
contributions to this plan determined solely by the Board of Directors. The
Company has not made any contributions to this plan through December 31, 1998.
Effective January 1999, the U.S. 401(k) plan was amended whereby the
Company will match employee payroll contributions at a rate of $0.50 for each
U.S. dollar contributed by a participant up to an annual employer matching
contribution of $1,500 per participant per year. The employer contributions vest
over three (3) years based on a participant working a minimum of 1,000 hours
during each plan year. Employees receive retroactive vesting credit based on
their date of hire. In addition, the maximum deferral percentage allowed under
the 401(k) plan has increased from 15% to 20% subject to the statutory maximum
amount of $10,000.
F-22
<PAGE> 101
BUSINESS OBJECTS, S.A.
NOTES TO CONSOLIDATED FINANCIAL STATEMENTS --
BUSINESS OBJECTS S.A. (CONTINUED)
(Information as of and for the six months
ended June 30, 1998 and 1999 is unaudited)
11. EARNINGS PER SHARE
The following table sets forth the computation of basic and diluted net
income per ADS and per share (in thousands, except per ADS and per share
amounts):
<TABLE>
<CAPTION>
SIX MONTHS ENDED
YEAR ENDED DECEMBER 31, JUNE 30,
--------------------------- -----------------
1996 1997 1998 1998 1999
------- ------- ------- ------- -------
<S> <C> <C> <C> <C> <C>
Numerator:
Net income....................................... $ 5,160 $ 2,877 $10,287 $ 3,360 $ 8,352
------- ------- ------- ------- -------
Denominator:
Weighted average ADSs and shares outstanding... 16,265 16,624 16,966 16,865 17,525
------- ------- ------- ------- -------
Denominator for basic earnings per ADS and per
share........................................ 16,265 16,624 16,966 16,865 17,525
Incremental common shares attributable to
shares exercisable under employee stock plans
and warrants................................. 659 252 775 818 1,526
------- ------- ------- ------- -------
Denominator for diluted earnings per ADS and
per share.................................... 16,924 16,876 17,741 17,863 19,051
======= ======= ======= ======= =======
Net income per ADS and per share -- basic...... $ 0.32 $ 0.17 $ 0.61 $ 0.20 $ 0.48
======= ======= ======= ======= =======
Net income per ADS and per share -- diluted.... $ 0.30 $ 0.17 $ 0.58 $ 0.19 $ 0.44
======= ======= ======= ======= =======
</TABLE>
12. INCOME TAXES
Income before provision for income taxes consists of the following (in
thousands):
<TABLE>
<CAPTION>
YEAR ENDED DECEMBER 31,
---------------------------
1996 1997 1998
------ ------ -------
<S> <C> <C> <C>
France..................................... $5,582 $2,589 $ 5,039
Rest of world.............................. 3,315 3,216 12,816
------ ------ -------
Total...................................... $8,897 $5,805 $17,855
====== ====== =======
</TABLE>
F-23
<PAGE> 102
BUSINESS OBJECTS, S.A.
NOTES TO CONSOLIDATED FINANCIAL STATEMENTS --
BUSINESS OBJECTS S.A. (CONTINUED)
(Information as of and for the six months
ended June 30, 1998 and 1999 is unaudited)
The provision for income taxes consists of the following (in thousands):
<TABLE>
<CAPTION>
YEAR ENDED DECEMBER 31,
---------------------------
1996 1997 1998
------ ------ -------
<S> <C> <C> <C>
Current:
France..................................... $1,973 $1,288 $ 1,913
Rest of world............................ 1,756 2,300 8,172
------ ------ -------
Total current............................ 3,729 3,588 10,085
Deferred:
France................................... 292 (254) 204
Rest of world............................ (284) (150) (2,973)
------ ------ -------
Total deferred........................... 8 (404) (2,769)
------ ------ -------
$3,737 $3,184 $ 7,316
====== ====== =======
</TABLE>
Tax benefits resulting from the exercise of nonqualified stock options and
the disqualifying disposition of shares acquired under the Company's incentive
stock option plan reduced taxes currently payable as shown above by
approximately $400,000 in 1998. Such benefits were credited to capital in excess
of par value when realized.
A reconciliation of income taxes computed at the French statutory rate
(36.7% in 1996 and 41.7% in 1997 and 1998) to the provision for income taxes is
as follows (in thousands):
<TABLE>
<CAPTION>
YEAR ENDED DECEMBER 31,
--------------------------
1996 1997 1998
------ ------ ------
<S> <C> <C> <C>
Income tax provision computed at the French
statutory rate............................ $3,261 $2,420 $7,439
Operating losses not utilized............... 228 779 9
Non-deductible provisions................... 340 149 165
Income at lower tax rates................... -- -- (598)
Other individually immaterial items......... (92) (164) 301
------ ------ ------
$3,737 $3,184 $7,316
====== ====== ======
</TABLE>
F-24
<PAGE> 103
BUSINESS OBJECTS, S.A.
NOTES TO CONSOLIDATED FINANCIAL STATEMENTS --
BUSINESS OBJECTS S.A. (CONTINUED)
(Information as of and for the six months
ended June 30, 1998 and 1999 is unaudited)
Deferred taxes reflect the net tax effects of loss carryforwards and
temporary differences between the carrying amounts of assets and liabilities for
financial reporting purposes and the amounts used for income tax purposes.
Significant components of the Company's deferred taxes consist of the following
(in thousands):
<TABLE>
<CAPTION>
DECEMBER 31,
------------------
1997 1998
------- -------
<S> <C> <C>
Deferred tax assets:
Net operating loss carryforwards................... $ 4,283 $ 3,557
Deferred revenue................................. 986 2,054
Accrued bonuses and compensation................. 363 396
Allowance for doubtful accounts.................. 415 293
Deferred rent.................................... -- 251
Other reserves and accruals not currently
deductible.................................. 800 1,986
Other............................................ 229 631
------- -------
Total deferred tax assets................... 7,076 9,168
Valuation allowance......................... (5,649) (4,892)
------- -------
1,427 4,276
Deferred tax liabilities:
Individually immaterial items.................... (242) (318)
------- -------
Net deferred tax assets..................... $ 1,185 $ 3,958
======= =======
</TABLE>
Approximately $3.1 million of the valuation allowance is attributed to
stock options, the benefit of which will be credited to additional paid-in
capital when realized.
As of December 31, 1998, the Company has U.S. federal and state net
operating loss carryforwards of approximately $6.0 million and $1.6 million,
respectively. These net operating loss carryforwards will expire in the years
1999 through 2019, if not utilized. The Company also has German, Singaporean,
and Canadian net operating loss carryforwards of approximately $2.5 million,
$0.6 million, and $0.3 million respectively. Tax losses in Singapore and Germany
may be carried forward indefinitely. Tax losses in Canada may be carried forward
for seven years.
13. SEGMENT AND GEOGRAPHIC INFORMATION
- Segment. The Company and its subsidiaries operate in one reportable
industry segment, the development, marketing, and support of enterprisewide
business intelligence software tools. The Company makes key decisions and
evaluates performance of the Company based on this single industry segment.
F-25
<PAGE> 104
BUSINESS OBJECTS, S.A.
NOTES TO CONSOLIDATED FINANCIAL STATEMENTS --
BUSINESS OBJECTS S.A. (CONTINUED)
(Information as of and for the six months
ended June 30, 1998 and 1999 is unaudited)
- Geography. Operations outside of France consist principally of sales,
marketing, finance, customer support, and to a lesser extent, research and
development activities. Transfers between geographic areas are accounted for at
amounts that are generally above cost and consistent with the rules and
regulations of governing tax authorities. Such transfers are eliminated in the
consolidated financial statements. Identifiable assets are those assets that can
be directly associated with a particular geographic area. The following is a
summary of operations within geographic area:
<TABLE>
<CAPTION>
REVENUES TRANSFERS
FROM BETWEEN
UNAFFILIATED GEOGRAPHIC TOTAL IDENTIFIABLE
CUSTOMERS AREAS REVENUES ASSETS
------------ ---------- -------- ------------
<S> <C> <C> <C> <C>
1996:
France.......................... $ 24,987 $ 16,098 $ 41,085 $ 60,661
United Kingdom................ 17,198 -- 17,198 12,151
Rest of Europe................ 10,274 -- 10,274 7,140
Americas...................... 28,429 -- 28,429 18,450
Asia Pacific.................. 4,249 -- 4,249 3,315
Eliminations.................. -- (16,098) (16,098) (20,947)
-------- -------- -------- --------
$ 85,137 $ -- $ 85,137 $ 80,770
======== ======== ======== ========
1997:
France........................ $ 27,492 $ 17,744 $ 45,236 $ 63,395
United Kingdom................ 23,394 -- 23,394 16,728
Rest of Europe................ 21,633 -- 21,633 25,093
Americas...................... 34,905 -- 34,905 24,641
Asia Pacific.................. 6,829 -- 6,829 5,593
Eliminations.................. -- (17,744) (17,744) (41,110)
-------- -------- -------- --------
$114,253 $ -- $114,253 $ 94,340
======== ======== ======== ========
1998:
France........................ $ 30,472 $ 28,967 $ 59,439 $ 79,360
United Kingdom................ 37,858 -- 37,858 30,171
Rest of Europe................ 39,109 -- 39,109 33,447
Americas...................... 49,453 -- 49,453 28,048
Asia Pacific.................. 10,002 -- 10,002 6,080
Eliminations.................. -- (28,967) (28,967) (39,021)
-------- -------- -------- --------
$166,894 $ -- $166,894 $138,085
======== ======== ======== ========
</TABLE>
F-26
<PAGE> 105
BUSINESS OBJECTS, S.A.
NOTES TO CONSOLIDATED FINANCIAL STATEMENTS --
BUSINESS OBJECTS S.A. (CONTINUED)
(Information as of and for the six months
ended June 30, 1998 and 1999 is unaudited)
14. SUBSEQUENT EVENT
On July 30, 1999, Brio Technology Inc. filed an action alleging that the
Company is infringing United States Patent No. 5,915,257 entitled "Cross Tab
Analysis And Reporting Method." The patent was issued to Brio Technology, Inc.
on June 25, 1999. Based upon the Company's preliminary analysis, the Company
believes the suit is without merit. However, the Company cannot assure you that
it will be successful in defending this claim. If the Company does not prevail,
its business, operating results and financial condition could be harmed.
F-27
