Burlington, MA, December 19, 2002—Cognos (Nasdaq: COGN; TSX: CSN), the world leader in business intelligence (BI), today announced a definitive agreement to acquire privately-held Adaytum, the global leader in enterprise performance planning (EPP.) With this acquisition, Cognos is positioned to take the lead in Corporate Performance Management (CPM), providing deep domain experience in business intelligence, scorecarding, and now enterprise performance planning.

"This is a breakthrough acquisition for us. The #1 company in BI is set to become the market leader in enterprise planning as well. Prominence in these two pillars strengthens the value of the total Cognos offering and will accelerate our ability to execute on the promise of CPM — to help enterprise customers understand and advance their business performance across their entire company," said Ron Zambonini, Cognos CEO.

The planned acquisition is a cash transaction of US $160 million. It has been approved by the board of directors of both companies and is subject to regulatory approval and customary closing conditions. Cognos expects the acquisition to be completed in January.

With trailing twelve months revenue of around US $57 million, Adaytum is the global leader in planning and performance management and has more than 1,500 customers worldwide including industry leaders 3M, ADP Canada, Best Buy, Ceridian, Crate & Barrel, Dow Chemical, Nokia, Pfizer, Pioneer-Standard Electronics, Quality Carriers, Rayovac, and Ricoh. In the past five years, the company has recorded the best growth rate of any business planning software provider, capturing leading market share. Founded in the UK in 1990, Adaytum is incorporated in the US and headquartered in Minneapolis, with offices in the UK, the Netherlands and Australia. It is also represented in more than 35 other countries through a network of strategic alliance partners and value-added resellers.

"Cognos is a world-class organization, and this acquisition will make for a powerhouse combination. We share Cognos' vision for CPM of helping customers align business strategy with execution across the enterprise so they can make better decisions and improve performance," said Guy Haddleton, CEO of Adaytum. "With this acquisition, we can fully leverage the best integrated BI in the world. It will be a perfect match."

Certain statements made in this press release that are not based on historical information are forward-looking statements which are made pursuant to the safe harbor provisions of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995.

This press release contains forward-looking statements relating to the future benefits to be derived from this acquisition, including among other things, the anticipated closing date of the acquisition, the Company's ability to offer an integrated CPM offering; the Company's ability to accelerate the execution of its CPM strategy; the Company's expectations concerning revenue, anticipated market share, leadership position in the CPM market and business outlook and momentum in the CPM market.

These forward-looking statements are neither promises nor guaranteed, but involve risks and uncertainties that may cause actual results to differ materially from those in the forward-looking statements. Factors that may cause such differences include, but are not limited to: the failure of the acquisition to close; the Company's ability to identify selective acquisition candidates of other products or businesses that are believed to be complementary to those of the Company; the successful integration of the acquired product or business into the Company's operations; failure to achieve anticipated synergies; the ability to retain key acquired personnel; development of new technologies and the commercialization of those technologies in a highly competitive marketplace which is subject to rapid technological change; loss of rights to, or unauthorized use by others of, the intellectual property; unanticipated liabilities, expenses, events or circumstances; and the ability to appropriately value the acquired in-process research and development; as well as the risk factors discussed in the Company's most recent Annual Report on Form 10-K filed with the United States Securities and Exchange Commission. Readers should not place undue reliance on any such forward-looking statements, which speak only as of the date they are made. The Company disclaims any obligation to publicly update or revise any such statement to reflect any change in its expectations or in events, conditions, or circumstances on which any such statements may be based, or that may affect the likelihood that actual results will differ from those contained in the forward-looking statements.