Sales of PlayStation Hardware and Software Exceed One Billion Dollars; Revenue for Sony Computer Entertainment America has soared since the system's introduction just fifteen months ago

Business Wire, Dec 17, 1996

FOSTER CITY, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Dec. 17, 1996--Sony Computer Entertainment America, marketers of the PlayStation(TM) game console and leading software developers for the platform, announced today that North American hardware and software revenues for the PlayStation brand have, through December 1, exceeded $1 billion, with significant additional revenues expected during the holiday season.

"Revenues have far exceeded our initial expectations and are a testament to the PlayStation's dominance in the next-generation videogame industry," said Kaz Hirai, chief operating officer, Sony Computer Entertainment America. "We entered this market one year ago and now we are the undisputed worldwide leader."

With more than two million PlayStation game console units already sold in North America, and one million more expected to be sold by the end oghted with our tremendous success," said Hirased PlayStation game console retails for $199, with software titles ranging in price between $40 and $60.

Sony Computer Entertainment America, a division of Sony inment Inc. is a subsidiary of Sony Corporatior 800-227-0845; LA 310-820-9473

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f BC-BUSINESS-OBJECTS/NEC 12-17 0001 02

BW1040 DEC 17,1996 5:02 PACIFIC 08:02 EASTERN

( BW)(BUSINESS-OBJECTS/NEC)(BOBJY) Business Objects Expands Presence in Asia Pacific with Distributor NEC; Business Objects Partners with One of the World's Largest Manufacturers of Electronics Products to Deliver BusinessObjects 4.0J to the Japanese Market

Business Editors/Computer Writers

SAN JOSE, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Dec. 17, 1996--Business Objects (NASDAQ: BOBJY), the world's leading provider of integrated query, reporting and online analytical processing (OLAP) tools, today announced that it has signed a distribution agreement with NEC in Japan.

NEC is one of the world's leading manufacturers of electronics products and ranks number 29 in Fortune's Global 500 Industrial Companies.

NEC will distribute BusinessObjects 4.0J, the Japanese version of Business Objects' popular integrated query, reporting, and OLAP tool, as part of its data warehousing solution. BusinessObjects 4.0J is a complete double-byte implementation and fully supports Kanji handling and localized error messages and screens. BusinessObjects 4.0J will begin shipping in the 1st quarter of 1997. (Editor's note: see press release also dated December 16, 1996).

"The Japanese market is very important to Business Objects and was one of our fastest-growing regions in 1996," said Bernard Liautaud, president and CEO of Business Objects. "With this new distribution agreement with NEC, we will expand our ability to address the needs of the rapidly expanding market for decision support tools in Japan."

In addition to NEC, BusinessObjects is also distributed in Japan by three other major companies in the client/server area.

About Business Objects

Business Objects (NASDAQ:BOBJY) is the world's leading supplier of integrated query, reporting, and OLAP tools. The company's award-winning product, BusinessObjects, provides mainstream business users with access to information stored in corporate databases, data warehouses and packaged applications.

The company pioneered the market for business-intelligent decision support tools in 1990 by introducing the first product to use a "semantic layer." This patented technology maps complex database schemas to a business representation understandable by non-technical end users.

Business Objects led the overall decision support tools market in 1995 with software license revenues of $48.7M, and outsold its nearest query and reporting tools competitor two-to-one according to IDC.

Business Objects products are in use at over 3,600 organizations in over 60 countries, and the company has sold more than 400,000 licenses worldwide. More information on Business Objects can be found on the World Wide Web at http://www.businessobjects.com . -0-

BusinessObjects is a trademark of Business Objects SA. Other company and product names may be trademarks of the respective companies with which they are associated.

A full-text copy of this announcement may be obtained by calling the Company's fax re Herbst Consulting

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