Hyperion Updates Product Plans for Brio Merger

Hyperion has updated the public on its plans for integrating the assets of rival Brio Software
, pledging to extend the company’s product line after
dropping them into its business performance management (BPM) software suite.

Sunnyvale, Calif.’s, Hyperion said it would take Santa Clara, Calif.’s
Brio’s business intelligence software suite and maintain it as a standalone
product at the close of the acquisition, which is slated for the fourth
quarter. Brio makes enterprise reporting, query and analysis, and
dashboarding software, all key components of BI.

Hyperion has recognized this as a key ingredient to improve its BPM software
portfolio and a necessity to compete in a market where vendors such as
Cognos and Business Objects reign.

Hyperion moved to
acquire Brio July 23 for $142 million in stock and has been reselling
Brio’s BI software under an OEM agreement ever since.

Jeff Rodek, chairman and chief executive officer for Hyperion, said
acquiring Brio is vital for his outfit because “business intelligence is
often the first step a company takes in moving away from ‘spreadsheet hell’
to a more managed, controlled, and collaborative environment.”

BPM software enables enterprises to make better decisions, as well as
improve the efficiency of reporting and planning. The software is on the
rise, according to recent data from Meta Group surveyed 459 CIOs, CTOs, CFOs
and CEOs from IT companies, and found that 85 percent consider BPM to be a
priority for their company over the next 18 months.

Hyperion has over 6,000 customers using its BPM products and generated
annual revenues of $510 million in fiscal 2003. The company hopes to quickly
expand on both counts with Brio in hand.

Rodek said in a conference call there are three main areas of product
integration in the near term for Hyperion. In the first, he said his company
will fuse Brio 8 products with Hyperion’s BPM applications so customers may
view operational data with their financial reports. The company expects this
integration to be completed in December.

Second, Rodek said Hyperion will bundle Brio Metrics Builder with the
Hyperion Platform to create blend applications and dashboards. This new
enterprise metrics management offering will be unveiled with the company’s
integrated platform launch in
January 2004.

Lastly, Hyperion will its products with the Brio platform to create a common
query, reporting and analysis. Previews of this will be featured at
Hyperion’s Solutions user group conference in April 2004, Rodek said.

As was disclosed in the preliminary S-4 filed on August 15, Craig Brennan,
Brio’s president and chief executive officer, will be employed by Hyperion
as an advisor until June 30, 2004. Craig Collins, Brio’s chief financial
officer, will be employed by Hyperion as an advisor until at least 10
business days following Hyperion’s first earnings announcement following the
merger.

After the merger comes to fruition, one of the following current members of
Brio’s board of directors — Yorgen Edholm, John Mutch or Edward Saliba —
will be appointed to the Hyperion board.