Cognos’ 4th quarter revenues were USD 284M, up 12% year on year. The 4th quarter (ending February for Cognos) is the strongest one traditionally, but this run rate means that Cognos has the tantalising prospect of hitting USD 1 billion in revenue in the next financial year, clearly a major milestone.

The results were quite strong across the board, with more deals in excess of USD 1 million than the company has ever achieved (25 deals of this size) and revenue growing in each region (9% US, 16% Europe, 18% Asia Pacific) though the currency effects flatter the European figures (6% growth in local currency terms).

Of this revenue, USD 92M was in license revenue (USD 238M for the year in all) which has potential for improvement since migration to Cognos Version 8 is reportedly sluggish; perhaps only 10% of customers have migrated so far.

Overall the figures are solid rather than dazzling, as reflected in the share price performance, but still indicates that the BI industry is in generally healthy shape.