Wall St spared nude financial presentation

Wall Street has breathed a collective sigh of relief after being spared the spectacle of seeing the chief executive of Canadian software firm Cognos presenting the firm's financial results in the nude.

The ebullient Scottish-born Ron Zambonini had promised financial analysts in the summer that he would conduct his next earnings call naked if Cognos failed to bring in $10m worth of sales with its latest ReportNet analytics product.

The firm exceeded these targets by 50 per cent, pulling in an estimated $15m in licence revenue in its third-quarter results.

Overall, the business intelligence firm reported revenue of $172.2m for the third quarter, an increase of a quarter on the same period last year.

Cognos' results follow the announcement earlier this week by its arch-rival, Business Objects, that it has closed its merger with Crystal Decisions.

Commenting on the merger of its rivals, Cognos UK's vice president, Graham Walter, said: "Let there be no doubt: integrating the two product suites will be an enormous challenge that is highly unlikely to be without its problems.

"The question customers of either company should ask themselves is do they really want to be guinea pigs in this process?"