CEO: 'If we miss our targets I'll strip off...'

In what some may call a shameless publicity stunt, the boss of business intelligence software firm Cognos has promised to strip off if his company fails to bring in $10m of sales for the third quarter with its ReportNet analytics product.

Ron Zambonini, Cognos CEO, made the gesture as a show of confidence in his company to hold off the threat posed by the newly merged Business Objects and Crystal Decisions.

Last month Business Objects agreed to acquire Crystal Decisions in a deal valued at $820m. Business Objects' offer consists of $300m in cash and 26.5 million shares of its stock.

However, Zambonini believes bigger does not necessarily mean better. He likened the competition to a running race where his two rivals have tied their legs together.

In a recent interview with Forbes magazine he spoke of the merger in proverb: "A man with an old car who buys another old car ends up spending a lot of time in the garage."

He went further to predict that Cognos will hit the $1bn in sales within three years - something only 14 publicly held software companies have achieved to date - though he perhaps wisely withheld any promises to disrobe if this doesn't happen.