[July 26, 2016]

CEB Reports Second Quarter Results and Updates 2016 Guidance

CEB Inc. ("CEB" or "Company") (NYSE: CEB), a best practice insight and technology company, today announced financial results for the second quarter ended June 30, 2016.

HIGHLIGHTS - SECOND QUARTER 2016

• Revenue of $242.6 million (an increase of 4.6%); Adjusted revenue of $251.1 million (an increase of 7.9%)
• Net income of $7.7 million (a decrease of 66.6%); Adjusted net income of $31.5 million (a decrease of 4.0%)
• Adjusted EBITDA of $64.5 million (an increase of 6.9%); Adjusted EBITDA margin of 25.7%
• Diluted earnings per share of $0.24 (a decrease of 65.2%); Non-GAAP diluted earnings per share of $0.97 (no change)
• Completed acquisition of Evanta on April 29, 2016

"Our focus in the second quarter remained squarely on delivering great customer impact and setting up for stronger outcomes in the second half and beyond. Current events in the economy and society create an unusual opportunity for us to help our clients and members, and we are working hard to deliver impact," said Tom Monahan, CEB Chairman and CEO. "You can see the result in this quarter: organic bookings growth improved modestly to the low single-digits, our CEB Events group came out of the gates quickly following the Evanta acquisition, and we delivered solid results in quarterly revenue and Adjusted EBITDA. We enter the third quarter with a great team on the field and our eyes on sharp execution amid the continued volatility of the current environment."

OUTLOOK FOR 2016

The Company updates its 2016 annual guidance as follows: Revenue of $957 to $982 million, Adjusted revenue of $970 to $995 million, capital expenditures of $32 to $34 million, Non-GAAP diluted earnings per share of $3.95 to $4.15, Adjusted EBITDA margin of at least 26.25%, and depreciation and amortization expense of $104 to $106 million. Adjusted revenue refers to revenue before the impact of the reduction of acquisition-related deferred revenue to fair value recognized in the post-acquisition period ("deferred revenue fair value adjustment"). The estimated reduction in 2016 revenue to reflect the impact of the deferred revenue fair value adjustment is expected to be approximately $13 million. This guidance is based on the following foreign currency exchange rates: 1.33 US dollar ("USD") to the British Pound, 1.11 USD to the Euro, and 0.75 USD to the Australian Dollar.

For the third quarter of 2016, the Company expects Revenue of at least $230 million, Adjusted EBITDA margin of at least 24.5%, and Non-GAAP diluted earnings per share of at least $0.85.

SHARE REPURCHASE

In the second quarter of 2016, the Company repurchased approximately 81,000 shares of its common stock at a total cost of $5.2 million. These purchases were made pursuant to the Company's $150 million stock repurchase program, which is authorized through December 31, 2017.

QUARTERLY DIVIDEND

The Company announced that its Board of Directors has approved a cash dividend on its common stock for the third quarter of 2016 of $0.4125 per share. The dividend is payable on September 30, 2016 to stockholders of record on September 15, 2016. The Company will fund its dividend payments with cash on hand and cash generated from operations.

NON-GAAP FINANCIAL MEASURES

This press release and the accompanying tables, as well as earnings discussions, include a discussion of Adjusted revenue, Adjusted effective tax rate, Adjusted EBITDA, Adjusted EBITDA margin, Adjusted net income, Non-GAAP diluted earnings per share, and constant currency financial information, all of which are non-GAAP financial measures provided as a complement to the results provided in accordance with accounting principles generally accepted in the United States of America ("GAAP"). "Adjusted EBITDA margin" refers to Adjusted EBITDA as a percentage of Adjusted revenue. A reconciliation of each of these non-GAAP measures to the most directly comparable GAAP measure is included in the accompanying tables.

FORWARD-LOOKING STATEMENTS

This press release contains forward-looking statements within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995 that involve risks, uncertainties and assumptions. Statements using words such as "estimates," "expects," "anticipates," "projects," "plans," "intends," "believes," "forecasts," and variations of such words or similar expressions are intended to identify forward-looking statements. In addition, all statements other than statements of historical fact are statements that could be deemed forward-looking statements, including but not limited to our 2016 annual and third quarter guidance. You are hereby cautioned that these statements are based upon our expectations at the time we make them and may be affected by important factors including, among others, the factors set forth below and in our filings with the US Securities and Exchange Commission ("SEC"), and consequently, actual future events, operations, and results may differ materially from the results discussed in the forward-looking statements. Our expectations, beliefs, and projections are expressed in good faith, and we believe there is a reasonable basis for them.

Factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those indicated by forward-looking statements include, among others, our dependence on renewals of our membership-based services, the sale of additional programs to existing members, and our ability to attract new members; our potential failure to adapt to changing member needs and demands or to compete successfully with other companies that offer similar products and services; our potential failure to develop and sell, or expand sales markets for our CEB Talent Assessment tools and services; our potential inability to attract and retain a significant number of highly skilled employees or successfully manage succession planning issues; fluctuations in operating results; the implementation of our business transformation initiative may be disruptive to our operations, potential cost overruns could have material adverse effects on our results of operations, and once this initiative is completed we may not realize anticipated savings or operational benefits; our potential inability to protect our intellectual property rights; our potential inability to adequately maintain and protect our information technology infrastructure and our member and client data; potential confusion about our rebranding (including the roll-out of the CEB Talent Assessment brand for what has been known previously as the SHL Talent Measurement brand); our potential exposure to loss of revenue resulting from our unconditional service guarantee; exposure to litigation related to the content we provide; various factors that could affect our estimated income tax rate or our ability to use our existing deferred tax assets; changes in estimates, assumptions or revenue recognition policies used to prepare our consolidated financial statements, including those related to testing for potential goodwill impairment; our potential inability to make, integrate, and maintain acquisitions and investments; the amount and timing of the benefits expected from acquisitions and investments; risks associated with our provision of products and services to certain US government agencies; the risk that we will be required to recognize additional impairments to the carrying value of the significant goodwill and amortizable intangible asset amounts included in our balance sheet as a result of our acquisitions, which would require us to record charges that would reduce our reported results; risks associated with our significant office space lease obligations in Arlington, VA, including potential landlord or subtenant defaults; our potential inability to effectively manage the risks (including interest rate risk) associated with our existing indebtedness, including the terms of and restrictions in our senior secured credit facilities, as well as additional indebtedness we incurred in connection with the Evanta acquisition or other indebtedness we may incur in the future; our potential inability to effectively manage the risks associated with our international operations, including the risk of foreign currency exchange fluctuations; the potential effects from the withdrawal of the United Kingdom from the European Union; our potential inability to effectively anticipate, plan for, and respond to changing economic and financial market conditions, especially in light of ongoing uncertainty in the worldwide economy and the US economy; and the impact of volatility in the trading price of our common stock, including as a result of any decision to reduce or discontinue dividends or share repurchases.

In addition, forward-looking statements may be affected by risks and uncertainties associated with the acquisition of the Evanta business, including that the businesses of CEB and Evanta may not be combined successfully, or the combination may take longer or cost more to accomplish than expected; we may not achieve anticipated operating and cost synergies through combining the businesses of CEB and Evanta, or those synergies may be realized less quickly than we anticipate; Evanta may not achieve the results projected in its current 2016 full year forecast; potential operating costs, customer loss, and business disruption (including employee loss or turnover) following the acquisition may be greater than expected and could negatively affect the financial results and performance of Evanta; Evanta may not perform at the level we are expecting, and as a result the anticipated positive impact of the acquisition on the operations and future financial results of CEB, including those reflected in our updated 2016 annual guidance and our estimates for the third quarter of 2016, may not be achieved or may be lower than expected and our leverage, which was increased in connection with the acquisition, could materially and adversely affect our financial conditional or operating flexibility and prevent us from fulfilling our obligations under the Senior Secured Credit Facilities.

Various risks, uncertainties, and other important factors that could cause our actual results to differ from our expected or historical results are discussed more fully in the "Management's Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations" and "Risk Factors" sections of our filings with the SEC, including, but not limited to, our 2015 Annual Report on Form 10-K filed on February 26, 2016. The forward-looking statements in this press release are made as of July 26, 2016, and we undertake no obligation to update any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events, or otherwise.

ABOUT CEB

CEB is a best practice insight and technology company. In partnership with leading organizations around the globe, we develop innovative solutions to drive corporate performance. CEB equips leaders at more than 10,000 companies with the intelligence to effectively manage talent, customers, and operations. CEB is a trusted partner to nearly 90% of the Fortune 500 and FTSE 100, and more than 70% of the Dow Jones Asian Titans. More at cebglobal.com.

CEB Inc.
Reconciliation of Non-GAAP Financial Measures

We believe that our non-GAAP financial measures are relevant and useful supplemental information for evaluating our results of operations as compared from period to period and as compared to our competitors. We use these non-GAAP financial measures for internal budgeting and other managerial purposes, including comparison against our competitors, when publicly providing our business outlook, and as a measurement for potential acquisitions. These non-GAAP financial measures are not defined in the same manner by all companies and therefore may not be comparable to other similarly titled measures used by other companies.

Our non-GAAP financial measures reflect adjustments based on the following items, as well as the related income tax effects:

• Certain business combination accounting entries and expenses related to acquisitions: We have adjusted for the impact of the deferred revenue fair value adjustment, amortization of acquisition related intangibles, and acquisition related costs. We incurred transaction and certain other expenses in connection with our acquisitions, which we generally would not have otherwise incurred in the periods presented as a part of our continuing operations. We believe that excluding these acquisition related items from our non-GAAP financial measures provides useful supplemental information to our investors and is important in illustrating what our core operating results would have been had we not incurred these acquisition related items since the nature, size, and number of acquisitions can vary from period to period and because they are not considered by management in making operating decisions.
• Net non-operating foreign currency gain (loss): Beginning in the first quarter of 2015, we adjusted for the impact of the net non-operating foreign currency gain (loss) included in other (expense) income. These items primarily result from the remeasurement of foreign currency cash balances held by CEB US and subsidiaries with the USD as their functional currency, USD cash balances held by subsidiaries with a functional currency other than the USD, certain intercompany notes, and the balance sheets of non-US subsidiaries whose functional currency was the USD prior to the revision of our corporate structure on October 1, 2015 to geographically align our intellectual property with our US and global commercial operations, resulting in a significant change to the economic facts and circumstances for subsidiaries that were previously dependent on the parent company for financing. We believe this information is useful to investors to facilitate comparison of operating results and better identify trends in our business.
• Business transformation costs: Beginning in the first quarter of 2016, we adjusted for the impact of costs associated with our business transformation initiative, which is a multiyear effort that will consolidate and standardize our sales force automation and financial systems. These costs include software license fees and third-party vendor costs related to the implementation and development of the systems, and costs related to employees that are devoted to the initiative. Under new accounting rules in effect as of January 1, 2016, the majority of costs related to the development and implementation of cloud-based computing systems now have to be expensed in the current period as they are incurred instead of being capitalized and depreciated over time. We believe that excluding these items from our non-GAAP financial measures provides useful supplemental information to our investors and is important in illustrating what our core operating results would have been had we not incurred these items. We exclude these items because management does not believe they correlate to the ongoing operating results of the business.
• Debt modification costs, gain (loss) on other investments, net, equity method investment gain (loss), restructuring costs, impairment costs, and gain on cost method investment: From time to time, we have events or transactions outside of our core operations that affect our net income, such as modifying our debt and investing in private entities. These activities are not part of our normal operations, but rather are transactions we enter into when we feel it is to our advantage to maximize opportunities that will improve our overall future financial position and results of operations. We exclude these items when evaluating our results of operations because management does not believe they correlate to the ordinary course operating expenditures or operating results of the business. We believe that excluding these items from our non-GAAP financial measures provides useful supplemental information to our investors and is important in illustrating what our core operating results would have been had we not incurred these items.
• Share-based compensation: Although share-based compensation is a key incentive offered to our employees, we evaluate our operating results excluding such expense. We believe the exclusion of this expense facilitates the ability of our investors to compare our operating results with those of other peer companies, many of which also exclude such expense in determining their non-GAAP measures, given varying valuation methodologies and assumptions, and the variety and amount of award types that may be utilized by different companies.
• Adjusted effective tax rate: Beginning in the third quarter of 2015, we adjusted for the impact of certain discrete items included in the effective tax rate, including items unrelated to the current year, changes in statutory tax rates, or other items that are not indicative of our ongoing operations. We exclude these items because management believes it will facilitate the comparison of the annual effective tax rate over time. The Adjusted effective tax rate is calculated by dividing the adjusted provision for income taxes, which excludes discrete items and the tax effects of the other non-GAAP adjustments (using statutory rates), by adjusted income before the provision for income taxes.

We are a global company that reports financial information in USD. Foreign currency exchange rate fluctuations affect the amounts reported from translating foreign revenues and expenses into USD. These rate fluctuations can have a significant effect on our reported operating results. As a supplement to our reported operating results, we present constant currency financial information. We use constant currency financial information to provide a framework to assess how our business performed excluding the effects of changes in foreign currency translation rates. Management believes this information is useful to investors to facilitate comparison of operating results and better identify trends in our businesses. To calculate financial information on a constant currency basis, financial information in the current period for amounts recorded in currencies other than the USD is translated into USD at the average exchange rates that were in effect during the comparable period of the prior year (rather than the actual exchange rates in effect during the current year period).

These non-GAAP measures may be considered in addition to results prepared in accordance with GAAP, but they should not be considered a substitute for, or superior to, GAAP results. We intend to continue to provide these non-GAAP financial measures as part of our future earnings discussions and, therefore, the inclusion of these non-GAAP financial measures will provide consistency in our financial reporting.

With respect to our 2016 annual and quarterly guidance, reconciliations of net income to Adjusted EBITDA, net income to Adjusted net income, and GAAP diluted earnings per share to Non-GAAP diluted earnings per share as projected for 2016 are not provided because we cannot, without unreasonable effort, estimate or predict with certainty various components of net income and GAAP diluted earnings per share, including the net non-operating foreign currency (gain) loss, acquisition related costs, and discrete tax items, which components could significantly impact such financial measures.

A reconciliation of each of the non-GAAP measures to the most directly comparable GAAP measure is provided below (in thousands, except per share data).

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