Autodesk 2008 Annual Report Download - page 79

FORWARD-LOOKING INFORMATION
The discussion in this Annual Report on Form 10-K contains trend analyses and other forward-looking
statements within the meaning of Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933 and Section 21E of the Securities
Exchange Act of 1934. Forward-looking statements are any statements that look to future events and consist of,
among other things, our business strategies, anticipated future operating results, including net revenue, product
backlog, upgrade, crossgrade and maintenance revenue, the effect of fluctuations in exchange rates on net
revenue and expenses, costs and expenses, including cost of revenue and operating expenses, future income, our
anticipated tax rate, planned product retirement and annual release cycle. In addition, forward-looking
statements also consist of statements involving expectations regarding product acceptance, continuation of our
stock repurchase program, and short-term and long-term cash requirements, as well as, statements involving
trend analyses and statements including such words as “may,” “believe,” “could,” “anticipate,” “would,”
“might,” “plan,” “expect,” and similar expressions or the negative of these terms or other comparable
terminology. These forward-looking statements speak only as of the date of this Annual Report on Form 10-K
and are subject to business and economic risks. As such, our actual results could differ materially from those set
forth in the forward-looking statements as a result of the factors set forth below in Item 1A, “Risk Factors,” and
in our other reports filed with the Securities Exchange Commission, or SEC. We assume no obligation to update
these forward-looking statements to reflect events that occur or circumstances that exist after the date on which
they were made.
PART I
ITEM 1. BUSINESS
Note: A glossary of terms used in this Form 10-K appears at the end of this Item 1.
GENERAL
Autodesk is one of the world’s leading design software and services companies. We offer products and
solutions to customers in the architectural, engineering, construction, manufacturing, geospatial mapping and
digital media markets. Our state of the art software products enable our customers to experience their ideas
before they are real by allowing them to create and document their designs and to visualize, simulate and analyze
real-world performance early in the design process by creating digital prototypes. These capabilities give our
customers the flexibility to optimize and improve their designs before they actually begin the building process,
helping save time and money, improving quality and fostering innovation. Our 2D horizontal design solutions,
AutoCAD and AutoCAD LT, are two of the most widely used general design software tools in the world. In
addition, we offer a range of discipline-specific design and documentation tools including our 2D vertical design
solutions and our 3D model-based design solutions.
We believe that our ability to make technology available to mainstream markets is one of our competitive
advantages. By innovating in existing technology categories, we bring powerful design products to volume
markets. Our products enable improvements in design innovation and productivity. They are designed to be easy
to learn and use, and provide customers low cost of deployment and low total cost of ownership. Our product and
software architectures allow for extensibility and integration. Most of our solutions are Windows PC-based.
We have a large global community of resellers, third-party developers and users, which provides us with a
broad reach into volume markets. Our reseller network is extensive and provides our customers with global
resources for the purchase and support of our products as well as resources for effective and cost-efficient
training services. We have a significant number of registered third-party developers who create products that run
on top of our products, and thereby further extend our reach into volume markets. Our installed base of millions
of users has made Autodesk’s products a worldwide design software standard. Users trained on Autodesk
products are broadly available both from universities and the existing workforce, reducing the cost of training for
our customers.
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2008 Annua
l Report