Autodesk 2009 Annual Report Download - page 81

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, statements regarding our business strategies, anticipated future operating results, including
net revenue, operating margins, product backlog, upgrade, crossgrade and maintenance revenue, the impact of
the current economic downturn on our customers, channel sales partners and net revenue, the effect of
fluctuations in exchange rates on net revenue and expenses, our business and investment strategies, the impact of
acquisitions, our anticipated tax rate, reductions in our workforce and the consolidation of certain leased
facilities, our long-term cash requirements, the protection of our intellectual property rights and our ability to
attract and retain highly skilled employees. 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, our ability to timely access our assets, 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 U.S. Securities Exchange Commission. 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 a leader in 2D and 3D design and engineering software and services. We offer products and
solutions to customers in the architectural, engineering and construction, manufacturing, geospatial mapping, and
digital media and entertainment markets. Worldwide business trends such as globalization, sustainability,
investment in infrastructure, and the increasing desire to keep data digital, are creating pressure on our customers
to improve innovation while enhancing productivity. Our state-of-the-art software products enable customers to
fully experience their ideas digitally by helping them to visualize and simulate real-world performance early in
the design process through digital prototyping. 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 for competitive advantage. Our broad-based 2D horizontal design
solutions, AutoCAD and AutoCAD LT software, are two of the most widely used general design software tools
in the world. In addition, we offer a range of 2D and 3D discipline-specific design and documentation tools. In
order to capitalize on these trends and capabilities, we are focused on making technology available to mainstream
markets and maintaining a large global community of distributors and resellers, third-party developers, customers
and well-trained users.
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 our customers to improve their design innovation and productivity capabilities.
They are designed to be easy to learn and use, and provide customers with a low cost of deployment, low total
cost of ownership and rapid return on investment. In addition, our software architectures allow for extensibility
and integration with other products.
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