Autodesk 2016 Annual Report Download - page 109

2016 Form 10-K 37
ITEM 7. MANAGEMENT’S DISCUSSION AND ANALYSIS OF FINANCIAL CONDITION AND RESULTS
OF OPERATIONS
The discussion in our MD&A and elsewhere in this 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, including those discussed in “Strategy” and “Overview of Fiscal 2015” and “Business Outlook” below,
anticipated future net revenue, future GAAP and non-GAAP net (loss) income per share, operating margin, operating expenses,
billings, annualized recurring revenue, annualized revenue per subscription, other future financial results (by product type and
geography) and subscriptions, the effectiveness of our efforts to successfully manage transitions to new business models and
markets, our expectations regarding the continued transition of our business model, our ability to increase our subscription
base, expected market trends, including the growth of cloud, mobile, and social computing, the effect of unemployment and
availability of credit, our expectations for our restructuring, the effects of mixed global economic conditions, the effects of
revenue recognition, our backlog, expected trends in certain financial metrics, including expenses, the impact of acquisitions
and investment activities, expectations regarding our cash needs, the effects of fluctuations in exchange rates and our hedging
activities on our financial results, our ability to successfully expand adoption of our products, our ability to gain market
acceptance of new businesses and sales initiatives, our ability to successfully increase sales of product suites as part of our
overall sales strategy, the impact of economic volatility and geopolitical activities in certain countries, particularly emerging
economy countries, and the effects of potential non-cash charges on our financial results and the resulting effect on our
financial results. In addition, forward-looking statements also consist of statements involving expectations regarding product
capability and acceptance, continuation of our stock repurchase program, remediations to our controls environment, statements
regarding our liquidity 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 above in
Item 1A, “Risk Factors,” and in our other reports filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. We assume no
obligation to update the forward-looking statements to reflect events that occur or circumstances that exist after the date on
which they were made, except as required by law.
Strategy
Autodesk’s vision is to help people imagine, design, and create a better world. We do this by developing software and
services for the world’s designers, architects, engineers, digital artists, professionals, and non-professionals alike—the people
who imagine, design, and create the world's products, buildings, infrastructure, films, and games. Autodesk serves professional
customers in three primary markets: architecture, engineering, and construction; manufacturing; and digital media and
entertainment.
Our goal is to provide our customers with the world’s most innovative, and engaging design software and services. Our
product and services portfolio allows our customers to digitally visualize, simulate, and analyze their projects, helping them to
better understand the consequences of their design decisions; save time, money, and resources; and become more innovative.
Autodesk was founded during the platform transition from mainframes and engineering workstations to personal
computers. We developed and sustained a compelling value proposition based upon desktop software for the personal computer.
Just as the transition from mainframes to personal computers transformed the industry over 30 years ago, we believe our
industry is undergoing a similar transition from the personal computer to cloud, mobile, and social computing. To address this
transition we have accelerated our move to the cloud and mobile devices and are offering more flexible licensing. For example,
Autodesk BIM 360, PLM 360, Fusion 360, and AutoCAD360 Pro, some of our cloud based offerings, provide tools, including
mobile and social capabilities, to help streamline design, collaboration, and data management processes. We believe that
customer adoption of these new offerings will continue to grow as customers across a range of industries begin to take
advantage of the scalable computing power and flexibility provided through these new services.
Our strategy is to lead the industries we serve to cloud based technologies and business models. This entails both a
technological shift and a business model shift. We now have term-based license offerings, including desktop subscriptions, for
certain products and flexible enterprise offerings. These offerings are designed to give our customers even more flexibility with
how they use our products and service offerings and to address new types of customers such as project-based users and small
businesses. As part of this transition, we discontinued licensing upgrades effective March 6, 2015, discontinued selling new
2016 Annual Report