Autodesk Continues to Use Controversial Sales Strategy, Bloomberg Reports

By Connor Hart

-- Autodesk ignored internal warnings and continued using a controversial sales strategy that it had promised investors it would discontinue, Bloomberg said, citing previously unreported internal documents.

-- The strategy, which the engineering software company pledged to cease in 2021, involved offering discounts to certain corporate customers willing to pay up front for large multi-year contracts, according to the report.

-- The company continued using the strategy to meet financial targets, despite employees' objections that the practice reduced long-term revenue, boosted the chance of mistakes in financial modeling and made it harder for salespeople to do their jobs, according to documents viewed by Bloomberg.

-- An Autodesk spokesperson told Bloomberg that the company's use of upfront billing continues to decrease, but won't end entirely "as we consider customer preferences and our presence in emerging countries."

-- Autodesk's accounting issues date to April, when the company delayed its annual financial disclosures and said it was opening a review of processes related to free cash flow and operating margins, Bloomberg said. The spokesperson noted to Bloomberg that the internal investigation resulted in no changes to any financial statements.

Full article at https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2024-08-15/autodesk-executives-ignored-accounting-risks-documents-show

Write to Connor Hart at connor.hart@wsj.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

August 15, 2024 17:32 ET (21:32 GMT)

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