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Autodesk

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Autodesk, Inc.
Company typePublic (Nasdaq: ADSK)
S&P 500 Component
IndustryCAD/CAM Software [1]
FoundedMill Valley, California (1982)
HeadquartersSan Rafael, California, U.S.
Key people
John Walker, Founder
Carl Bass, President and CEO
ProductsSee complete listing.
RevenueIncreaseUS$1.71B (FY 2010)[1]
IncreaseUS$75.6M (FY 2010)[1]
IncreaseUS$58.0M (FY 2010)[1]
Total assetsIncreaseUS$2.45B (FY 2010)[2]
Total equityIncreaseUS$1.47B (FY 2010)[2]
Number of employees
7,300 (2008)[3]
Websitewww.autodesk.com

Autodesk, Inc. (Nasdaq: ADSK) is an American multinational corporation that focuses on 2D and 3D design software for use in architecture, engineering and building construction, manufacturing, and media and entertainment. Autodesk was founded in 1982 by John Walker, a coauthor of early versions of the company's flagship CAD software product AutoCAD, and twelve others. It is headquartered in San Rafael, California.

Autodesk has arguably become best-known due to its flagship computer-aided design software AutoCAD. In addition to AutoCAD, Autodesk develops Digital Prototyping solutions[4] to visualize, simulate, and analyze real-world performance using a digital model during the design process. The company also develops Building Information Modeling software to generate and manage building data using a three-dimensional building model. Autodesk also provides digital media creation and management software from film and television visual effects, color grading, and editing to animation, game development, and design visualization.[5]

Products & solutions

Platform Solutions & Emerging Business (PSEB)

File:Autodeskheadquarters.jpg
One of Autodesk's buildings at the headquarters in San Rafael
A screenshot of AutoCAD, Autodesk's flagship product.

The Platform Solutions and Emerging Business division develops and manages the product foundation for most Autodesk offerings across multiple markets, including Autodesk's flagship product, AutoCAD, AutoCAD LT, AutoCAD Freestyle, AutoCAD WS, Autodesk's Geospatial solutions (AutoCAD Map3D, AutoCAD MapGuide Enterprise, etc.), Plant solutions (AutoCAD P&ID, AutoCAD Plant 3D), Autodesk Impression, Extended Design offerings such as Design Review, Autodesk Content Network (Autodesk Seek web service), Autodesk Labs, and Global Engineering.

Architecture, Engineering & Construction (AEC)

Autodesk's architecture, engineering, and construction solutions include AutoCAD-based design and documentation software such as AutoCAD Architecture (Old name - Architectural Desktop), AutoCAD MEP (Old name - Autodesk Building Systems)), and AutoCAD Civil 3D, as well as advanced technology for relational building modeling such as Revit Architecture (Old name - Revit Building), Revit Structure, and Revit MEP (Old name - Revit Systems). The AEC division also develops and manages the collaborative project management (CPM) or extranet solutions, Buzzsaw and Constructware, the NavisWorks software tools (acquired 2007), and analysis tools for sustainable design including Autodesk Green Building Studio and Autodesk Ecotect.

Manufacturing

Autodesk's manufacturing solutions are used in various manufacturing segments, including industrial machinery, electro-mechanical, tool and die, industrial equipment, automotive components, and consumer products. Products include AutoCAD Inventor Suite, AutoCAD Inventor Professional Suite, AutoCAD Mechanical, Autodesk Vault, Alias Product and Moldflow.

Media & entertainment

Autodesk’s media and entertainment solutions are designed for digital media creation, management, and delivery across all disciplines, from film and television visual effects, color grading, and editing to animation, game development, and design visualization. Autodesk’s Media and Entertainment Division is based in Montreal, Quebec. It was established in 1999 after Autodesk, Inc. acquired Discreet Logic, Inc. and merged its operations with Kinetix. In January 2006, Autodesk acquired Alias, a developer of 3D graphics technology. In October 2008, Autodesk acquired the Softimage brand from Avid.

The principal product offerings from the Media and Entertainment Division are Maya, Softimage, 3ds Max, Inferno, Flame, Discreet Flint, Discreet Smoke, Lustre, ImageModeler and Stitcher. These products have won Academy Awards[citation needed].

The company discontinued several products, such as frost or edit, stopped upgrading products as media cleaner or simply removed products as Toxik from the market, instead offering to users of other products. Customers of these products weren't offered up- or crossgrades. As one example, customers who bought toxik for the original five-digit price cannot upgrade to the current version[citation needed].

Discontinued products

From time to time Autodesk discontinues some of the products in their portfolio. Some of Autodesk's "retired" products are listed here:

  • Volo View was a web-enabled review and markup tool from Autodesk for engineering data, including support for Autodesk’s DWG, DXF, and DWF formats. Volo View enabled design teams to communicate ideas and review designs without access to AutoCAD software. Autodesk discontinued sales of Volo View on May 1, 2005. The latest version of the software, Volo View 3, worked with the following file formats: AutoCAD 2004, DWG and DXF; Design Web Format (DWF 6); Autodesk Inventor 7 IPT, IAM, and IDW and raster files. The functionality of this product is largely replaced by Autodesk DWF Composer (versions 1 and 2) later replace by the free Autodesk Design Review. Autodesk has also released a free product called DWG TrueView. This product enables users to view and plot AutoCAD DWG and DXF files, and to publish these same files to the DWF file format.
  • Cyberspace by Autodesk was an early real-time 3D environment capable of producing basic phong shaded walkthroughs of DXF format models in "realtime". No textures were supported, and the system was able to support a maximum DXF model size of around 35 KB.[citation needed] A popular demo model of the Parthenon in Greece was shown around the US in a tour of the portable demo system - complete with virtual reality goggles.

History

Autodesk's first notable product was AutoCAD, a CAD application designed to run on the systems known as "microcomputers" at the time, including those running the 8-bit CP/M operating system and two of the new 16-bit systems, the Victor 9000 and the IBM Personal Computer (PC). This CAD tool allowed users to create detailed technical drawings, and was affordable to many smaller design, engineering, and architecture companies.

Release 2.1 of AutoCAD, released in 1986, included AutoLISP, a built-in Lisp interpreter initially based on XLISP.[6] This opened the door for third party developers to extend AutoCAD's functionality, to address a wide range of vertical markets - strengthening AutoCAD's market penetration.

Subsequent to AutoCAD Release 12, the company stopped supporting the Unix environment and the Apple Macintosh platform. After AutoCAD Release 14, first shipped in 1997, Autodesk discontinued development under MS-DOS, and focused exclusively on Microsoft Windows.

AutoCAD has grown to become the most widely used CAD program for 2D non-specialized applications.[7] The native file formats written by AutoCAD, DXF and DWG, are also widely used for CAD data interoperability.

In the early 1990s, with the purchase of Softdesk in 1997, Autodesk started to develop specialty versions of AutoCAD, targeted to broad industry segments, including architecture, civil engineering, and manufacturing. Since the late 1990s, the company has added a number of significant non-AutoCAD-based products, including Revit, a parametric building modeling application (acquired in 2002, from Massachusetts-based Revit Technologies for $133 million), and Inventor, an internally developed parametric mechanical design CAD application.

Over the last few years Autodesk has pursued a strategy of acquisitions:

  • On December 18, 2002, Autodesk acquired the assets of truEInnovations, Inc for an undisclosed amount. The assets were used to create the application Autodesk Vault.
  • On March 2005, Autodesk acquired the assets of COMPASS systems GmbH for 13 Mio Euro, a European-based developer of the COMPASS family of data management solutions. The assets were used to strenthen Autodesk's position in the European product data management market.[8].
  • On January 10, 2006, Autodesk acquired Alias, with its automotive styling and digital content creation applications, for $197 million USD.[9]
  • On August 6, 2007, Autodesk announced the acquisition of Skymatter Inc, developer of Mudbox.[10]
  • On August 9, 2007, Autodesk Completes Acquisition of NavisWorks, Inc. for a purchase price of $26 million, plus a working capital adjustment.[11]
  • On August 20, 2007, Autodesk announced that it has completed the acquisition of technology and product assets of Opticore AB, based in Gothenburg, Sweden.[12] Opticore is specialized in real time visualisation primarily for the carmakers industry.
  • On August 28, 2007, Autodesk announced the acquisition of California-based PlassoTech, developers of CAE applications. Terms of the transaction were not disclosed.[13]
  • On November 25, 2007, Autodesk announced the intent to acquire Robobat, a France-based developer of structural engineering analysis applications. The acquisition was completed on January 15, 2008.[14][15]
  • On May 7, 2008, Autodesk announced that it has completed the acquisition of Kynogon SA, the privately held maker of Kynapse artificial intelligence middleware.[17] Paris-based Kynogon specialized in video game middleware and simulation.
  • The same day, Autodesk also announced the acquisition of REALVIZ S.A..[18] REALVIZ was founded in 1998 and is headquartered in Sophia Antipolis, France. REALVIZ's flagship products are "Stitcher" software for the creation of panoramas and 360 degree virtual tours, and "ImageModeler" software to produce 3D models from photographs.
  • On June 26, 2008, a press release announced the acquisition of Square One Research and its flagship product, Ecotect.[19]
  • On October 23, 2008, Autodesk announced the acquisition on Avid's Softimage, Co. business, developers of 3D application Softimage (formerly Softimage|XSI), for $35 million USD.[20]
  • On December 17, 2008, Autodesk signed a definitive agreement to acquire ALGOR, Inc. for approximately $34 million.[21]
  • On December 2009, Autodesk announced the acquisition of VisualTAO (also known as PlanPlatform), an Israeli startup which developed a cloud-based web application that enabled users to view and edit AutoCAD files online. The company also developed a mobile version of the application. VisualTAO became part of PSEB, and the product was released during 2010 as 'AutoCAD WS'. [22]

These numerous acquisitions point to a trend in strategy for Autodesk : buy small- to medium-sized software companies around the world in order to acquire their very specific know-how and to avoid the rise of potential future competitors.[citation needed]

In Vernor v. Autodesk, Inc., Autodesk was sued in 2007 by Mr. Timothy Vernor, who alleged that he was entitled to sell on eBay "used" copies of AutoCAD software he had obtained at an office liquidation sale from an Autodesk licensee.[23] A federal district judge in Washington State denied Autodesk's initial motion to dismiss in early 2008. In February and March 2009, both sides filed motions for summary judgment addressing the issue whether the First Sale Doctrine applies to previously licensed software.[24] The Court ruled in Vernor's favor, holding that when the transfer of software to the purchaser materially resembled a sale (non-recurring price, right to perpetual possession of copy) it was, in fact, a "sale with restrictions on use"[25] giving rise to a right to resell the copy under the first-sale doctrine. As such, Autodesk could not pursue an action for copyright infringement against Vernor, who sought to resell used versions of its software on eBay. The decision has been appealed to the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit.

In March 2008 Autodesk was named number 25 on Fast Company's list of "The World's 50 Most Innovative Companies."[26]

Sustainability

In 2006 Autodesk sponsored a PBS program named e2 Design, which focused on going green in building designs around the world. Narrated by Brad Pitt, viewers learn about the leaders and technologies driving sustainable design.

See also

References

  1. ^ a b c Autodesk (ADSK) annual SEC income statement filing via Wikinvest.
  2. ^ a b Autodesk (ADSK) annual SEC balance sheet filing via Wikinvest.
  3. ^ "Company Profile for Autodesk Inc (ADSK)". Retrieved 2008-10-03.
  4. ^ "Autodesk - Digital Prototyping". Autodesk. 2008.
  5. ^ "Autodesk - Media & Entertainment". Autodesk. 2008.
  6. ^ AutoCAD Major Feature Release History
  7. ^ "Cimmetry Releases Autovue 17.1 Service Pack 4s". 2004-04-07. Retrieved 2004-04-07.
  8. ^ http://investors.autodesk.com/phoenix.zhtml?c=117861&p=irol-newsArticle&ID=676694&highlight=
  9. ^ "Autodesk & Alias". 2006-03-12. Retrieved 2008-05-20.
  10. ^ "Autodesk Signs Definitive Agreement to Acquire Skymatter, Makers of Mudbox 3D Brush-based Modeling Software". Autodesk. 6 August 2007.
  11. ^ "Autodesk Completes Acquisition of NavisWorks". 2007-08-09. Retrieved 2008-12-17. [dead link]
  12. ^ "Autodesk Completes Acquisition of Opticore AB". 2007-08-20. Retrieved 2008-05-20.
  13. ^ "Autodesk Acquires PlassoTech". Taume News. 28 August 2007.
  14. ^ "Autodesk Announces Intent to Acquire Robobat". Autodesk. 25 November 2007.
  15. ^ "Autodesk Completes Acquisition of Robobat". Autodesk. 15 January 2008.
  16. ^ "Autodesk Announces Intent to Acquire Moldflow". 2008-05-01. Retrieved 2008-05-20.
  17. ^ "Autodesk Completes Acquisition of Kynogon SA". 2008-05-07. Retrieved 2008-05-20.
  18. ^ "Autodesk Acquires Assets of REALVIZ, Developer of Image-Based Content Creation Software". 2008-05-07. Retrieved 2008-05-20.
  19. ^ "Autodesk Enhances Sustainable Design Capabilities With Acquisitions of Ecotect and Green Building Studio Analysis Tools". 2008-06-26. Retrieved 2008-07-03. [dead link]
  20. ^ "Autodesk Signs Agreement With Avid Technology to Acquire Softimage". 2008-10-23. Retrieved 2008-10-24. [dead link]
  21. ^ "Autodesk to Acquire ALGOR, Inc". 2008-12-17. Retrieved 2008-12-17. [dead link]
  22. ^ "Autodesk Acquires Sequoia-Backed Software Design Startup PlanPlatform". 2009-12-17.
  23. ^ Autodesk sued for $10 million after invoking DMCA to stop eBay resales
  24. ^ Court smacks Autodesk, affirms right to sell used software
  25. ^ United States v. Wise, 550 F.2d 1180 (9th Cir. 1977).
  26. ^ "The World's Most Innovative Companies". Fast Company. March 2008.
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