This summary is based on the first quarter fiscal 2008 earnings call conducted by Autodesk, Inc. (ADSK: chart) on May 17, 2007.

Vice President of Investor Relations: Sue Pirri
President and Chief Executive Officer: Carl Bass
Senior Vice President and Chief Executive Officer: Alfred Castino

Key Investors Issues

- Revenue rose 17% to $509 million,
- Cash, cash equivalents and marketable securities increased by $186 million sequentially to $964 million.
- Capital expenditures were $7 million.

First Quarter Highlights

Revenue was $509 million, a 17% increase over last year.

The company achieved strong results on most of chief business metrics including 3D revenue, maintenance revenue from subscriptions and revenue from emerging economies.

Customer demand for Autodesk products remained strong.

Compared to the last year, revenue from new seats increased 10%, revenue from new seats of 3ds Max increased 30% over last year.

The company implemented changes to partner incentive programs to continue to shift focus to selling vertical and 3D products.

These new programs, which are accounted for as a reduction of to revenue drive a consistent treatment incentives around the world by further reallocating incentives from horizontal products to vertical and 3D products.

While the revenue percentage of total incentives available as not changed, the reallocation does have the short-term effect of temporarily decreasing vertical and 3D revenue to Autodesk while increasing 2D horizontal revenue.

The company expects that these programs will further increase dual focus on vertical and 3D solutions and thus increased the volumes and revenue from these products.

Revenue from model-based 3D solutions Inventor increased 19% over the first quarter of last year to $106 million, or 21% of total revenue.

- The reallocation of amounts in incentive programs effectively reduced net 3D revenue per unit by approximately 10%. This reduction in unit price was somewhat offset by 3D unit volumes as resellers focus more effort on 3D turn higher incentives.

- The company shipped more than 32,000 commercial seats of 3D products. The company passed the 3D milestone.

Revenue from Revit family of products increased 31% over strong first quarter of last year.

The company shipped more than 14,000 commercial seats of Revit products.

- Revenue from Civil 3D grew 17% over the last year and the company shipped nearly 7,400 commercial seats.
- Inventor revenue increased 15% compared to last year.
- In total, the company shipped more than 10,600 commercial seats of Inventor.
- Winning market share as Inventor continues to form the legacy solutions of competitors in all areas of mechanical designs.

- The company introduced a preview release of Inventor LT, which will help customers enhance their communications with suppliers and manufacturing partners by making it easier and more affordable to create, share and edit 3D part designs.
- Inventor LT will increase adoption of 3D in manufacturing customer base.