ADSK Aug 2024 180.000 put

Starboard presses for changes at Autodesk after accounting probe

Starboard said in a letter on Tuesday that Autodesk was maintaining a misleading "all is well" narrative and had dented investor trust with a "wholly inadequate response" to an accounting issue it disclosed recently. The letter comes after Autodesk said there would be no reinstatement of its financial statements after a months-long probe it conducted into certain accounting practices, which had delayed the annual report and hit its share price. Autodesk disclosed in May that, to meet free cash flow targets, it continued entering into multi-year, upfront contracts with enterprise customers through 2023 despite previously announcing a transition to annual billings a year earlier.