Thread by @investing_city

Seventh up in the "10k in 10 tweets" series is Autodesk!

(I'm trying to do it for 10 days in a row as well 😁. Almost there!)

[THREAD]

1/ "Autodesk makes software for people who make things."

2/ So many acronyms! Here is a cheat sheet if you ever look into Autodesk

3/ The company stopped selling licenses in 2016 to move to subscriptions.

Just like Adobe, it took a while, but the company has done a great job during the transition.

4/ In 4 years, the company went from subscriptions accounting for 19% of sales to 88%.

5/ 30% of the company's sales are direct. The bulk is through a big network of resellers (two in particular, Tech Data and Ingram Micro)

6/ Apparently there is quite a bit of unauthorized use that cloud-based subscriptions should put a stop to over time.

7/ These are the "Industry Collections" (used to be named suites):

1. AEC
2. Product Design & MFG
3. M&E

8/ Here is the revenue breakdown by Industry Collection.

The company has focused on AEC a lot lately.

9/ For example, its last three acquisitions are related to that product family. ProCore would be a big competitor here.

In the other segments, another competitor is Dassault Systems.

If you're an engineer, you definitely know AutoCAD (AutoDesk) and Solidworks (Dassault).

10/ AutoDesk is a great company, with a strong brand in CAD and BIM.

On top of that, 90% gross margins, a lot of room for growth from the subscription transition, great cash conversion, and high switching/training costs make this company interesting.