Tuesday, March 4th, 2025Posted by Jim ThackerAutodesk lays off 1,350 staffhtml PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/REC-html40/loose.dtd"Autodesk is to lay off 9% of its workforce, or around 1,350 jobs. The news comes as the company reported increased net revenue across all of its business sectors for the last financial quarter.In a memo to employees, CEO Andrew Anagnost attributed the job cuts to a decision to accelerate investment in AI and its cloud business, and to strengthen business resilience.Autodesks largest set of job cuts in years follow strong financial resultsThe job cuts are Autodesks largest set of layoffs in some years, and follow a period of growth for the company.Its most recent set of financial results, reported at the same time as the job cuts, are strong.In its 8-K filing for the financial quarter that ended on 31 January 2025, Autodesk reported a total revenue of $1.64 billion, up 12% on the same quarter last year.Net revenue was up on the previous year for all of Autodesks four main product families: AECO, AutoCAD, Manufacturing, and Media and Entertainment.The latter is by some way the smallest of Autodesks major business sectors, but includes the products that CG Channel readers will be most familiar with, including Maya and 3ds Max.Which parts of Autodesks business will be affected by the cuts?Autodesk has not announced exactly where the job cuts will be made, but its press release on the financial results suggest that they will mainly affect sales and marketing, not R&D.In it, CFO Janesh Moorjani comments that Autodesk has just completed its new transaction model and has now initiated the optimization phase of our sales and marketing plan.So why is Autodesk laying off staff now?In a memo to employees, CEO Andrew Anagnost also cited the companys changing Go-to-Market model its sales and marketing strategy as a reason for the cuts.Our GTM model has evolved from the transition to subscription and multi-year contracts billed annually to self-service enablement [and] the adoption of direct billing, he wrote.Anagnost also cited a decision to accelerate Autodesks investment in both new AI technologies and its new industry clouds, like Flow, its cloud-based platform for Media and Entertainment.Our investments in cloud, platform, and AI are ahead of our peers, he wrote. To maintain and extend this leadership, we are shifting resources across our GTM, Platform, Industry, and Corporate functions to accelerate investments in these strategic priorities.The memo also notes a need to strengthen business resilience in the face of changes in macroeconomic and geopolitical factors, as well as evolving regulations.Pressure from activist investorsThe announcements come as Autodesk faces pressure from activist investor Starboard Value to deliver increased returns to shareholders.The situation is summarized well in this AEC Magazine article from last September, which notes that the changes Starboard Value wants would create mass layoffs and cost reductions at Autodesk, in order to drive up operating margin. In the memo to staff, Andrew Anagnost rather pointedly states that this decision was made by myself and CEO staff and is not the result of any third-party pressure.However, Autodesks press release to investors also notes that the company expects consistent growth reinforced by persistent share repurchases, to deliver sustainable shareholder value over many years.Read Andrew Anagnosts memo to Autodesk employees on the Autodesk websiteRead Autodesks press release on its Q4 Fiscal 2025 financial resultsHave your say on this story by following CG Channel on Facebook, Instagram and X (formerly Twitter). As well as being able to comment on stories, followers of our social media accounts can see videos we dont post on the site itself, including making-ofs for the latest VFX movies, animations, games cinematics and motion graphics projects.Related Topics # 3ds max # activist investor # AEC # AECO # AI # AutoCAD # autodesk # Autodesk Flow # cloud platform # financial results # flow # job cuts # layoffs # manufacturing # Maya # Media & Entertainment # Starboard Value Latest NewsDownload Marmoset's free materials for Toolbag 5Library Drop 05 makes over 150 new assets available for the real-time rendering and look dev software, including 86 new materials.Wednesday, March 5th, 2025Autodesk lays off 1,350 staffSo why is the Maya and 3ds Max developer culling 9% of its global workforce when revenue is actually going up across the business?Tuesday, March 4th, 20253d-io releases Unwrella-IONew standalone app from the maker of the Unwrella plugins for 3ds Max and Maya promises easy UV unwrapping and packing.Tuesday, March 4th, 20255 key features for CG artists in Godot 4.4Discover five key new features in the open-source game engine, including updates to shading, lighting, animation and physics.Tuesday, March 4th, 2025Trimble releases SketchUp 2025.0Check out the new features in the architectural modeling app, also used in concept art, including HDRI lighting and PBR materials.Monday, March 3rd, 2025Tutorial: Dynamic Cloth Simulation for ProductionMaster character effects workflows for animation, cinematics and VFX with The Gnomon Workshop's detailed Houdini tutorial.Sunday, March 2nd, 2025More NewsCheck out free Blender scattering add-on OpenScatterCETA Software launches Artist AccessFoundry releases Nuke 16.0Boris FX releases SynthEyes 2025Adobe launches Photoshop on iPhonePlastic Software releases Plasticity 2025.1Technicolor Group begins to shut down operationsDownload four free VDB clouds from VFX AssetsArtlist discontinues the FXhome apps: HitFilm and Imerge deadFree tool: Mesh Cleaner for BlenderTutorial: Introduction to Lighting & Compositing for CinematicsAdobe to raise the price of Substance 3D subscriptionsOlder Posts