Autodesk Executives Ignored Accounting Risks, Documents Show (2)

Autodesk Inc. continued to use a controversial sales strategy after promising investors it would stop and ignored internal warnings about the risks of doing so, according to previously unreported internal documents.

The yearslong strategy involved offering discounts to certain corporate customers willing to pay up front for large multiyear contracts. In an effort to provide more predictable cash flow and wean itself off of the discounts, the engineering software company in 2021 pledged to halt the practice.

But Autodesk kept doing it in an effort to meet financial targets, according to the documents, which were reviewed by Bloomberg. The company ...