The first quarter and full year fiscal 2018 outlook assume a projected annual effective tax rate of (11) percent and 26 percent for GAAP and non-GAAP results, respectively.  Assumptions for the annual effective tax rate are regularly evaluated and may change based on the projected geographic mix of earnings.  At this stage of the business model transition, small shifts in geographic profitability significantly impact the effective tax rate.

Earnings Conference Call and Webcast

Autodesk will host its fourth quarter conference call today at 5:00 p.m. ET. The live broadcast can be accessed at http://www.autodesk.com/investor. Supplemental financial information and prepared remarks for the conference call will be posted to the investor relations section of Autodesk's website simultaneously with this press release.

A replay of the broadcast will be available at 7:00 pm ET at http://www.autodesk.com/investor. This replay will be maintained on Autodesk's website for at least 12 months.

Glossary of Terms

Annualized Recurring Revenue (ARR): Represents the annualized value of our average monthly recurring revenue for the preceding three months. "Maintenance ARR" captures ARR relating to traditional maintenance attached to perpetual licenses. "New Model ARR" captures ARR relating to new model subscription offerings. Recurring revenue acquired with the acquisition of a business may cause variability in the comparison of this calculation.

ARR is currently one of our key performance metrics to assess the health and trajectory of our business. ARR should be viewed independently of revenue and deferred revenue as ARR is a performance metric and is not intended to be combined with any of these items.

Cloud Service Offerings: Represents individual term-based offerings deployed through web browser technologies or in a hybrid software and cloud configuration. Cloud service offerings that are bundled with other product offerings are not captured as a separate cloud service offering.

Constant Currency (CC) Growth Rates: We calculate constant currency growth rates by (i) applying the applicable prior period exchange rates to current period results and (ii) excluding any gains or losses from foreign currency hedge contracts that are reported in the current and comparative periods.

Flexible Enterprise Business Agreements (EBA): Represents programs providing enterprise customers with token-based access or a fixed maximum number of seats to a broad pool of Autodesk products over a defined contract term.

License and Other Revenue: License and other revenue consists of two components: (1) all forms of product license revenue and (2) other revenue. Product license revenue includes software license revenue from the sale of perpetual licenses, term-based licenses from our product subscriptions and flexible enterprise business agreements, and product revenue for Creative Finishing. Other revenue includes revenue from consulting, training, Autodesk Developers Network and Creative Finishing customer support, and is recognized over time, as the services are performed.

Maintenance Plan: Our maintenance plan provides our customers with a cost effective and predictable budgetary option to obtain the productivity benefits of our new releases and enhancements when and if released during the term of their contracts. Under our maintenance plan, customers are eligible to receive unspecified upgrades when and if available, and online support. We recognize maintenance plan revenue over the term of the agreements, generally between one and three years.

New Model Subscription Offerings (New Model): Comprises our term-based product subscriptions (formerly titled Desktop subscription), cloud service offerings, and flexible enterprise business agreements.

Recurring Revenue: Represents the revenue for the period from our maintenance plans and revenue from our new model subscription offerings, including portions of revenue allocated to license and other revenue for those offerings. It excludes subscription revenue related to education offerings, consumer product offerings, select Creative Finishing product offerings, Autodesk Buzzsaw, Autodesk Constructware, and third party products. Recurring revenue acquired with the acquisition of a business is reported when total subscriptions are captured in our systems and may cause variability in the comparison of this calculation.

Subscription Revenue: Autodesk subscription revenue consists of three components:  (1) maintenance plan revenue from our perpetual software products; (2) maintenance revenue from our term-based product subscriptions and flexible enterprise business agreements; and (3) revenue from our cloud service offerings.

Total Subscriptions: Consists of subscriptions from our maintenance plans and new model subscription offerings that are active and paid as of the quarter end date.  For certain cloud service offerings and flexible enterprise business agreements, subscriptions represent the monthly average activity reported within the last three months of the quarter end date.  Total subscriptions do not include education offerings, consumer product offerings, select Creative Finishing product offerings, Autodesk Buzzsaw, Autodesk Constructware, and third party products.  Subscriptions acquired with the acquisition of a business are captured once the data conforms to our subscription count methodology and when added, may cause variability in the comparison of this calculation.

Safe Harbor Statement

This press release contains forward-looking statements that involve risks and uncertainties, including statements in the paragraphs under "Business Outlook" above, other statements about our short-term and long-term goals, statements regarding the impacts and results of our business model transition, expectations for subscriptions, ARR and our customer transitions from maintenance to product subscriptions, acceptance by our customers and partners of subscriptions, and other statements regarding our strategies, market and product positions, performance and results. There are a significant number of factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from statements made in this press release, including: failure to achieve our revenue and profitability objectives; failure to successfully manage transitions to new business models and markets and to attract customers to our cloud-based offerings; expenses related to the transition of our business model; difficulty in predicting revenue from new businesses and the potential impact on our financial results from changes in our business models; general market, political, economic and business conditions; any imposition of new tariffs or trade barriers; the impact of non-cash charges on our financial results; fluctuation in foreign currency exchange rates; the success of our foreign currency hedging program; failure to control our expenses; our performance in particular geographies, including emerging economies; the ability of governments around the world to meet their financial and debt obligations, and finance infrastructure projects; weak or negative growth in the industries we serve; slowing momentum in subscription billings or revenues; difficulties encountered in integrating new or acquired businesses and technologies; the inability to identify and realize the anticipated benefits of acquisitions; the financial and business condition of our reseller and distribution channels; dependence on and the timing of large transactions; failure to achieve sufficient sell-through in our channels for new or existing products; pricing pressure; unexpected fluctuations in our tax rate; the timing and degree of expected investments in growth and efficiency opportunities; changes in the timing of product releases and retirements; and any unanticipated accounting charges.