New York, January 23, 2026, 11:01 a.m. EST — Regular session
- Autodesk shares dipped about 0.3% in early trading after surging nearly 5% the day before
- Company revealed it will cut about 7% of its staff and anticipates pretax charges ranging from $135 million to $160 million
- Investors are eyeing if the sales overhaul will lift margins without cutting into demand
Autodesk shares edged down a bit on Friday, slipping about 0.3% in early trading to $268.97. The stock had jumped 4.79% the day before, closing at $269.77. 1
Autodesk, the design-software leader, announced plans to slash roughly 7% of its workforce — about 1,000 jobs — to sharpen its focus on cloud and AI projects. The move sent its shares up more than 3% on Thursday. The stock has fallen roughly 13% so far in 2026, after barely budging last year. As of January 31, 2025, the company had around 15,300 employees. Autodesk, a staple for architects, engineers, and media studios, competes with Adobe and PTC. 2
Autodesk revealed in an 8-K that total pretax restructuring charges will range from $135 million to $160 million, mainly tied to termination benefits. The firm expects to record roughly $90 million to $110 million of that in the fiscal fourth quarter ending Jan. 31, with the remainder spilling into fiscal 2027. Almost all these charges will be cash outflows in fiscal 2027 (ending Jan. 31, 2027). Autodesk also said billings—a key invoicing metric for investors—along with revenue, non-GAAP operating margin, non-GAAP EPS, and free cash flow, are set to exceed the high end of its late-November guidance. It will exclude restructuring costs from those non-GAAP numbers. 3
Autodesk CEO Andrew Anagnost told staff the layoffs come after the “completion of our multi-year go-to-market (GTM) transformation,” stressing this won’t turn into a yearly event. He made clear the cuts aren’t “driven by the external environment” nor part of an AI-driven replacement plan. Notifications to impacted employees will begin Jan. 22, with timing differing by country. 4
Autodesk cut about 1,350 jobs in February last year, SFGate reports. CEO Anagnost described these layoffs as the final step in revamping sales and marketing. Notably, California’s employment department had yet to receive a WARN notice—the required warning for large-scale layoffs—by early Thursday. 5
Broader markets stayed steady, as the Nasdaq-tracking Invesco QQQ added about 0.5% and the S&P 500 ETF SPY inched up roughly 0.1%. Adobe rose close to 0.4%, but PTC dropped nearly 0.5%.
Autodesk’s market strategy hasn’t shifted for months: the question is whether it can raise prices and simplify sales without slowing down. It’s steadily moving away from a channel-heavy model toward subscriptions and usage-based contracts.
The upgrade grabs attention largely because it comes alongside a concrete cost reset. Investors tend to respond more sharply to forecast boosts when they’re supported by real actions — in this case, slashing headcount and doubling down on cloud and AI initiatives.
Layoffs rarely unfold without hiccups. Cutting customer-facing roles can disrupt renewals and stall deals, while any errors or resistance around pricing and contract terms quickly erode the expected savings.
Autodesk will release its fiscal fourth-quarter and full-year results on Feb. 26 after markets close, sticking to its regular reporting timetable. 6
