Stocks Fools Love
February 11, 1998

Autodesk
by George Runkle (TMF Runkle)

Autodesk, Inc. (Nasdaq: ADSK)
111 McInnis Parkway
San Rafael, California 94903
http://www.autodesk.com
$42 11/16 as of February 9, 1998

When I first met this stock, she was kind of dowdy. She had a reliable software product that I used at work, AutoCAD, but it was like sensible shoes. It worked, and it worked well, but it wasn't very attractive. AutoCAD was the standard computer-aided drafting program that many of us in engineering and architecture cut our teeth on. However, competitors had been nipping at it over the years. Still, this company had the advantage because in order for those of us in the business to change software, it requires a lot of money in training and lost productivity. Still, many were drifting away.

The company was losing money. Then she tried to do a makeover with another release of the product. Release 13 was to be Windows 95 compatible and have all kinds of fancy bells and whistles. Boy, was that a mistake. Like putting on too much lipstick and cheap perfume, it made her look ridiculous. The initial release was full of errors and tended to crash. A revision was released, but it was very slow.

Then, the new Autodesk appeared. She went out and bought Softdesk, the company that made add-ons for her dowdy product. It looked like she was getting a real makeover this time. She released version 14 of her product. This was a real sexy version, not just some cheap perfume and lipstick. This was all new code -- you should see her draw topography! She's real fast now, and everybody wants her. The program has all kinds of neat stuff that makes engineers and architects more productive, and the code is fast.

This summer, everybody seemed to think she was a sexy stock. As for her price, she went all the way up to over $50 a share, and then sank back down to what I paid for her. I guess her reputation was tarnished by that group of tech stocks that she hangs out with. I don't care what anybody says, they're a good group of stocks and don't deserve their reputation. I'm sticking with her because I know she's a nice stock. Also First Call projects a 48% increase in earnings for the fiscal year ending January '98, and 46% for '99. Even with a bad reputation, that still makes her attractive.

Next Stock Fools Love: Chrysler

* A Stock to Love represents the opinion of one Fool and in no way should be taken as the opinion of either the Motley Fool, Inc., the company in question or representative of anyone or anything else other than that specific Fool's thoughts.