Starboard urges Autodesk board to explore CEO change, cost cuts

(Reuters) - Activist investor Starboard Value urged Autodesk's board to explore a CEO change and cost cuts on Tuesday, saying the design software maker has missed financial targets and underperformed the market for years under current leadership.

The move is the latest by Starboard, which disclosed a more than $500 million stake in Autodesk in June and lost a bid to appoint nominees to the company's board in the run-up to an annual meeting last month.

It said Autodesk's board should "objectively assess" if CEO Andrew Anagnost, who has helmed the software maker for seven years, was the best choice to continue leading the company.

"Our management team and our board have had multiple conversations with Starboard over the past two months, including inviting Starboard to present to the full Autodesk board," a spokesperson for Autodesk said.

Starboard is also pushing for cost cuts to improve profitability and said Autodesk should ensure executive compensation plan is tied to shareholder value creation.

It added the "company must end its practice of setting annual targets for long-term executive compensation plans, a practice which has enabled compensation targets to be set below the multi-year targets that have been presented to investors."

Shares of Autodesk, which provides 3D design and engineering solutions for several sectors, were up 3.3% after dropping 2.4% on Monday amid a broad market selloff.

Last month, Starboard said Autodesk's management "intentionally" misled investors after the company disclosed an accounting issue earlier this year.

Autodesk said in May that to meet free cash flow targets, it continued entering into multi-year, upfront contracts with enterprise customers through 2023 despite previously announcing a transition to annual billings a year earlier.

CNBC reported on the latest Starboard move earlier on Tuesday.

(Reporting by Harshita Mary Varghese and Priyanka G in Bengaluru; Editing by Shounak Dasgupta)