Strong performance by suites drives results. Media and Entertainment revenue was down 5%.

Autodesk (NASDAQ:ADSK) today reported a solid first quarter of fiscal year 2013. Revenue was $589 million, up 11% compared to the first quarter of fiscal 2012. Autodesk said the increase was driven by the popularity of its new suites. Overall, the Americas and Asia Pacific regions turned in healthy gains while the company described Europe, the Middle East, and emerging economies as producing “uneven results.”

Net income for the first quarter of fiscal 2013 (ended April 30, 2012) was $78.9 million, up 13.9% from a year ago. In initial after-hours trading after results were announced, Autodesk stock was down 3% to 34.73, a typical Wall Street reaction.

Revenue by regions:

• EMEA revenue was $224 million, up 4% from a year earlier, and up 2% on a constant currency basis.
• Americas revenue was $208 million, up 14% from a year earlier.
• Asia Pacific revenue was a record $157 million, up 19% from a year earlier and up 13% on a constant currency basis.
• Revenue from the block of countries Autodesk called “emerging economies” was $82 million, up 6% from a year earlier and up 6% on a constant currency basis. Revenue from emerging economies represented 14% of total revenue in the first quarter.

Revenue by business segments:

• Platform Solutions and Emerging Business segment revenue was $229 million in the quarter, up 9% from a year ago.
• AEC business segment revenue was $163 million, up 16% from a year ago.
• Manufacturing business segment revenue was $146 million, up 18% from a year ago.
• Media and Entertainment business segment revenue was $51 million, down 5% from a year earlier.

Autodesk CEO Carl Bass offered two reasons for lower results in the Media and Entertainment division. One was that the increased sales of suites is depressing sales of stand-alone products, and was “completely expected.” He also said spending is down in M&E because users are waiting for a refresh of the Macintosh hardware line and the release of an unspecified hardware product from another vendor.

Revenue from Flagship products was $336 million, up 4% from last year. Revenue from Suites was $166 million, up 34% compared to the first quarter last year. Revenue from New and Adjacent products was $87 million, up 9% from a year ago. Autodesk says it expects in the coming quarters that revenue from Suites will increase as a percentage of total revenue and that revenue from Flagship products will similarly decline as a percentage of total revenue. For a complete list of definitions for such terms as “flagship products” and “new and adjacent” see our article “Autodesk closes fiscal year with 12% revenue increase.”

During the quarter Autodesk changed its channel partner program and did an internal reorganization creating industry-focused divisions; the old internal alignment was based on product groups.

Cash per share on April 30, 2012 was $4.68, continuing a downward trend going back nine months ago when cash per share was $6.72. Last month at its annual media summit Autodesk said it was increasing its spending on R&D as a percentage of revenue. There have also been costs associated with its internal reorganization, including hiring new staff.

During the conference call with Wall Street analysts, Bass said “the macroeconomic environment keeps us cautious,” especially in Europe. He also noted that AEC users are starting to take advantage of its cloud-based services for rendering, with more than 8 million unique users online doing 3 million hours of rendering since the first of the year. He also said the new cloud-based PLM product, Autodesk 360 PLM, is “doing tremendous volume” but did not provide specific figures regarding downloads or sales.

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L. Stephen Wolfe P.E., a contributing analyst for Jon Peddie Research, provided research for this article.