Autodesk CFO Mark Hawkins Quits, To Join Salesforce.com

(RTTNews) - Autodesk Inc. (ADSK) Monday said its Chief Financial Officer Mark Hawkins has resigned from the company to join cloud computing company Salesforce.com (CRM) as their CFO.

San Francisco, California-based Salesforce.com, in a separate release, confirmed that Hawkins will join the company as CFO, effective August 1. Hawkins will be responsible for the company's financial operations and report to CEO Marc Benioff.

Hawkins served as CFO of Autodesk for five years since 2009. Autodesk has initiated a selection process for a new chief financial officer.

Hawkins succeeds Graham Smith, who had earlier this year announced his retirement plans. Smith will remain employed by the company as an advisor reporting to Benioff until March 31, 2015, to ensure a seamless transition.

"He is the right person to succeed Graham, who has been a phenomenal CFO and instrumental to our success over the past six years," Benioff said.

Meanwhile, Autodesk said it now expects revenue and earnings at or above its previously issued outlook for the second quarter. Autodesk reaffirmed its guidance for full-year fiscal 2015.

Initially, design software maker Autodesk had forecast second-quarter outlook of revenue in a range of $595 million to $610 million, earnings of $0.05 to $0.10 per share and adjusted earnings of $0.25 to $0.30 per share.

Analysts polled by Thomson Reuters currently estimate earnings of $0.28 per share on revenues of $600.23 million for the quarter. Analysts' estimates typically exclude one-time items.

For the full year 2015, the company continues to forecasts revenue growth of 4 to 6 percent. Analysts currently estimate revenue growth of 5.5 percent.

ADSK closed Monday's trading at $56.38, down $0.02 or 0.04%, on the Nasdaq. The stock further dropped $0.10 or 0.18% in after hours trade. CRM closed Monday's trading at $58.08, up $0.70 or 1.22%, on the NYSE.