Auction Rate Securities: Small Effect on CAD

In an earlier posting, I wondered if the credit crunch would affect CAD vendors. As annual reports are now being filed, search for the phrase "auction rate securities" in American vendors' 10-K forms filed online with Edgar.

Here, for example, is part of the statement filed by Autodesk:

At January 31, 2008, we had auction rate securities with an estimated fair value of $8.4 million ($9.0 million cost basis) included in non-current "Marketable securities" due to their lack of liquidity. These AAA-rated auction rate securities, which met our investment guidelines at the time the investments were made, have failed to settle at monthly auctions since August 2007.

From this, we learn that Autodesk has about $9 million in affected funds, a small amount for a large company.