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Broadcom sketches out VMware ambitions that stretch from mainframe to cloud

Engineers, sales teams told to stick around, customers promised more 'choice' – to buy from Symantec or CA

Simon Sharwood, APAC Editor Thu 23 Jun 2022 // 00:32 UTC

Broadcom has made its first public comment in weeks about its plans for VMware, should the surprise $61 billion acquisition proceed as planned, and has prioritized retaining VMware's engineers to preserve the virtualization giant's innovation capabilities.
The outline of Broadcom's plans appeared in a Wednesday blog post by Broadcom Software president Tom Krause.

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VMware customers fear Broadcom acquisition will stall innovation, increase cost

Gartner advises renegotiating subscriptions now to avoid ‘dramatic’ and ‘extraordinary’ price rises

Simon Sharwood, APAC Editor Thu 9 Jun 2022 // 00:57 UTC

Analyst firms S&P Global Market Intelligence and Gartner have both offered negative evaluations of Broadcom's takeover of VMware.
S&P surveyed VMware customers and found 44 percent feel neutral about the deal, and 40 percent expressed negative sentiments.
But when the analyst crunched the numbers for current customers of both VMware and Broadcom, 56 percent expressed negative sentiments. More than a quarter rated their response to the deal as "extremely negative".

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Broadcom's stated strategy ignores most VMware customers

Focuses on 600 users, lets smaller outfits slide, trims R&D spend, slashes sales expenses

Simon Sharwood, APAC Editor Mon 30 May 2022 // 13:00 UTC

Broadcom's stated strategy is very simple: focus on 600 customers who will struggle to change suppliers, reap vastly lower sales and marketing costs by focusing on that small pool, and trim R&D by not thinking about the needs of other customers – who can be let go if necessary without much harm to the bottom line.
The Register offers that summary based on Broadcom's own words, as uttered at a November 2021 Investor Day.
The Broadcom event kicked off with an overview from president Tom Krause, who illustrated the outfit's go-to-market plan with the following diagram.

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VMware customers have watched Broadcom's acquisitions and don't like what they see

It's not hard to find unpleasant precedents for what might happen to Virtzilla

Simon Sharwood, APAC Editor Tue 31 May 2022 // 08:05 UTC

VMware customers have seen companies acquired by Broadcom Software emerge with lower profiles, slower innovation, and higher prices - a combination that makes them nervous about the virtualization giant’s future.
The Register offers that assessment after spending the day at a VMware user group conference in Melbourne, Australia, where we interviewed over a dozen VMware customers to ascertain their reaction to Broadcom’s surprise acquisition of the virtualisation giant. The customers all requested that The Register not use their names, or those of their employers, as none were authorized to speak to the media.
One of those customers was a sysadmin at a sporting organisation that has decided to drop Symantec products because product evolution has slowed under Broadcom’s ownership. The sysadmin has also heard, from multiple sources including Broadcom partners, that the company uses price hikes to discourage customers it does not want.

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Confirmed: Broadcom, VMware agree to $61b merger

Unless anyone out there can make a better offer. Oh, Elon?

Dan Robinson Thu 26 May 2022 // 16:20 UTC

Broadcom has confirmed it intends to acquire VMware in a deal that looks set to be worth $61 billion, if it goes ahead: the agreement provides for a “go-shop” provision under which the virtualization giant may solicit alternative offers.
Rumors of the proposed merger emerged earlier this week, amid much speculation, but neither of the companies was prepared to comment on the deal before today, when it was disclosed that the boards of directors of both organizations have unanimously approved the agreement.
Michael Dell and Silver Lake investors, which own just over half of the outstanding shares in VMware between both, have apparently signed support agreements to vote in favor of the transaction, so long as the VMware board continues to recommend the proposed transaction with chip designer Broadcom.

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Broadcom to 'focus on rapid transition to subscriptions' for VMware

Offers comforting vision for core customers, products, channel – though warns efficiencies are coming

Simon Sharwood, APAC Editor Fri 27 May 2022 // 01:58 UTC

Broadcom has signaled its $61 billion acquisition of VMware will involve a “rapid transition from perpetual licenses to subscriptions.”
That's according to Tom Krause, president of the Broadcom Software Group, on Thursday's Broadcom earnings call. He was asked how the semiconductor giant plans to deliver on its guidance that VMware will add approximately $8.5 billion of pro forma EBITDA to Broadcom within three years of the deal closing – significant growth given VMware currently produces about $4.7 billion. And subscriptions was the answer.
Krause also repeatedly said Broadcom intends to invest in VMware’s key product portfolio and is pleased to be acquiring a sales organization and channel relationships that give it reach Broadcom does not currently enjoy.

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Broadcom to buy VMware 'on Thursday for $60 billion'

Think we speak for everyone when we say: Seriously, what the f...?

Simon Sharwood, APAC Editor Tue 24 May 2022 // 02:18 UTC

Broadcom is to acquire VMware for $60 billion in a deal that will be announced on Thursday.
That's according to the Wall Street Journal. VMware is scheduled to report its Q1 2023 results on the same day, so the Thursday announcement theory is not entirely unrealistic.
Neither biz has had anything to say about the reported deal at the time of writing, with VMware declining comment on rumor and speculation.

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Broadcom buying VMware could create an edge infrastructure and IoT empire

Hypervisor giant too big to be kept ticking over like CA or Symantec. Instead it can wrangle net-connected kit

Simon Sharwood, APAC Editor Thu 26 May 2022 // 07:03 UTC

Comment Broadcom’s mooted acquisition of VMware looks odd at face value, but if considered as a means to make edge computing and the Internet of Things (IoT) more mature and manageable, and give organizations the tools to drive them, the deal makes rather more sense.
Edge and IoT are the two coming things in computing and will grow for years, meaning the proposed deal could be very good for VMware’s current customers.
An Ethernet switch that Broadcom launched this week shows why this is a plausible scenario.

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Broadcom in talks to buy VMware: multiple reports

Michael Dell could be the key to any deal

Simon Sharwood, APAC Editor Mon 23 May 2022 // 02:58 UTC

Broadcom is in early talks to buy VMware, according to The New York Times, Bloomberg, and Reuters.
VMware is not commenting on the matter.
This one is interesting, because the three sources we've linked to above all say they've got the news from "a person familiar with the matter." All say the deal is nowhere near done, a price has not been discussed, and a transaction is far from certain to happen.

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Cheers ransomware hits VMware ESXi systems

Now we can say extortionware has jumped the shark

Jeff Burt Thu 26 May 2022 // 21:10 UTC

Another ransomware strain is targeting VMware ESXi servers, which have been the focus of extortionists and other miscreants in recent months.
ESXi, a bare-metal hypervisor used by a broad range of organizations throughout the world, has become the target of such ransomware families as LockBit, Hive, and RansomEXX. The ubiquitous use of the technology, and the size of some companies that use it has made it an efficient way for crooks to infect large numbers of virtualized systems and connected devices and equipment, according to researchers with Trend Micro.
"ESXi is widely used in enterprise settings for server virtualization," Trend Micro noted in a write-up this week. "It is therefore a popular target for ransomware attacks … Compromising ESXi servers has been a scheme used by some notorious cybercriminal groups because it is a means to swiftly spread the ransomware to many devices."

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