back to article Broadcom sketches out VMware ambitions that stretch from mainframe to cloud

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 …

  1. Anonymous Coward
    WTF?

    Hmm

    "This means that we'll be working in close coordination with VMware to learn more about their go-to-market, product portfolio, approach to innovation, engineering talent, partner network and, of course, strong customer footprint."

    Is it just me or isn't this the sort of thing you'd do before you opened up your wallet?

    I think swingeing cuts to headcount and sales and marketing expenses are all but guaranteed.

  2. mevets

    The Iceberg taking over the Titanic.

    Chippy, the spokesperson for IceBerg Inc, stated that the first steps towards incorporating the Titanic into the icy depths was to insure the co-operation of the engineering staff. The last thing anybody wants is the ship veering away from the ice field. The management and other support staff may be permitted to float away on whatever wreckage is available. We do have a general agreement with Shark Inc, to not interfere with their feeding grounds.

  3. dboyes

    On the other hand, theyve been fairly decent to the ex-CA world….

    They’ve been a lot more cooperative than CA ever was. Given IBMs recent parting of the ways with z/VSE, maybe they’d be a good option for some of the other OSes. At least they understand that market segment.

  4. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Reputation...

    Broadcom's reputation in the software business has been earned & self-inflicted. Both on the customer side and on the talent side.

    Customers have long memories. The small/medium business that is shunned today is one acquisition or career change away from that leadership joining one of the whales that Broadcom targets. That is a tough sale to make when the prospect won't answer the phone just because of the name on Caller ID.

    Talent isn't anyone's fool either, and they all network together. Top VMWare talent has already shrugged their shoulders and spiffed up their CVs. Just wait until VMWare's team finds out Broadcom requires headcount to be full time office based workers. Recruiters know it and are already knocking on doors.

    It will literally take years or decades for Broadcom to change their software industry reputation. That could be the reason they are trying to put CA & Symantec under the VMWare branding.

    1. WhereAmI?

      Re: Reputation...

      Symantec... can you spell c-r-a-p from that? It's been pushed on me by my broadband supplier and causes no end of trouble. It tells me that an executable file I've just compiled is a virus and has removed it for my own good. It tells me that an executable from one of the world's biggest aerospace companies is doing something nasty to my system and has blocked it for my own good. It blocks downloads until it decides that maybe I'm not trying to inflict malware on myself. It stops calls from the above executable to the dll I've just written because it's 'detected suspicious activity'.

      In short, it's the biggest pile of shite I've had the misfortune to have to struggle with in the last decade. I'd love to get rid of it but... see first sentence.

      1. Andy 68

        Re: Reputation...

        Genuine question..... how on earth do you let your broadband supplier dictate what runs on your machines?

        My broadband supplier is there to supply me with broadband. They have no idea what is running this side of their box on the wall.

        1. WhereAmI?

          Re: Reputation...

          BT. They used to supply McAfee (which I was able to coerce into behaving itself) but they switched to Symantec. Given the current state of pay, I can't afford to dump Symantec and switch to something else. Perhaps 'forced' was not absolutely correct but everything else still stands.

          1. Korev Silver badge

            Re: Reputation...

            What about MS Defender?

  5. Trotts36

    Nightmare

    Broadcomm is the very definition of vulture capitalism. A horrid company that now exists only to swallow other businesses and drag them down to their incredibly low level.

  6. jlturriff

    "...from mainframe to cloud"

    I will be most interested to see how VMware competes with z/VM on IBM's mainframe systems. :-)

  7. jeffty

    No mention of post-sales teams or other important groups...

    Professional Services, Support, Marketing, Education/Training, plus the various marketing and product management arms...

    ... reading between the lines it seems those will be the targets for heavy cuts.

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