VMware Calls Cloud Foundry, Greenplum Spin-Off Rumor 'Unfounded'

By Kevin McLaughlin
July 18, 2012 2:35 PM ET

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VMware is seeking to squash recent speculation about a spin-off of its Cloud Foundry platform-as-a-service and big data assets from EMC Greenplum, calling the rumors "unfounded."

In an internal memo Tuesday, VMware instructed its corps of global spokespeople to address questions about the rumored spin-offs by answering that the company remains committed to those assets.

"The speculation about EMC and VMware’s commitment to Cloud Foundry and Greenplum businesses are unfounded," VMware said in the memo to its global spokespeople, which was obtained by CRN. "VMware and EMC are very committed to these efforts and are continuing to aggressively invest in their success and long term contribution to the portfolio."

The memo, titled "Executive Change Announcement: July 17, 2012," outlines answers VMware's global spokespeople should provide to several anticipated "top public questions" related to this week's executive changes, first reported by CRN Monday, in which EMC's Pat Gelsinger was named as VMware's new CEO, replacing Paul Maritz.

VMware didn't respond Tuesday to a request for comment on the memo. VMware has not commented previously on the spin-off reports, citing its policy of not responding to rumors or speculation.

News of the planned spin-off was first reported Monday by GigaOm, which cited "sources close to the deal." In addition to Cloud Foundry and EMC Greenplum, the spin-off is also supposed to include Project Rubicon, EMC and VMware's infrastructure-as-a-service joint venture, according to the GigaOm report.

Unveiled last April, Cloud Foundry lets developers rewrite apps in Java so that they'll run well on private clouds. It works with a variety of development frameworks, including .NET, Ruby, Node.js and Spring, the last of which VMware picked up in its August 2009 acquisition of SpringSource.

Last November, Hewlett-Packard was reportedly running its HP Cloud Services private beta on Cloud Foundry.

NEXT: Partners Say Spin-Off Wouldn't Make Sense

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