Broadcom’s Pending VMware Buy

VMware had only just begun life as an independent company, separating from longtime owner Dell in October, when Broadcom came calling with a $61 billion box of chocolates.

The immediate reaction from VMware partners was dread with a dash of foreboding amid Broadcom’s reputation of serving only the needs of its top enterprise customers, a view cemented through its acquisitions of CA Technologies and Symantec Enterprise Software Business.

‘Don’t screw this up,” one VMware partner said, a sentiment that captured the market’s angst at the news.

Broadcom has vowed it will rebrand its own Broadcom Software Group as “VMware” following the acquisition, showing the importance of the acquisition to the business. The company has also repeatedly said it was ready to “embrace the channel.”

However, the Broadcom executive who said that to media, analysts, and in a blog, suddenly quit in July and announced he would take the job as the CEO of Citrix-Tibco.

Partners, meanwhile, wait to see what will happen as Broadcom’s window to complete the deal stretches to October 2023.