VMware CEO Takes On Questions About Broadcom Acquisition

CEO Ragu Ragerman was in the hot seat at The Channel Company’s 2022 XChange Best of Breed Conference in Atlanta as partners brace themselves for the virtualization and cloud computing software company to be acquired by Broadcom. They’re buying VMware for the breadth of the portfolio and, like I said, to make VMware the foundation of their software, current and future software assets.

See more coverage of the 2022 XChange Best of Breed Conference on CRN:
https://www.crn.com/xchange-best-of-breed-2022

See the original interview on CRN:
https://crntv.crn.com/detail/video/6313946010112/vmware-ceo-takes-on-questions-about-broadcom-acquisition

The CEO faced questions head-on about the $61 billion deal, which was announced back in May. He explained the company’s strategy. Should the expected acquisition go through, Broadcom will be a strong semiconductor business of the order of about $20 billion in revenue, and a strong software business of the order of about $20 billion in revenue if you add Broadcom software revenues and all revenues together. So, it’ll be two equal-sized businesses contributing to the $40 billion business, he says.

Broadcom’s history of organic acquisitions and investments in innovation makes this a good move for VMware. He also said Broadcom’s placement in the stack as a supplier for companies like Google, Amazon, and HPE is a plus. So, if you put it all together, it helps VMware, in the long run, become bigger and stronger as a company with continued investment in innovation.

When it comes to VMware’s relationship with partners, the CEO told the audience of MSPs not to worry. “I would not expect significant changes for the simple reason that VMware has a broad customer base, and there is no way to effectively serve this customer base and a broad portfolio without the expertise and reach of the partners.”