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Broadcom to acquire VMware for $61B

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261–270 of 430 posts

Re: Broadcom to acquire VMware for $61B

#261

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If intellectual property (specifically software patents) were weakened, this would be less of a problem, right? Companies don't buy companies, they buy IP, as I understand it.

No, not in the software industry. Nothing VMware has in pure IP is that special. I can’t think of any of the big tech companies that even use VMware. Broadcom is paying for the huge enterprise customer base, sales and support connections, mindshare, and engineering org that has proven adaptable to market demands.

Out of the five Big Tech companies (FAANG - Netflix + MS), three have their own cloud divisions and one (Apple) does partially use AWS and Azure.

Re: Broadcom to acquire VMware for $61B

#263

Earlier quoted context omitted.

We can but asia won’t. We can stop and let Asian tech giants eat us alive.

You're saying "Asia" but you're really referring to China. There is no reason for the west to allow Chinese companies to compete in their markets. Reciprocal market access or no access at all. If western trade agreements forbid companies of a certain size from selling locally there is no alternative for Asian companies but to split or exit the market. We aren't helpless passengers on a worldwide economic joyride.

Samsung, Toyota, Sony, TSMC?

Re: Broadcom to acquire VMware for $61B

#264

One thing I've noticed is that M&A activity really picks up just before a downturn. It's just a gut feeling, I have no data to back it up.

I mean...how do you define downturn?

If you mean recession, as defined by two consecutive quarters of dropping GDP - if GDP drops, stock markets drop. Not sure the directionality there, but the two are usually part and parcel.

If stock prices drop, it's a great time for acquisitions if you're sitting on cash.

I suspect any time stock markets drop sufficiently, you'll see increased M&A activity, regardless of whether it is prolonged enough to count as a recession.

Re: Broadcom to acquire VMware for $61B

#265
post #196

For anyone who doesn't know, VMware has doubled down in open source in the past 3 years, especially Kubernetes. I don't think Broadcom really understands how investment in open source works or for that matter cares. Half of my org of ~500 engineers works on upstream projects. Disclaimer: Current employee of VMware

I would be mildly interested in a 5 minute pitch of what VMware is offering these days, it's been 15 years since I've touched any of their products and the way they were doing things then really seems like it is becoming increasingly irrelevant so what have they been doing instead? It looks like my vague guess of "the same but also on top of cloud providers" seems to be about right given a quick glance at their websi…

I run esxi on my (admittedly beefy), home server. It is a fantastic piece of software that can be completely controlled through a web browser. I can easily spin up a couple of VMs, interact with the install without having to use a remote virtual keyboard/video switch, and the whole thing is rock solid.

I could probably do a lot of the same thing with Linux itself, but the web interface is so nice, I'm keeping it as long as it continues to be free for home use.

Re: Broadcom to acquire VMware for $61B

#266
post #228

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I would be mildly interested in a 5 minute pitch of what VMware is offering these days, it's been 15 years since I've touched any of their products and the way they were doing things then really seems like it is becoming increasingly irrelevant so what have they been doing instead? It looks like my vague guess of "the same but also on top of cloud providers" seems to be about right given a quick glance at their websi…

They have this VMware Tanzu platform which is like Red Hat Openshift. A heavily customized application packaging , deployment management solution on top of Kubernetes. It can be deployed on any cloud and on-prem DCs. So kinda multi cloud bet. They are selling it in a big way.

What does "They are selling it in a big way" mean? I've never heard of it, and neither have any of the software engineers who are next to me at the office. RedHat OpenShift also bombed. They had a great start 11 years ago, but then didn't innovate, and worse, released a 2.0 that wasn't backward compatible. They used the 2.0 release as an excuse to kick off all free plans. What a joke. There's a reason Red Hat isn't a leader in Cloud.

Re: Broadcom to acquire VMware for $61B

#267
post #266
post #228

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They have this VMware Tanzu platform which is like Red Hat Openshift. A heavily customized application packaging , deployment management solution on top of Kubernetes. It can be deployed on any cloud and on-prem DCs. So kinda multi cloud bet. They are selling it in a big way.

What does "They are selling it in a big way" mean? I've never heard of it, and neither have any of the software engineers who are next to me at the office. RedHat OpenShift also bombed. They had a great start 11 years ago, but then didn't innovate, and worse, released a 2.0 that wasn't backward compatible. They used the 2.0 release as an excuse to kick off all free plans. What a joke. There's a reason Red Hat isn't a…

They also released a 3.0 and 4.0 of OpenShift that weren't backwards compatible :-)

Yet OpenShift is making bank. You'd be surprised how much money they make on AWS, Azure, and Google.

Re: Broadcom to acquire VMware for $61B

#268
post #265

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I would be mildly interested in a 5 minute pitch of what VMware is offering these days, it's been 15 years since I've touched any of their products and the way they were doing things then really seems like it is becoming increasingly irrelevant so what have they been doing instead? It looks like my vague guess of "the same but also on top of cloud providers" seems to be about right given a quick glance at their websi…

I run esxi on my (admittedly beefy), home server. It is a fantastic piece of software that can be completely controlled through a web browser. I can easily spin up a couple of VMs, interact with the install without having to use a remote virtual keyboard/video switch, and the whole thing is rock solid. I could probably do a lot of the same thing with Linux itself, but the web interface is so nice, I'm keeping it as l…

I’d be really interested in an “i used both” comparison between esxi’s free offering and proxmox for this sort of purpose. I imagine esxi might be more polished, but also more limited.

Re: Broadcom to acquire VMware for $61B

#269
post #84

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Just for a second, imagine a company that isn't a software company, but needs software to run its business. Think manufacturing, logistics, shipping, construction, food (industrial scale egg production, for example) etc. There's a lot of companies like that out there...in fact it's almost all of them. Those companies run all their boring, essential software (accounting, ERPs, etc.) on VMWare, Oracle, Azure, etc. Sinc…

Exactly. Most "enterprise" software competes with a team of 3 doing it all in excel. At this rate, $100k/yr is a bargain.

I do ERP and the thought of replicating it in Excel… yikes. For a big company you’ll need a team of hundreds and a huge surplus of sanity, and you’ll still have a worse outcome.

An ERP is basically a database with an interface with business logic built in. Certainly not something you want to do in Excel.

Re: Broadcom to acquire VMware for $61B

#270
post #194

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No, that is just incorrect. Please don’t speculate if you don’t know what you’re talking about.

This was reported by multiple financial news organizations, what makes you so confident it isn't true?

I am very confident this is not true. I am certain I know Broadcom’s corporate strategy and views on the semi cycle better than any financial journalist.
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