US semiconductor manufacturer Broadcom is in talks to acquire cloud and virtual services software developer VMware. Bloomberg and The Wall Street Journal write about this, citing sources familiar with the situation. According to them, the negotiations are at an advanced level, so the deal could be announced in the near future, but the parties have not yet reached a final agreement, and the deal may still fall apart. The cost of VMware is estimated at $40 billion, so if the parties agree, this transaction could become one of the largest since the beginning of the year. The companies themselves did not comment on the information about the negotiations.
Broadcom’s capitalization is estimated at $220 billion. In recent years, it has been actively making acquisitions – in 2018, it bought software developer CA Technologies for $18.9 billion, and in 2019, the corporate division of Symantec for $10.7 billion. According to experts, the acquisition of VMware strengthened to Broadcom’s position in the enterprise software market and helped further diversify its business. VMware was founded in 1998 and has changed hands several times since then. It was acquired by Dell in 2015 and spun off VMware into a separate company in 2021.
Shares of VMware rose today, May 23, by 20%. Broadcom shares fell 4.4%.
Even more news is in the Kommersant Telegram channel.