Broadcom Provides Regulatory Update on VMware Transaction

[AleksandarK]

Broadcom Inc. (NASDAQ: AVGO), a global technology leader that designs, develops and supplies semiconductor and infrastructure software solutions, today affirmed its expectation that its acquisition of VMware, Inc. (NYSE: VMW) will close on October 30, 2023, and provided an update on its progress with various regulatory agencies.

On August 21, 2023, Broadcom received final transaction approval from the United Kingdom's Competition and Markets Authority. This follows legal merger clearance in the European Union, as well as in Australia, Brazil, Canada, Israel, South Africa, and Taiwan, and foreign investment control clearance in all necessary jurisdictions. In the U.S., the Hart-Scott-Rodino pre-merger waiting periods have expired, and there is no legal impediment to closing under U.S. merger regulations.




Broadcom continues to work constructively with regulators in other jurisdictions and is in the advanced stages of the process toward obtaining the remaining required regulatory approvals, which Broadcom believes will be received before October 30, 2023. Accordingly, together with VMware, Broadcom has agreed to further extend the Outside Date as contemplated in the transaction agreement, as will be further described in a Form 8-K to be filed by VMware with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.

Broadcom is confident that the combination with VMware will enhance competition in the cloud and benefit enterprise customers by giving them more choice and control over where they locate their workloads.

About Broadcom Inc.
Broadcom Inc. (NASDAQ: AVGO), a Delaware corporation headquartered in San Jose, CA, is a global technology leader that designs, develops and supplies a broad range of semiconductor and infrastructure software solutions. Broadcom's category-leading product portfolio serves critical markets including data center, networking, enterprise software, broadband, wireless, storage and industrial. Our solutions include data center networking and storage, enterprise, mainframe and cybersecurity software focused on automation, monitoring and security, smartphone components, telecoms and factory automation. For more information, go to https://www.broadcom.com.

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[Chrispy_]

Oh no, Broadcom buying VMWare is terrible.

The software platforms I've used that Broadcom took over immediately went to shit upon their acquisition. Price increases, product quality nosediving, features being removed and being spun into separate products with separate licenses, product "bundling" worse than Adobe, and bugs galore in a broken, incoherent dashboard as the effort to transition the product to Broadcom's unified identity ran roughshod over any attempt to ensure service continuity or familarity for existing customers.

Broadcom are known patent trolls and anti-competitive asshats. They have been smacked down, fined, and threatened further action in several patent litigation and anti-competitive investigations by both the Federal Trade Commission and the European Commission. They are the definition of "the bad guys" and until they stop gobbling up popular IT solutions companies and extorting their customers, my opinion on that won't change.

 

[Σario]

Yeah the thing is VMware is already overpriced, bloated, and now eclipsed by opensource solutions. No doubt in the ESXI 3-4 days they were king, but those days have long passed due to their insane licensing cost.

 

[Anoniem]

VMWare was already pushing it with their pricing, now imagine Broadcom at the helm. Yup, sounds like prices skyrocketing. I will be looking into alternatives, because I hate Broadcumbucket with a passion. Broadcom is where tech products and companies go to die. An IT hospice if you will.

 

[Chaitanya]

VMWare was already pushing it with their pricing, now imagine Broadcom at the helm. Yup, sounds like prices skyrocketing. I will be looking into alternatives, because I hate Broadcumbucket with a passion. Broadcom is where tech products and companies go to die. An IT hospice if you will.

What other options are there for VMWare?

 

[Anoniem]

What other options are there for VMWare?

Proxmox for example, several other Linux based options. HyperV has been a love hate relationship for me, not too sure about Azure based virtualization, cloud is both a blessing and curse at the same time. ESXi 8 is still an option, not sure how long the "good" versions are going to stick around to be honest. What I do know is that we need to start testing now to stay ahead of the curve (or free fall that we call Broadcom).

 

[Chrispy_]

Proxmox for example, several other Linux based options. HyperV has been a love hate relationship for me, not too sure about Azure based virtualization, cloud is both a blessing and curse at the same time. ESXi 8 is still an option, not sure how long the "good" versions are going to stick around to be honest. What I do know is that we need to start testing now to stay ahead of the curve (or free fall that we call Broadcom).

Yeah, I'd go with Proxmox too - HyperV had promise before Microsoft insisted on "cloud"ing it, and their VM licensing model is as clear as mud, even to one of their platinum-partnered resellers.

The problem with Proxmox is that VMWare is better. In terms of value for money, Proxmox is so far ahead it's not even worth considering. For small businesses VMware's costs are easy to stomach - vSphere Essentials Plus gives you HA, failover, vSAN, replication, and 6 sockets of licensing for very low licensing costs. The problem is that beyond 6 sockets VMWare just robs customers blind. If you want to add a 7th socket, you can actually afford to hire a full-time Proxmox sysadmin for a lower cost than VMWare's ridiculous licensing, and that Proxmox sysadmin is only going to have a couple of hours work a week, so you could easily get him doing tons of other stuff too.

 

[Anoniem]

Yeah, I'd go with Proxmox too - HyperV had promise before Microsoft insisted on "cloud"ing it, and their VM licensing model is as clear as mud, even to one of their platinum-partnered resellers.

The problem with Proxmox is that VMWare is better. In terms of value for money, Proxmox is so far ahead it's not even worth considering. For small businesses VMware's costs are easy to stomach - vSphere Essentials Plus gives you HA, failover, vSAN, replication, and 6 sockets of licensing for very low licensing costs. The problem is that beyond 6 sockets VMWare just robs customers blind. If you want to add a 7th socket, you can actually afford to hire a full-time Proxmox sysadmin for a lower cost than VMWare's ridiculous licensing, and that Proxmox sysadmin is only going to have a couple of hours work a week, so you could easily get him doing tons of other stuff too.

You get it. For smaller customers the ease of use and features it's a no brainer. And don't get me started on sockets, that makes me want to open a windows on the 100th floor. Have fun pitching it to a company.