The move to bring together Broadcom’s existing software portfolio with VMware’s platform, will provide enterprise customers with an expanded platform of solutions to address the needs of increasingly complex information technology infrastructure and is being seen as another key step in Broadcom’s efforts to expand its footprint beyond semiconductors.
In 2018, Broadcom acquired CA for $19bn and then in 2019 paid $10bn for Symantec and it now plans to fold both in under the VMware brand once this deal closes.
While the move will provide the chip behemoth with an opportunity to move further beyond its existing semiconductor portfolio and into enterprise software which is continuing to show very strong growth, some analysts have raised concerns.
Will Broadcom continue to innovate across the portfolio, or will it simply focus on core technologies? There are also concerns that it might follow the route taken after its previous acquisitions of CA and Symantec when customers saw price hikes, worsening support, and stalled development.
It will be interesting to see how this deal pans out.
