The businesses announced on Thursday that Broadcom will buy VMware for $61 billion in cash and shares, based on the closing price of Broadcom common stock on May 25, 2022.
After Microsoft’s pending $69 billion acquisition of Activision Blizzard and Dell’s $67 billion purchase of EMC in 2016, this would be one of the greatest technology acquisitions of all time.
Broadcom’s purchase of VMware will allow it to diversify away from its core business of designing and selling semiconductors and into corporate software, which offers higher profits. Enterprises utilise VMware’s technology to run their own servers and cloud servers more efficiently.
Broadcom is the most acquisitive semiconductor company, and it has fueled its recent expansion through strategic mergers. It earlier paid $18.9 billion for CA Technologies in 2018 and $10.7 billion for Symantec in 2019.
Broadcom, on the other hand, had not completed a significant acquisition since 2019. Broadcom CEO Hock Tan stated in March that the company had “capacity to do a good-sized acquisition.”
Broadcom planned to buy Qualcomm for $117 billion in 2018, but the deal was stymied by then-President Donald Trump, who cited national security concerns.
Late last year, VMware split apart from Dell in order to pay off debt. Dell purchased the company in 2016 when it purchased EMC. About 40% of VMware is owned by Michael Dell, the CEO and founder of Dell.