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Technology Stocks : VMware, Inc. (VMW) -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: stockman_scott who wrote (205)	5/13/2009 6:42:59 PM
From: Glenn Petersen	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 358

Oracle buys a VMW competitor: Oracle Snaps Up Virtual Iron By Ben Worthen Wall Street Journal May 13, 2009, 3:09 PM ET The Oracle acquisition machine struck again on Wednesday when the software behemoth bought Virtual Iron, a startup that makes software for managing server computers. The deal isn’t anywhere close to the scale of Sun Microsystems, which Oracle recently grabbed for $5.6 billion. Instead, it’s another example of the small software deal that has become Oracle’s M.O. of late — Virtual Iron has revenue of around $20 million a year, according to an estimate by research company IDC. A spokeswoman for Virtual Iron referred calls to Oracle. A spokeswoman for Oracle declined to comment. This deal had been rumored for months. When we poked around back in February, we were told that a deal wasn’t close and that the two sides were far apart on price. But in the end, it just made too much sense for Oracle, analysts say. That’s because Virtual Iron makes “virtualization” software that makes servers run more efficiently. It also makes software that helps businesses manage these servers. The acquisition furthers Oracle’s ambitions to be a one-stop shop for information-technology pros. Rather than buying hardware and software from different companies and cobbling them together on their own, businesses can buy a single box from Oracle that comes with all the software they need. One piece that Oracle was missing was management software, says Drue Reeves, an analyst at research company Burton Group. The deal gives Oracle that piece of the puzzle. The leader for virtualization software is VMware, which has about 80% of the market, says Reeves. Oracle makes its own virtualization software, but both that product and Virtual Iron’s software only have about 1% of the market, he says. Most of Virtual Iron’s customers are small and medium-sized businesses, so the deal isn’t about market share or gaining customers. The deal is a low risk one for Oracle: It probably didn’t pay a whole lot for Virtual Iron, and the company is pretty experienced at integrating these small shops. The risk is all around the company’s vision. The question facing Oracle is “will customers be willing to give up choice for simplicity and ease of deployment,” says Michelle Bailey, an analyst at IDC. Buying everything from Oracle will reduce complexity, but it will give customers less leverage to negotiate. blogs.wsj.com

To: stockman_scott who wrote (205)	7/23/2009 12:00:44 AM
From: Glenn Petersen	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 358

VMW beats expectations: UPDATE 3-VMware results beat Street view, shares rise Wed Jul 22, 2009 7:36pm EDT * Q2 non-GAAP EPS 20 cts vs Wall St view 19 cts * Q2 rev $465 mln vs Street view $453 mln * Sees Q3 rev at $465-$480 mln vs Street view $473 mln * Shares rise 7 pct (Adds COO's comment, background, byline; updates shares) By Jim Finkle BOSTON, July 22 (Reuters) - VMware Inc's (VMW.N: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) quarterly results were slightly better than Wall Street expected as a new product showed promise, sending the shares of the business software maker up 7 percent in a relief rally. The results marked a sharp contrast from the first quarter, when software sales fell for the first time in VMware's 11-year history and it warned that revenue would dramatically miss Street forecasts due to the weak economy and a sales slowdown associated with its first major product launch in three years. VMware executives said on Wednesday that, while they are still having difficulty closing large deals, customers were going ahead with small projects. That allowed the software maker to meet lowered expectations. "We executed around what we said we were going to do. People appreciated that," Chief Operating Officer Tod Nielsen said in an interview. VMware forecast third-quarter revenues at $465 million to $480 million, compared with the average analyst forecast of $473 million according to Reuters Estimates. It projected full-year revenue would rise 1 percent to 3 percent, which would be between $1.90 billion and $1.94 billion, compared with the average analyst forecast of $1.92 billion. Nielsen said the company is more confident that it will meet its forecasts for the third quarter than it was about meeting the second-quarter projections. He added that while the new product, vSphere 4, is getting a good early response from customers, it generally takes nine to 12 months for a major release to achieve widespread adoption. "We are very encouraged by the early signs. Logic will say it will have an impact. But we're not saying what that will be," he said. Palo Alto, California-based VMware posted second-quarter profit of 20 cents a share, excluding items, above the 19 cents average forecast, according to Reuters Estimates. Revenue was flat at $456 million, beating the average forecast of $453 million. Chief Financial Officer Mark Peek said that, while he remains cautious about the economy, he is getting better visibility into the outlook for his business. Net income fell 38 percent to $33 million, or 8 cents per share, from $52 million, or 13 cents a year earlier. Operating expenses rose as the company spent heavily on a major upgrade to its virtualization software. VMware's programs let companies boost the efficiency of computer servers by running dozens of "virtual" machines on a single piece of hardware. The shares in the company, which is majority owned by EMC Corp (EMC.N: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz), rose 7 percent to $33.35 in extended trading. They rose 0.9 percent to $31.25 on the New York Stock Exchange before VMware released its results. (Reporting by Jim Finkle; editing by Andre Grenon)) Link to Reuters story Full press release

To: stockman_scott who wrote (205)	9/15/2010 9:48:21 PM
From: Glenn Petersen	1 Recommendation Respond to of 358

VMW may be interested in buying a piece of Novell: VMware Eyed As Strategic Buyer of Novell's SUSE Linux By Jennifer Cummings Of DOW JONES NEWSWIRES SEPTEMBER 15, 2010, 11:54 A.M. ET NEW YORK (Dow Jones)--VMware Inc. (VMW) and several other software companies were being pointed to Wednesday as the potential buyers of Novell Inc.'s (NOVL) open-source operating system SUSE Linux. The speculation about a deal comes after a report by the New York Post Wednesday that software provider Novell has reached a deal in principle to sell itself in two parts, and will be signing a deal in three to four weeks. The Post, which cited people close to the process, said a strategic buyer will purchase the piece of Novell that develops and delivers SUSE Linux, with a private-equity firm buying much of the rest of the company. Several analysts said the most likely purchaser of SUSE Linux is virtualization and cloud infrastructure company VMware, noting that the company is already partnered with Novell in this area. They also said that purchasing the SUSE Linux could be a good strategic move for VMware. "It furthers their strategic need to build out their software stack," Cross Research analyst Richard Williams said. Novell declined to comment for this story and VMware couldn't be immediately reached for comment. The speculation about the strategic buyer wasn't being limited to VMware. "Novell has a fantastic collection of technology assets and intellectual property that could appeal to a wide number of buyers," Macquarie Securities analyst Brad Zelnick said. Other potential buyers being named were Oracle Corp. (ORCL), EMC Corp. (EMC) and Red Hat Inc. (RHT). News that Novell could be close to a deal helped push up the company's shares Wednesday, with the stock recently up 5.9% to $5.90. In March, Novell essentially put itself up for sale after rejecting an unsolicited bid by hedge fund Elliot Associates LP to buy the company for about $1.8 billion, a price Novell said was too low. As of Tuesday's close, Novell's market capitalization was about $2.08 billion. Regardless of who the buyer is, the sale of SUSE Linux to a strategic buyer is probably a better move for the company than doing the entire deal with a private equity firm, analysts said. By selling SUSE Linux separately, Novell can "extract the most value for current shareholders," Pacific Crest analyst Nabil Elsheshai said. -By Jennifer Cummings, Dow Jones Newswires; 212-416-2474; jennifer.cummings@dowjones.com online.wsj.com