VMware staff reportedly told job cuts may start before Broadcom acquisition

VMware last week held a staff meeting at which it reportedly foreshadowed job cuts – perhaps before its acquisition by Broadcom closes in late October.

The Register has confirmed that the meeting took place last week and that it was a regular quarterly company update that featured a Q&A session with staff.

Accounts of the meeting vary. On thelayoff.com we’ve found threads suggesting staff were told that once Broadcom takes over, staff will receive one of three offers: severance on VMware's usual terms; a new offer of ongoing employment from Broadcom, or; a short-term contract as part of a transition plan that will see their roles eliminated in the future.

Broadcom staff will apparently be the ones informing VMware people of their futures – even VMware managers do not know their fate, never mind the future status of their team members.

An Insider report mentions a meeting and claims an email with the same future job options has circulated within VMware.

Speculation online is morbid, and morale among those sharing these details is clearly not high. Some suggest that job cuts could be announced on Monday, October 16, making unlucky Friday, October 13th the last business day on which VMware employees can confidently plan an all-hands farewell party.

The Register has also seen VMware staff post their resumes or CVs to LinkedIn, with the explanation that a proactive job search makes good sense even if leaving VMware is not their preferred option.

Comments on The Layoff also state that VMware execs have acknowledged that China’s regulators are yet to approve the deal.

Comments on The Layoff are anoymous - we can't rule out they're being made by troublemakers. But if they're fakes, they're consistent, and display solid insights into VMware's operations.

The Reg asked VMware confirm details in this story. A spokesperson told us: "As Broadcom announced publicly, we expect the deal to close on October 30, 2023. While integration plans continue, VMware remains focused on executing its multi-cloud strategy."

• As VMware says goodbye, leadership thinks Broadcom buy is a win
• Cisco dumps its Hyperflex hyperconverged infrastructure
• XenServer teases free VMware migration package
• Broadcom asserts VMware's strategy isn't working and it basically needs rescuing

There’s no word on whether job losses will come to particular VMware business units or be across the board. Back office job losses can be assumed – Broadcom likely won’t need two complete finance or human resources teams.

Hints of Broadcom’s intentions can perhaps be divined in CEO Hock Tan’s many statements of admiration about VMware’s multi-cloud management tools, and his post extolling the virtues of the Tanzu application development and Kubernetes platform.

He’s said far less about VMware’s end-user compute portfolio, a largely mature field in which desktop-as-a-service represents a significant competitive challenge. Broadcom Software’s Symantec Enterprise acquisition means it also already has plenty of security products, potentially making VMware’s Carbon Black unit susceptible to cuts that reduce overlaps. ®