Source: Wall Street News
On May 23, according to Bloomberg and other media reports, semiconductor giant Broadcom (Broadcom) is negotiating acquisitions with virtual software giant VMware. If the acquisition of VMware is successful, Broadcom’s business in the software field is expected to further diversify.
Bloomberg quoted people familiar with the matter as saying that Broadcom is in advanced talks to acquire VMware, and there is no guarantee that the merger will be reached ; Reuters also learned from sources that talks between Broadcom and VMware are ongoing, but the transaction is not “imminent” , and the specific terms of the acquisition agreement are not yet clear. Representatives for VMware and Broadcom declined to comment.
In the context of the increase in corporate demand driven by the wave of digitalization and the surge in personal semiconductor demand driven by the epidemic of working from home, the chip industry has ushered in a “big carnival” in recent years, and the sales of chip manufacturers such as Broadcom have been booming. Wall Street has heard that Broadcom’s fourth-quarter revenue exceeded expectations by 15%, and its profit and first-quarter revenue guidance were both higher than expected.
However, in the context of the industry’s high prosperity, Broadcom CEO Hock Tan warned that the prosperity era of the semiconductor industry was “unsustainable”:
If someone tells you that the good times will always go on, don’t believe them, because in reality they never come.
Therefore, for Chen Fuyang, who has been committed to leading Broadcom to try to diversify its business, the software industry has always been the focus of his attention. In 2018, Chen Fuyang led Broadcom to acquire software company CA Technologies for US$18.9 billion; in 2019, Chen Fuyang acquired Symantec’s enterprise security business for US$10.7 billion. In March of this year, Chen Fuyang mentioned on the conference call that Broadcom has the ability to make “large-scale” acquisitions. It is worth mentioning that in 2018, Chen Fuyang, who has the reputation of “King of Semiconductor M&A”, almost led Broadcom to “eat Qualcomm in one bite” in 2018.
Founded in 1998, Broadcom’s “new prey,” VMware, is a California-based enterprise software company dedicated to capitalizing on the next wave of innovation and addressing the greatest challenges facing customers through disruptive technologies such as edge computing, artificial intelligence, and machine learning. serious challenge. It is worth mentioning that the famous virtual machine comes from VMware. If the acquisition of VMware is successful, Broadcom’s business in the software field will undoubtedly further diversify.
As of the close of U.S. stocks last Friday, VMware’s market value was close to $40.3 billion, down nearly half from its peak in 2019 and nearly 20% lower than at the beginning of the year. The British “Financial Times” commented that if Broadcom wants to successfully eat VMware, the price to be paid will definitely exceed 43 billion US dollars, and may even exceed 50 billion US dollars.
It is worth mentioning that VMware is also the old owner of Intel’s current CEO Pat Kissinger. In addition, the company’s current chairman, Dell founder Michael Dell, owns 36 percent of the company’s outstanding shares, which were worth about $15 billion as of Friday’s close.
Editor/Corrine
This article is reprinted from: https://news.futunn.com/post/15773496?src=3&report_type=market&report_id=206387&futusource=news_headline_list
This site is for inclusion only, and the copyright belongs to the original author.