Broadcom Reportedly In Talks To Buy VMWare

Broadcom is in talks to acquire cloud computing company VMware, according to reports.

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CNBC reported Monday that the announcement could come as soon as Thursday. VMware had a market cap of nearly $49 billion Monday morning.

VMware went public in 2007 and was the largest IPO since Google at the time. The company was founded in 1998 and backed by investors including Dell and Veritas Technologies.

VMware would be San Jose-based Broadcom’s first acquisition of the year, according to Crunchbase. It last announced plans to buy Boston-based AppNeta in December 2021, and has acquired at least 38 other companies in the past, per Crunchbase data. Broadcom had a market capitalization of nearly $216 billion around midday Monday.

At least 64 United States-based public companies have been acquired (or plans have been announced for an acquisition) so far this year, according to Crunchbase data. With a market cap north of $40 billion, it’s safe to say VMware would be one of the largest public acquisitions of the year. Broadcom would likely pay a premium for the company.

Microsoft’s planned purchase of Activision Blizzard for nearly $69 billion is currently the largest announced public company acquisition of the year, followed by Nielsen for $16 billion.

News of the acquisition talks follow another high-profile purchase of a public tech company: Twitter. Tesla CEO Elon Musk last month agreed to buy the social media company for $44 billion, or $54.20 per share.

However it’s unclear where the deal stands and when it could be completed. Musk last week said the acquisition couldn’t go forward until Twitter verified how many users on the platform are bots and spam accounts.

Shares of Broadcom were trading around $528 midday Monday, while shares of VMware were trading around $116.

Illustration: Dom Guzman