Finally — A Major Acquisition

Unfortunately, where its ecosystem of software business partners is involved, VMware has been its own worst enemy. Potential partners have had difficulties building a business around the VMware platform not knowing what categories VMware is planning to compete in and which will be left to business partners to pursue. Compounding the problem, VMware has, until now, been low balling its acquisitions (see table below). Cisco is often accused of overpaying for startups it acquires but it surely makes it worthwhile for investors to back companies in new networking categories. On the other hand, venture capitalists have been cautious and overly negative about funding software companies in the virtualization space. Maybe the price it's paying for SpringSource might be an indication that Moritz intends to make a change here too and brighter days may be ahead.