VMware Acquires AirWatch for $1.54B

VMware (VMW) today said it will acquire mobile device management (MDM) vendor AirWatch for approximately $1.54 billion to leverage AirWatch’s security expertise.

According to the SEC filing, VMware plans to acquire AirWatch for approximately $1.175 billion in cash and approximately $365 million of installment payments and assumed unvested equity.

“With this acquisition VMware will add a foundational element to our end-user computing portfolio that will enable our customers to turbo-charge their mobile workforce without compromising security,” VMware CEO Pat Gelsinger said in a statement.

AirWatch co-founder and chairman Alan Dabbiere said in a statement that AirWatch set out to assist businesses with mobility challenges.

“By joining a proven innovator like VMware, we now have an opportunity to bring our leading-edge solutions to an even broader set of customers and partners to help them optimize for the mobile-cloud world,” he said.

VMware said the AirWatch team will continue to report to AirWatch founder and CEO John Marshall as part of VMware’s End-User Computing group. This group includes VMwares desktop virtualization infrastructure  and desktop as a service portfolio with products such as VMware View. VMware has pitched VMware View and VDI as a BYOD solution.

Dabbiere will be overseeing a new AirWatch operating board, reporting directly to Gelsinger, VMware said.

AirWatch’s offerings will form an expanded portfolio of mobile solutions that are complementary to VMware’s portfolio, VMware said.

The acquisition is expected to close during late Q1 2014 subject to regulatory approvals and customary closing conditions.

The acquisition will be funded through a combination of balance sheet cash and proceeds from approximately $1B of additional debt to be provided by EMC. VMware will also continue with its ongoing share buyback program.

VMware’s acquisition of AirWatch comes at the heels of IBM (IBM) acquiring privately-held mobile management and security company Fiberlink Communications in November 2013.

Following IBM’s acquisition of Fiberlink, MSPmentor speculated that other MDM vendors, including AirWatch, may find themselves on the sales block in 2014.