Broadcom CEO Pledges Investment in Channel When Broadcom-VMware Deal Closes

VMWARE EXPLORE BARCELONA — Broadcom CEO Hock Tan has promised more investment in the channel after the his company's acquisition of VMware finally closes.

Taking to the stage briefly at VMware Explore in Barcelona, Tan (pictured above) provided a glimpse of the company’s plans, post-acquisition. Although light on detail, the exec made three commitments to customers and partners.

“We will accelerate the pace of innovation, step up R&D,” he told customers and partners. “Next, we intend to invest much more in the VMware ecosystem of value added resellers, distributed OEMs, managed service providers and global system integrators to make our products more available and much easier to deploy and consume.

“Finally, we will make ourselves and our products easier to deal with,” he said.

Broadcom-VMware: A Long Journey

Unsurprisingly, there was no other mention of the Broadcom-VMware deal, worth $61 billion, that was scheduled to close last week. Broadcom is struggling to secure the last regulatory approval from China.

U.S. President Joe Biden has imposed strict export controls on advanced computer chips and the equipment to make them, making it more difficult for China to access them. Reports have circulated that China could delay its approval of Broadcom’s VMware purchase as retaliation for Biden’s move.

Addressing press and analysts Monday evening, VMware EMEA CTO Joe Baguley spoke of the “elephant in the room.” Without referring to the Broadcom acquisition, he stated: “I can’t talk about it, so don’t ask.”

However, on stage Tuesday, VMware CEO Raghu Raghuram said: “I’ve been working with Hock Tan for nearly 18 months. I can tell you without doubt that he is even more excited about the potential of VMware going forward than he was last May.”

Tan himself noted the Broadcom-VMware acquisition “has been a long journey.” However, it “is well worth it.”

Posting on X, formerly Twitter, Daniel Newman, principal analyst at Futurum Research, said he viewed Tan’s comments “as a vote of confidence that the deal is still progressing.”