Pulse2 Technology and Social Media News » VMware

VMware Acquires IT Management Company Shavlik Technologies

Amit Chowdhry — Tue, 17 May 2011 04:13:49 +0000

VMware, Inc. (NYSE:VMW) has agreed to acquired cloud-based IT management company Shavlik Technologies. The financial terms of the acquisition is expected to be completed this year. Shavlik Technologies provides companies SaaS-based solutions. Shavlik also provides small-to-medium business manage and secure IT environments and cloud computing platforms. Shavlik has about 3,500 customers. [TechCrunchIT]

VMware Acquires Presentation Software Company SlideRocket

Amit Chowdhry — Wed, 27 Apr 2011 05:45:22 +0000

VMware, Inc. (NYSE:VMW) is acquiring SlideRocket, a presentation software company that has 300,000 users. SlideRocket has 20,000 customers and collaboration tools for multiple authors to use. SlideRocket will complement VMware’s acquisition of e-mail suite company Zimbra.

“SlideRocket is built for a new, cloud-centric way of working. Its intuitive, web-based interface allows users to easily assemble rich, dynamic presentations that help captivate an audience whether they’re in the conference room, on a conference call, or in a coffee shop. Individuals can quickly create slides that flow with dynamic data from sources like Google, Twitter, and Salesforce. Author’s charts and graphs are always up-to-date with real-time data from Google spreadsheets, display up to the moment financial information, tap into the instant flow of ideas on twitter, and intelligently assemble sales decks in a single click. People can work as teams to build presentations that take full advantage of the cloud, while analytics provide insight into how presentations are impacting your audience. Most importantly, all SlideRocket presentations are built so audiences can experience them on multiple devices, ranging from desktops to tablets, online or off,” stated VMware CTO Steve Herrod in a blog post.

Cisco Sees 19% Profit Drop; Acquires Chinese DVD Top Box Company DVN

Amit Chowdhry — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 00:23:21 +0000

Cisco Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ:CSCO) will be acquiring DVN (Digital Video Networks) for $44.5 million. Of that $44.5 million, $17.5 million will be paid up front and the rest of the $27 million will be paid based on sales performance. The deal is expected to close by the first half of 2010. DVN has about 160 million subscribers and the company plans to grow by another 200 million customers in the next 3-5 years. DVN will be rolled into Cisco’s International Cable Unit division.

Earlier today Cisco announced that their first quarter profit dropped 19% because of a drop in sales. However Cisco CEO John Chambers said that there are “strong sequential growth trends” as the economy is recovering. The profit posted was $1.79 billion for the quarter. This is down from $2.2 billion the year before. Cisco has recently partnered with VMware and EMC to sell data center products. Cisco plans to repurchase $10 billion worth of stock.

Peter Fenton Of Benchmark Capital Had The Best Monday Ever

Amit Chowdhry — Wed, 12 Aug 2009 23:29:01 +0000

Peter Fenton was one of the lead partners behind the investments in SpringSource and FriendFeed. Both of these companies were acquired this past Monday. SpringSource was acquired for $420 million by VMWare and FriendFeed was acquired by Facebook for about $50 million.

Fenton also sits on Twitter’s and Yelp’s board of directors. Benchmark started in 1995 and manages about $2.5 billion in assets. Benchmark made a substantial amount by investing early in eBay too.

Fenton’s staregy for choosing the right companies to invest in is based on when the company’s adoption curve meets the declining risk curve. “The challenge is to identify the acceleration/adoption phase before it’s obvious.” Before SpringSource was acquired, he was deeply involved in the $10 million investment into the company.

[via VentureBeat]

VMware Poaches Google Engineering Director Mark Lucovsky

Amit Chowdhry — Tue, 14 Jul 2009 17:01:20 +0000

Over the last 5 years Mark Lucovsky has been an Engineering Director with Google. Lucovsky was actively involved in the development of Google’s APIs. Before working at Google, Lucovsky worked at Digital Equipment Corporation and Microsoft for about 16 years. Lucovsky was the architect of Windows NT. Lucovsky wrote msot of the kernel32, kernel executive, and the Windows API.

When Mark Lucovsky told Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer that he was resigning it was reported that the Microsoft CEO went ballistic. “Just tell me it’s not Google,” said Ballmer.

When Lucovsky told Ballmer it was Google, the Microsoft CEO threw a chair across the room and uttered the following: “[expletive] Eric Schmidt is a [expletive] [expletive]. I’m going to [expletive] bury that guy, I have done it before, and I will do it again. I’m going to [expletive] kill Google.”

Before working at Microsoft and DEC, Lucovsky received a bachelor’s in computer science at the California Polytechnic State University.

[via TechCrunch]

VMware Launches vSphere “Cloud Operating System”

Amit Chowdhry — Thu, 23 Apr 2009 03:55:51 +0000

Earlier this week VMware launched the vSphere “cloud operating system.” The new service attracted the likes of Michael Dell (Dell Inc. CEO), John Chambers (Cisco Systems CEO), Joe Tucci (EMC CEO), and Pat Gelsinger (Intel SVP) to the announcement meeting. Cisco was one of the first companies to work with VMware on the data center expansion. Intel has been a VMware partner for quite some time. And Dell plans to switch to get into the virtualized computing environment.

In conjunction with the launch of vSphere, EMC has launched a path management system software called PowerPath/VE. PowerPath is a software that finds the most optimal I/O path for data traveling through applications and storage resources.

vSphere is able to manage 64 processor cores in one server. VMware’s last system could support only 32 cores. Every day cloud computing is expanding and keeps pushing the limit.