Cloud Computing: VMware Makes Key Acquisition
February 15, 2013
Grazed from Sys Con Media. Author: Maureen O’Gara.
VMware said last month that it was still into acquisitions although business had turned rocky and it was going to trim 7% of its workforce in a rightsizing exercise, an announcement that carved 20% off its share price. So, on Monday in that spirit of M&A it said it’s buying Virsto Software, a Valley neighbor that writes storage performance software and since late 2007, when it was founded, has raised $24 million in venture money from such firms as August Capital, Canaan Partners and Interwest Partners to do it.
VMware didn’t say what it’s paying, but evidently it’s a strategic as well as tactical move to help it compete with Microsoft with its Windows Server 2012, Hyper-V virtualization and Virsto-like Storage Spaces. VMware’s parent company, storage giant EMC, is also going to license Virsto’s widgetry in the name of the almighty software-defined data center. The deal should close this quarter and the Register suggests Virsto may get knocked down for $100 million…
Virsto CEO Mark Davis suggestively contends in a blog piece that "Building a storage hypervisor is no small task. This is serious computer science, kids. The amount of intellectual capital that has gone into building Virsto’s technology is staggering. And if the R&D problems weren’t enough, the business model challenges of trying to transform the storage industry are equally daunting." That’s why he’s glad to sell out to VMware…
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