VMware Acquisition, Buying Some Growth Drivers

Apps & Software

Published: February 11, 2013 4:19 pm

VMware, Inc. (NYSE: VMW) is without argument a great company and the leader in virtualization. The problem of late is that it is getting harder and harder for the software player to find new frontiers in the virtualization field. Maybe VMware can grow the “new” old fashioned way – by acquiring it.

On Monday afternoon came word that VMware is going to acquire Virsto Software. This company makes software that optimizes storage performance and utilization in virtual environments. VMware’s stated goal is to accelerate its development of storage technologies to let its customers improve the efficiency and performance of storage in virtual infrastructure. Virsto is said to provide breakthrough storage optimization technologies to improve storage performance and utilization, and when implemented within a virtual desktop infrastructure Virsto can supposedly reduce the cost of storage per desktop by as much as 70 percent.

It is hard to know if this acquisition will really add much to the growth because the financial terms of the acquisition were not disclosed another than that the buyout is scheduled to close in the first quarter of 2013 subject to customary closing conditions. Virsto was founded in 2007 and its virtualization partners include Microsoft and Citrix.

VMware shares were upgraded to “Overweight” from “Equal-weight” by Evercore Partners on Monday, but that was on the heels of a very cautious weekend article. We also saw that at the end of January there were multiple downgrades from Lazard, Morgan Stanley, Piper Jaffray, and several other boutique firms.

Shares of VMware closed down by 2.7% at $77.07 on Monday against a 52-week range of $76.25 to $118.79.

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