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VMware fires President & CEO. Stock is down 27%. Expects to miss growth targets. Sky is falling. (How's that for a headline?)

Written on Jul 08 2008
Filed under:
6,831 views, 26 comments

by Brian Madden

Actually, the headline pretty much sums it up. VMware just announced a "change in executive leadership " whereby the old CEO Diane Greene is gone. Paul Maritz, president of EMC's cloud division, will take over. (EMC owns VMware.) So far the stock is down 27%.

Thoughts?





Comments

Guest wrote VMware needs to change
on Tue, Jul 8 2008 3:02 PM Link To This Comment
Vmware needs to change from being the elitist software for the Enterprise to a mass-market tool. Otherwise they will be gone or reduced to insignificance in 2 yrs. I think this was a good move as Greene is not the fighter Vmware needs to take on M$.
Guest wrote Great headline!
on Tue, Jul 8 2008 3:27 PM Link To This Comment

Sensationalism at its finest!  ;-)

--BXP 

Andy Eccles wrote Personality clash?
on Tue, Jul 8 2008 4:12 PM Link To This Comment

The Register have posted Ashlee Vance's very interesting take on this news:

http://www.channelregister.co.uk/2008/07/08/tucci_costs_vmware/ 

Guest wrote Did Microsoft know
on Tue, Jul 8 2008 8:53 PM Link To This Comment
Did Microsoft somehow know Greene is going to get the boot and they fasttracked the release of HyperV - weeks before the planned release date and only days before Greene got the pink slip? I mean, now is the time for Microsoft and Citrix to stage a full frontal attack on vmware to seal its fate... with Greene gone and a lot of confusion and angst in the VMware camp it is a perfect moment to pounce on it, create lots of FUD and... things unfold very quickly but now it seems all too certain vmware will lose.
Guest wrote Re: Did Microsoft know
on Tue, Jul 8 2008 9:54 PM Link To This Comment
I doubt it...  Greens depature follows a review of Q2 results and surrounding announcements that revenue growth will be lower than anticipated.  That is about sales leadership, not MS' poor attempt at a hypervisor being a better solution that VMware's
Guest wrote Re: Did Microsoft know
on Wed, Jul 9 2008 4:36 AM Link To This Comment
The fact that VMWare kicks the CEO off the team doesn't make M$ Hyper-V less crappy en feature-poor compared to VMWare ESX..
This is a simple case of managent politics and has nothing to do with the technical aspects of the company and its products ...
Guest wrote Re: Did Microsoft know
on Wed, Jul 9 2008 7:17 AM Link To This Comment
And that fact that Hyper-V might be "crappy" doesn't make Microsoft any less of a threat to VMware.  It's a v-1 product...six months or a year from now, it won't matter what Hyper-V was like when it was first released.
Guest wrote Tech Team Lead
on Wed, Jul 9 2008 7:54 AM Link To This Comment
The reality is I don't care. I've got 6 ESX hosts running 100+ VM's from an HP SAN. And, it's all running slicker than snot. If someone else can do better, then "go for it". I don't buy groceries to keep the grocer in business.
Rene Vester wrote Perhaps just an attempt to wake up all of VMware
on Wed, Jul 9 2008 8:45 AM Link To This Comment

 

to be honest in my oppinion VMware has been kind of slacking off since they got competition, i thought they would be on top, make sure Citrix, Microsoft and the others had no chance, however they seem to be extremely relaxed and expecting their customers to stay true.

From what i know Diane Green has done great for herself and VMware, so i do think it is a sad step for VMware, but i hope they can use this internally to motivate change and even better awareness when it comes to the market, their customers and the community :)

 /LamerSmurf

Guest wrote Re: Did Microsoft know
on Wed, Jul 9 2008 6:26 PM Link To This Comment

I think the date had more to do with Bill Gates departure which just so happened to coincide with the release. Coincidence? I think not.

Guest wrote Diane Greene - so Selfish it makes me sick
on Wed, Jul 9 2008 9:13 PM Link To This Comment
I am a Vmware employee. Some of us feel betrayed by Greene. She chose to leave Vmware and cause a storm on wall street instead of staying with the company, accepting a different position, stepping down, whatever. Instead, she left - she simply put her personal hurt ahead of all of us who are left here. Thanks Diane. You are not a real leader.

Guest wrote Re: Diane Greene - so Selfish it makes me sick
on Wed, Jul 9 2008 11:08 PM Link To This Comment
Perhaps not selling out to a storage company who have limited interest in pushing this industry forward gave her no choice.
Andy Eccles wrote @ Guest (9:13pm)
on Thu, Jul 10 2008 2:22 AM Link To This Comment

Do you think there are a lot of your colleagues at VMware who feel the same?

 

Kata Tank wrote Re: Diane Greene - so Selfish it makes me sick
on Thu, Jul 10 2008 8:17 AM Link To This Comment

We all think of our carier before anything else... When a company didn't need employee anymore, the enterprise fired them... it could work the other way too...

I think it is more financial related than anything (product, carier, personnal interest...). Good luck VMWare, that's anew start ! 

Guest wrote vmware
on Thu, Jul 10 2008 9:42 AM Link To This Comment
VMware has to lower its price in order to keep up with other competitors. In my opinions, VMware still the best virtualization products but lack of marketing skills. Lower down the price before the stock hit the bottom
Guest wrote Re: Diane Greene - so Selfish it makes me sick
on Thu, Jul 10 2008 11:46 AM Link To This Comment
I wonder if the "offer" to remain at VMware was for real.  It could have been a temporary position just to keep her out of the way until she could be quietly ushered off stage completely.  If so, Diane did the right thing by turning such an offer down.
Guest wrote And what does VMware do ...
on Fri, Jul 11 2008 7:46 AM Link To This Comment

They raise their prices by 10%

See virtualization.info

 

Guest wrote Re: @ Guest (9:13pm)
on Fri, Jul 11 2008 12:31 PM Link To This Comment
Vmware is focused on Engineering not so much on sales and marketing. We on the sales team feel this every day. I wish the management team had more business / sales acumen and put up a better fight against Micro$oft and citrix...
Guest wrote Good Job, See Ya!
on Fri, Jul 11 2008 3:05 PM Link To This Comment

Corporate America is run by money and marketing and they fear intelligent employees and customers. From the customer point of view, Diane Greene WAS VMware. I think the stock market backs that statement. Most of their stock holders are techies who saw a great stock to buy. I am deeply sadden by Mrs. Greene's departure and will re-evaluate our company's use of VMware.  

Guest wrote Conspiracy theory!!
on Fri, Jul 11 2008 6:07 PM Link To This Comment
Maybe Maritz is a Microsoft spy who has spent years deep under cover at EMC ready to blow away VMWare when Hyper-V hit the streets. 
Guest wrote panic move
on Mon, Jul 14 2008 3:25 AM Link To This Comment

This smacks of a panic move. Diane Greene and her husband made Vmware what it is. First sign of a bit of competition (emphasis on the "bit of") and they brick it and ditch the inspiration behind the company to be replaced by a Microsoft apparatchik. It will only hasten VMware's descent to become a "normal" i.e. conservative IT company. Their hypervisor was the single most important IT innovation of the last ten years. When was the last time EMC shook up the technology world.

Guest wrote This is bad for VMware
on Wed, Jul 16 2008 9:43 AM Link To This Comment
EMC's sales tatics are legendary. The tide has turned and no ammount badgering EMC sales guys is going to change it. There are alternative products available now, it is natural that VMware is going to lose some market share. Business descisions are not made solely on product features, it is often an emotional desicsion. Anybody that is one top will have detractors that will prefer to go with the smaller guy.
Guest wrote Novell had far better products than MS
on Thu, Jul 17 2008 7:58 AM Link To This Comment

VMware needs a war-time consiglieri and a "micheal Corleone" as head of the family in order too stay leading. Diane should've stepped down gracefully without causing this much negative energy arround VMware. This whole situation (citrix, vmware, MS)  gives me deja vú's to the old days when Microsoft cracked down the superiour software of Novell.

 

Guest wrote vmware ESXi for free
on Tue, Jul 29 2008 7:34 AM Link To This Comment

here's the first step...

June 28th - vmware declares its base product ESXi free of charge.

you can't say he's not earning his living :) 

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