SiliconBeat

Intel sold 967,398 more shares of the 3.75 million shares of VMware it disclosed that it would sell in a filing on Nov. 3, bringing total sales under the plan to 2,365,524. The most recent sales were transacted between Dec. 5 and 12, and raised $23.2 million, as the shares sold at prices ranging from $23.26 to $24.50 per share.

Intel currently holds 6,143,476 shares of VMware shares, including the 1,384,476 shares that it still plans to sell.

VMware shares, which have lost 71 percent of their value since closing at $84.99 at the end of 2007, hit a low of $17.88 on Dec. 1.

Mendel Rosenblum, a VMware co-founder along with his wife and former chief executive Diane Greene, resigned his post Tuesday, according to a story posted Tuesday at virtualization.info.  The move was not a surprise, coming as it did two months after Greene, who led the company since its founding in 1998, was removed as CEO by the board the first week of July.

So why did it take so long for Rosenblum — described in the article as the “company visionary” — to quit after his wife was sacked, especially as the board had the temerity to offer him his wife’s seat on the board? Read the rest of this entry »

Last week, my column asked the question of whether sexism played a role in the firing of VMware CEO Diane Greene. I felt that Greene’s departure was unusually abrupt and harsh, compared to the way such things usually happen. And by way of example, I cited the recent departure of CEO Hector Ruiz at AMD.

No bit surprise: I heard an earful from readers. But because I was on the road for a chunk of last week, I’m just catching up with some of the chatter. I wanted to post some of the more thoughtful responses here, both in support and against my central point: Read the rest of this entry »

When asked by an analyst “Do you have a good sense for where morale is today?” among employees at VMware, its new chief executive, Paul Maritz, said the proposed option exchange “went a long way to addressing concern there.”

The question came up as part of the regular conference call the company conducted after releasing earnings Tuesday (which the filing incorrectly said took place Read the rest of this entry »

Remember back in August 2007, when VMware staged the most impressive initial public offering of a technology company since Google? The planned offering price for the 33 million shares it sold to the public for the first time was first estimated to be between $23 and $25, a range that was later raised to between $27 and $29. The shares finally went out at the top of the second range, and ended their first day at $51, up 76 percent.

In anticipation of the public offering, VMware directors authorized broad-based grants of options to employees totaling more than 35.6 million shares of stock with a price of $23.

Shares of VMware, which makes software to enhance the computing power and flexibility of servers, while controlling costs and energy consumption, soared to as high as $125 within less than three months of its debut. It was the best performing local IPO last year in the best year for initial offerings since 2000, the year the dot.com bubble burst.

That was then and this is now. Read the rest of this entry »

Last week, I raised the question of what role gender played in the quick, harsh firing of VMware founder and CEO Diane Greene. I felt the treatment was unusually rough, particularly for a place like Silicon Valley where even the biggest screw-ups never get fired, they just get promoted out of the company, given a nice pat on the back, and a heavy dose of corporate-pr spin to help soothe their bruised egos.

Kind of like AMD’s now-former CEO Hector Ruiz. Read the rest of this entry »

There’s all sorts of speculation as to why VMware founder and CEO Diane Greene was fired this week. But clearly the move took even close observers by surprise.

Let’s acknowledge something straight up: Greene’s firing was unusually fast and harsh by Silicon Valley standards. And given the naked brutality, I have to wonder if this would have happened if Greene wasn’t a woman? Read the rest of this entry »