Thread regarding VMware layoffs

Hello UK Person:

I have to believe if they planned to fill the position they would’ve said that…. Since they specially identified Hock as the “replacement”, I have to also assume that is the current plan. Since Hock is trusted by Wall Street to CUT, this may be the way to not make much out of Tom leaving.

If there's one thing Hock knows how to do that is find synergies. He has quite a fantastic track record. Bad news for employees both at Broadcom and VMWare, but great news for investors.

As for good news or bad news; no real change there as Hock would give a target to his business leaders and expect them to execute. Now he will just give himself the target and execute accordingly.

Serious question from the UK. Is Hock running the software group a positive or? Also, since the press release states that the position is eliminated, should we assume this is a permanent elimination?

Certainly a lot of understandable hand wringing. However, the fact is nobody is safe relative to layoffs. My thought is to just assume you are not safe and you are at extreme risk of being laid off. From there and given that perspective, you can make an informed decision. Some people will prefer to hang on and get the package, others will aggressively search for another job now. Everybody is in a different place in life so priorities are different for each of us. The key is not to trust a word of what is coming from exec management in the current state. They likely have no clue what Broadcom plans to do. Trust yourself and look out for what is best for you as if you were already laid off. There is little doubt the layoffs will be deep. This is a great acquisition for Broadcom and VMW shareholders. On the other hand, it is incredible how big of a miss VMW made in terms of strategic direction and the impact of the cloud. Hubris got them.

Better days are ahead for all whether you end up staying or going. End of day it all works out. Best of luck.

Ex CA employee here.

For finance it varied - some of us went day one, some were on transition varying from 3 months to 1 year. A few were retained (mostly in the US).

For revenue recognition - they only retained people in the US, and put clauses in all the contract to simplify the rev rec - and they are really strict with what can be done in contracts so as not to complicate any revenue recognition.

@2vnv+1hATBHAQ

To be clear, no department is sufficiently staffed at Broadcom. Everyone is excepted to do less with less. For example, we easily had over 100 people doing recruiting for us at my former company. When they acquired us they kept 2 of them.

As for revenue recognition, they do have a small team already that will clearly need additional support. They most likely will retain a few extra people. Keep in mind, they are only focused on the top accounts not all accounts, this makes it easier to scale down the headcount tremendously.

It is absolutely not uncommon for them to take departments of 100 people or more and cut them down to 2 - 10 people.

Disclaimer: I am not being paid nor has anyone told me what the plan is. My views are based on past behavior and how they operate a lean and profitable business. Is there a possibility they may decide to run the business the way VMWare does? Perhaps, but I doubt they will change drastically as the model they operate with works and is profitable.

Bottom line: everything you read here is speculation. Mostly everything said on this site regarding previous acquisitions came true.

@och+1hATBHAQ

What will happen the Revenue Recognition team in Finance? Is the BSG staffed sufficiently to incorporate VMW?

ExBroadcom Guy

Ladies & Gentlemen, what we have here is a paid Communication Specialist (aka propagandist) attempting to ingratiate themselves as if they were a VMWare employee.

How does someone ingratiate themselves to people if their identify is unknown? Who actually pays the propagandist?

VMware and Broadcom are talking. Broadcom could pressure VMware to fire people before the acquistion. Of course Broadcom cannot directly intervene in HR matters before the deal closes.

TO exBroadcom,

"Broadcom can't fire US until the deal closes"... was said by HelpfulDude, but you seem to think that is not accurate. Can you explain further? Can Broadcom technically fire us before the acquisition closes?

This entire site is hypothetical isn’t it

No one truly knows what will happen but people here are offering POV’s based on previous acquisitions.

Nothing predicts the future like the past.

I take everything with a large grain of salt but do find it helpful to see what others have to say.

This post is purely hypothetical without any factual evidence.. I really would not rely on the advice being provided here unless UsefulDude is actually part of the team working on the buy out.

Some people in Tech Support will be retained (on revenue generating products). A pure guess would be that 70% would be eliminated based on Brocade, CA and Symantec. Broadcom is focused on the top revenue generating customers and will keep people to cover those accounts.

WFH if you are within 50 miles of an office won’t work. You will be asked to return to an actual office. In rare instances, people that truly WFH in a location that has no local office, may be given a temporary pass to continue to work from home, until they train their replacement.

And yes, using San Francisco to San Jose as an example is 48 miles, while it could take 2 hours to get there and 2 hours to get back, it is within 50 miles. Same goes for every other major city.

What's your thoughts on tech support for the core products that they want to keep?

You say wfh won't work, but there are so many of us that do. It's hard to imagine they will cut some of our greatest talent because of wfh.

Ty.

exBroadcom.

How foolish, exactly who is paying me to post the truth? You are the ex-Broadcom person trolling the VMWare page?

I’m not paid and these are simply my views. If you really worked at Broadcom you know that Hock would never say every employee is getting a raise.

As I’ve said repeatedly, no one should listen and believe everything they read on this site, I am speaking from my experience of being fired by Broadcom (over email) and joining VMWare.

I will be cut when the deal closes, and literally have nothing to do right now so am burning the clock by responding.

Good luck to you ex-Broadcom and have fun trolling our page. I feel sorry for you.

Nice mis-direction on the lack of raises. NONE rather than ANY got raises.

Ladies & Gentlemen, what we have here is a paid Communication Specialist (aka propagandist) attempting to ingratiate themselves as if they were a VMWare employee:
"Broadcom can't fire US until the deal closes"...

And
"They will always tell the truth"
became
"in my personal experience they never outright lied."

Carbon Black they might keep to integrate with the Symantec portfolio.

Tanzu they will almost certainly try to sell, but who in the he-l would buy Tanzu in 2022? Lol. Tanzu can't really exist in the market in it's current state without a sugar daddy -- we're just too far behind from resting on the Pivotal laurels for the last several years.

Would you invest in Tanzu if it was an independant company?

Broadcom is not generous with titles. Most executives have VP titles, at CA they all had EVP titles. Very few people with the SVP title.

There is no severance difference at Broadcom for a Director or a Senior Director in the USA. For example at CA, we had managers that reported to directors, to senior directors, to VPs, to SVP’s, to GM’s, to Execs (not in all cases, but several layers). In Broadcom it would be your report to a manager that reports to a VP, that reports to an executive. (Again not in all cases, but in most). The org is very flat so not many layers of management. Many Directors at CA were downgraded to Managers that stayed.

I think some BU’s will be sold off, but too soon to say exactly which ones. If you are part of a business that is divested, you don’t really get the option to take severance (assuming your base salary remains the same). What typically happens, everyone moves over to the new company and then the new company decides what they need don’t need. In some rare situations, Broadcom may cut the people at deal closure to make the “sale” look more attractive to a potential buyer, at CA, they sold Veracode to a PE firm, and all employees moved over with them. In that example, the PE firm wanted the company and invested in the people, no one was cut and the team actually did pretty well in that transaction. A divestiture is not all doom and gloom, in some cases, it could be the best option for you (like the Veracode example), in other cases like Services being sold to HCL, not so much.

What do you think will happen to BUs like Carbon Black, EUC, Tanzu etc? Do you think they’ll be kept or sold off? And if they are sold off, do employees go with the sale or do employees get the option of severance?

Very useful. Do you happen to know what happens w/ Director or Sr Director level (I'm this level, but I KNOW we at VMW are way heavy in Directors and above, while way light in Director or above that is useful!)

Are their packages and severance dealt with differently? Same level or more expected cuts I would guess, correct?

I would venture to give just a guess here, but believe they would keep about 25% of the current SE Team. Focusing on the people that support the TOP accounts. I am not 100% sure of this exact data point, but I seem to recall at CA, they kept about 20% of the team. The team we had wasn't super huge globally, but these people did help contribute to sales at the larger accounts and were saved. Of the group that remained, I think half of them have left by now on their own. I will ask some people that are still there to get a better idea of the actual numbers, as I am making an educated guess now.

What can be in store for Solutions Engineers? Will Broadcom get rid of them?

@zzj+1hATBHAQ

With full certainty Hock never said ALL employees would get raises. That may be what you heard, but as I said earlier “listen very carefully to what is being said and not said”.

Did you really think every employer at Broadcom was going to get a raise? Seriously, even Google doesn’t give EVERY employer a raise.

People should believe what they want to believe. I’ve dealt and watched Hock and Tom and while I don’t agree with everything they do or how they run a business, in my personal experience they never outright lied.

You say, "Hock and Tom are not liars. They will always tell the truth." So you are saying that during Hock's December 2020 town hall, when he said that everyone in Broadcom would get raises in 2021 plus they would make up for the 2020 salary freeze, that he didn't lie? BSG staff only found out six months later, in May 2021 that, according to Tom, NO raises were budgeted for the year. (And we all know that budgets are set prior to the fiscal start).

** Do not trust anything you are told by Hock or Tom if it requires them spending a penny **

@baf+1hATBHAQ

They are committing to the Channel - that is clear. But that doesn’t mean EMPLOYEE HEADCOUNT Channel. They are talking about having partners help sell - augmented by the current sales force they have.

Like I said, you need to read the announcement. No where does it say “we are keeping everyone in the Channel”.

Not trying to be rude here, but transparent.

You say, "Hock and Tom are not liars. They will always tell the truth." You also say, "Broadcom is not going to be treating us any differently than the other acquisitions they've done." But this article seems to imply SOMETHING will be different, with respect to supporting the channel (which I assume requires more people):

https://www.crn.com/news/channel-programs/broadcom-software-president-ready-to-embrace-the-channel-

Thank you HelpfulDude - this is very helpful indeed

Broadcom does a typical sequence for letting people go
Day 1 - gone immediately
3 month
6 month
9 month
1 year
People are bucketed into these groups. If you stay you get your severance, if not, free to go with nothing. Just about everyone is gone by 1 year. VMWare will migrate to use Broadcoms infrastructure even though VMWare thinks theirs is the best. Broadcom doesn’t spend a bunch of time doing bake-off, trade-off analysis, etc.

Broadcom already has people that can do FP&A. They (most likely) won’t need more. The focus would be on finance people that help the business (clients, billing and commissions).

Sadly, they can’t keep everyone on transition so they basically say if the role is not generating revenue they will most likely cut.

Thanks @helpfuldude why would FP&A in finance get cut immediately?

In the USA, severance is paid in a lump sum. Since the WARN Act most likely will be triggered, you most likely won’t get the lump sum payment until 2023 anyway, assuming the deal closes in November.

Depending on when the deal does close, you will have 45 days to sign the severance agreement. They will only make the payment after you sign the agreement.

Will the severance be a lump sum? That means a lot for tax. Can I request to get them gradual? Or at least spread until next year if the deals closes in Nov?

Depending on what you do in Finance and the timing of the closure, it could be anywhere from 3 months to 1 year. For example, if the deal closes in November, Payroll will be retained for 3 months and then let go. If you are processing commissions, you may remain for a longer period of time. Broadcom now has a dedicated Finance Team for Software now. They most likely will add a few more people to that team, so some people will be retained, but a wild guess is it will be about 10% of the current team. If you are doing analysis for Management (FP&A), you most likely would be cut immediately.

What do you think the transition period for VMW Finance employees will be? I.e. Will Broadcom need us for 3 months after deal closes or shorter than that?