So let's say that they need to cut the expenses by 30%. Would they cut the 30% of the number of BU's ( i.e. eliminate the 3 out of 10 BU's altogether) or do 30% cut across all BU's but still maintain all the BU's (albeit each with 70% workforce)?
If indeed they view VMware as bloated and fat, I would think the second approach will be taken.
BTW, how did they do layoffs in the previous acqusitions?
My money is only keeping 7-8k Core VM
As a data point, for 20,000 employees, Broadcom has about 60 people in HR. Finance is super small, legal tiny. IT is self serve for the most part. Before being acquired, initial layoff plans will be in place. You could be let go day 1, 3months, 6months, or a year later. Don't expect a long drawn out study to decide what tools should be used going forward. It will be decided early and likely you will be using what Broadcom has. If your org has a group that customizes tools for you (like Oracle), expect them gone and you to use them out of the box.
Why is this a question that keeps coming up over and over again? Look- VMware, as we know it, will be gone as soon as the ink is dried. The only remaining question is how much time is left on the clock. 6 months? 9 months? 12 months? Who knows.
Be realistic. Look at the growth chart Broadcom showed their investors. That growth is something that would be impossible without drastic, monumental cost reduction and that cost reduction is cutting employees. It will be no different this time. 10's of 1000's of people are going to lose their jobs when this is over. So now is the time for anyone who deep down inside knows whats coming to simply not be here when that day comes. That is unless you're a senior engineer and even then, from what I've read here it doesn't sound like its exactly a warm and fuzzy place to work in the first place.
Take advantage of the situation. Prepare, network, and start the process of finding a new role somewhere else. It was fun while it lasted. But the harsh reality is that for most people at VMware, they will more than likely be losing their jobs if they stay.
Those coders and engineers are only around IF they decide to keep the DIVISION….read my lips… NOT ALL OF VMWARE WILL BE CARRIED OVER….they are shopping around piece parts as we speak….and where you go next…and if you survive…wtf knows. Sorry…it sux. But that’s capitalism baby!
No one knows exactly how and when the layoffs will be done, but in the end expect 70% of VMware employees to be gone in under 2 years. The real question is how valuable does Broadcom value your division? This is my guess after seeing so many layoffs. We used to nick name divisions platinum, gold, silver, or other. If you have growth plus margins over 70% and products are strategic to Broadcom you were platinum. This ment you keep your SVP, most of management, lose half or more of supporting teams (IT, support, HR, etc…) and lose 10-20% of engineering base on projects and SVPs decision. A platinum SVP will keep their job if they keep the difficult margin goals. The gold division has 30-50% margins and enough revenue to keep. This was the most common. The SVP might be gone in favor of head of engineering, if not their time would be short. Most of support teams are gone on day one, 20% of engineering and management is gone on day one, and 25% is pre-marked to be gone in 6-12 months. The silver division has enough revenue to keep but no strategic value. You don’t want to be on these divisions. All support teams are gone on day one except minimum required and those remaining are set to be transitioned in 6 months. Most of management is gone on day one. The goal is to create a minimum team that can keep the product standing. The goal is to merge with another division or sell the division or just keep in maintenance mode to milk profits. Others don’t fit in the above and sometimes just layoff off at 100%, or merged into another division on day one, or sold off on day one. Most of VMware divisions are too big to be silver, but products/parts of divisions might be. Good luck and look for a new job anyway.
I’d be wary of expecting a severance package. As far as I know BC doesn’t do much in the way of professional services for example. I would plan for PS to be farmed out to an HCL type partner. That way there is no severance needed and a partner can cut whatever it wants cheaply as tenure won’t carry over. Same for other unwanted BUs.
Doubtful they are going to keep 25,000 employees to generate the revenue we do. By any metric, the cut is going to be very deep. Clearly I would rather be cut and offered severance rather then be “transferred” to HCL. If that happens and you won’t accept the transfer, you don’t get severance and basically are resigning.
I have been through so many layoffs. I got surprised on the first one but at least I got a severance. After that if I thought that I might get hit I started looking. Sometimes the layoff came a bit later that I expected but it always happened. I have never gone wrong. I always got a pay raise. I never regretted moving.
No one here knows. It's all speculation - you can use $ per employee or past history with Symantec/CA as your guide - but it's still speculation and we won't know until we know. If you're worried about losing your job and potentially being without employment for month(s) then make the move before it happens to you. If you can roll the dice and you like your chances, then do that.
Maybe the days of 3-4 FAANG offers inside of a week are gone but if you are good at your job and have a history of performance you'll be just fine. If not, well....
I don't think they will cut 22k. Most likely cut 10k though if I had to guess but 22k would be far to deep considering what model they are pitching they are going to use.
They will cut way deeper than 30%. I’m not sure if these numbers are right but they did two big acquisitions in the last few years. The headcount is around 20,000 today. CA headcount was around 12,000 when they were acquired, Symantec easily had 10,000 plus. Broadcom before the acquisitions was 15,000. You can do the math.
CA people were fired via email but most were prepared that it was coming. It seems like we are being told things will be different, they won’t be. There is no way they are going to keep 30,000 employees. Based on the numbers above VMW as we know it will be around 8,000 people once they lay people off and divest products to HCL.
Read the previous post. They will cut HR, Marketing, Sales, IT etc. Except the programmers and engineers working on the Vmware products. Only coders needed.