Thread regarding VMware layoffs

“Engineers” = Product engineers? Sales Engineers/System Engineers/SE’s? Developers? All of the above?

Several comments around this site saying “engineers will be retained”, and “engineers are king at Broadcom”.

Like most SW company’s, VMW rolls many of our technical positions under the “engineer” umbrella. It would be nice to get a better understanding of which functional engineering roles fall under the beloved “engineering” title at Broadcom?

Thanks in advance BroadcomGuy or others who’ve been here before. Your continued engagement on this site is a Godsend!!

Probability of deal happening: 99%
Hard to to Broadcom offer both in Quality (AVGO shares to MD) and Qty, $61B

Probability of deal happening: 99%
Hard to to Broadcom offer both in Quality (AVGO shares to MD) and Qty, $61B

Sales queztion: I am not in sales and interestingly all SW sales is undet TC vs CK, so that's a black box... meaning not many folks know. So what I am writing below is some speculation some guess work, to be taken with grain of salt!

As for expectations: Sales (Account Exec / Directors) think of a lot of consolidation as Broadcom should have coverage on large accounts. Best chance of survival is for big money making accoynts, which are not covered by Broadcom today.

SE makes good money here. Don't know about reps, if you meant CSR or account exec.

5 BU sales specialist under one sales team, that wont be the case for Broadcom. But this may be gutted more gradually.

Innovation: dont expect pie in the sky type innovatio to survive, if you have innovative product and thats part of BU which is already making money than that May survive. But if there's a sepate BU with bad OI and totally working on innovation with no revenue or high profitability expected in 2 years, then forget about it!

Apologies to all who consider this trolling. Michael Dell and Silver Lake have signed support agreements to vote in favor of the transaction, so long as the VMware Board continues to recommend the proposed transaction with Broadcom. What might make the VMware Board reconsider? I offer:

Voice of VMware

Your opinion matters. Please rate each statement on a scale of 0-10,
where 10 means Strongly Agree, 5 means No Opinion, and 0 means Strongly
Disagree.

(1) The acquisition will be good for VMware's customers.

(2) The acquisition will be good for VMware's employees.

(3) The acquisition will be good for me.

What's the actual probability that this deal will happen?
There are currently contrasting business analysts that state there may be anti-trust issues or not at all?

Any insight into this?

For sales question. Commercial 2 is the inside sales organization in Austin that cover our smallest accounts and startups. There is also a BDR team that is in Austin

Broadcom Guy. Thanks so much for your input. I wanted to see what your take your most likely crystal ball was on sales and first will break out divisions and specialties.

1. How do you see go to market ie what will the teams look like?

A. Current accounts are segmented by size (number of accounts-Global(125), Enterprise 1 (500), Enterprise 2 (500), commercial 1 (2500), commerical 2 (everything else) plus healthcare and Sled organized into E1-C2.
B. Each team has 5 BU sales specialists plus 2 PSO, EDU, renewals . Some BUs specialist have sub sales specialists. Example-NSX specilists has one for each sdwan, load balancing and firewall. We also have a strategic pursuits team aligned to the largest accounts.

2. Customers-feelings of us innovation vs renewal treadmill. Will we keep investing in cloud focus or stay tight to vsphere on prem with a subscription twist.
3. Compensation for reps and SE-Lastly we have a large perpetual install base but much of our technology is not implemented. How will these bigreenewals be accounted for in compensation. If growth is on one side of the business but the Install base is a boat anchor and ARR is flat- do the reps and SE’s make any money?

What do the retention bonuses look like for transition employees?

Mktng Ops mgr:
Of course your will be back in Sep to VMW. However, what happens in few months after that is yet to be seen. Broadcom doesn't keep a heavy mkt ops function, so trimming will be heavy. If you really want to stay with vmw, and if you are ok, let your mgmt know that you may be ok with being and Ind Cont, as likely they won't keep your tesm intact.

Corp marketing will be fully gutted, Channel huge cur, product mkt, lesser cuts, but it really deprnds on how mych fat is there.

My advice, start networking, enjoy your maternity leave (saying this sincerely), worrying won't help...i know easy said than done, sorry that this is happening at a time when your mind should be off of work!

Good luck and best wishes!

We practice selective annihilation
Of public companies' officials
For example, to create a vacuum
Then we fill that vacuum
As popular Broadcom advances
Acquisition is closer

All we are saying is give VMware a chance...

@dhex+1gTMqgMW
When you say 'sales and marketing' will be gone.. do you mean corporate marketing or product marketing and channel marketing attached to the BU?

@Doglover45... hope is not a strategy!! update and get your Resume out now, Sales and Marketing is axed guaranteed!!

I’m on maternity leave and am terrified of a layoff. I return in September. Will I even have a job to come back to? I’ve won many awards and bonuses throughout my time with VMware. I just hope they see my value before cutting me. Mgr level marketing operations.

You do realize that I don't speak for Broadcom, right?

Given that today was your last day at VMW, I assume you were looking for job well before the acquisition rumors?

Good luck with your new journey, best wishes!

@Broadcomguy, saying we will honor VMW policies for the first year. Hmm,

You will see more of these soon

After almost 10 years, today is my last day at VMware.

From my first day of onboarding at AirWatch …..

Exodus has begun !!!

For first year, I believe your vmw policies will be honored, so this will be true for payernity and RSU. So please check sun your HR on what they have as policies now, sometime HR would mate significant changes (positive for employee) just before the deal....

However, at Broadcom, not acceleration of RSU (unless vp or higher) and am not aware of paternity leave.

Has Broadcom accelerated rsu vesting as part of severance?

Has Broadcom accelerated rsu vesting as part of severance?

Could you share exactly how long is Broadcom paternity leave in California? We are expecting to have our child next year. So this is important to know to make our plan. Thanks a lot in advance.

https://www.bankinfosecurity.com/broadcom-beefs-up-security-business-61b-vmware-buy-a-19142

Read the last sentence by Krause...
Does it mean that Broadcom will actually invest in sales and marketing?
Also by 'modern applications" what does he mean? SD-WAN/SASE type and some security applications?

Third, looks like Broadcom will be open to keeping some VMware channels... but don't know if these channels only in the context of the legacy products like vSphere, vSAN, vCenter or the 'newer' applications like EUC, SASE, security?

Hi

Honestly...there's no point panicking about something you don't control. Let's take it easy...let's keep doing what we love to do...and the rest we'll see...I'm like that personally, I don't worry about a job.

Broadcom or another company will make layoffs. For the moment nothing is done and it will take time before it happens...enjoy what you like the most :)

@ablq+1gTMqgMW
If there is overlap, they will merge and mostly Broadcom would try to pick the best from each team. But human beings make the decisions and they are biased :)
So for Ex if VP of the group is from VMW he may prefer his directors, but would do a mix of Broadcom/ VMW directors, then down it cascades. I have seen this play out in sales more than BU.
BUs mostly don't have much overlap.
If no overlap, Broadcom typically don't force anyone from their side to run the BU. For ex in this case, VMW management will run the BU, your directors will decide who stays, but Broadcom will force "how many" will stay. Also if you have multiple use mgmt level Broadcom woukd ask your vps to cut thru that...

Not sure if I get the wuestion on senior person deciding to keep them. Its always one level or two level above who decides. For ex, VP decides which director stays. Dir decides which mgr or sr principle level stays etc.

Given the scruitiny, they will want your mgmt to do it a way that certain age group or gender is not hit harder than others. But at the end of the day your mgr +1 level decided who stays and not Broadcom. Only VP levels are handpicked by Broadcom rest all it will be VMW mgmt who will be decision maker.

Hope it helps...

Thanks BroadcomGuy. To be honest, hearing the truth from your experience is helping making things feel less uncertain.

Can you share about what you’ve seen or believe will happen for teams that have overlap within VMware and also teams that don’t have overlap within VMware but have overlap between broadcom and VMware.

Do they all get merged? Do they stay independent? Are they in a gray area where they are last or first to get axed (the pieces of overlap). is the BU leader always from Broadcom? Etc etc.

Also in my line of management as an example my director is awesome but his boss is aweful. In the case of trimming of management am I correct that the most senior person would stay since they are making the cutting calls and wouldn’t cut out themselves or does it work differently? Same question for a bad Staff 2 / Staff and a good SMTS. Wouldn’t the higher level person even though not performing be basically controlling fhe converstion?

"BroadcomGuy is actually RoaringKitty, who’s getting paid by Krause to leverage social networks and discussion boards to accelerate the voluntary resignations at VMW :)"

Actually if you read my posts, you will notice that I said if you are lucky align your new job with your package. I also said to wait to see how it plays out and the solid comp Broadcom offers, so quite contrary to scaring folks into voluntary resigning ;)

But I understand you wrote this in jist, at least partially 😜

Guys, my intent of posting this was simply to make you aware of what to expect, based on what I know and my experience! Folks in bay area, just call up any of your friends at Broadcom and see if you get a different feedback. Unfortunately my feedback and how Broadcom works, doesnt align with most of you guys, and thus the few troll type comments.
Trust me, I was in your shoes over 8 years ago, and I made some similar statements - customers will run away, how can they take away this function, this is stupid for business, don't they have business sense etc. but 8 years later we have tripled our Operating Income and increase revenue at least 3X...customers are still with us and those who stayed are way way richer than those who now work in other tech companies.... YMMV
I specifically remember mid Feb 2014, I didn't sleep all weekend, when my SVP called me on a Friday evening and asked me to make a list of 40% of my org who will be let go on day 1. So trust me I get it... its unfathomable, but I am preparing you for whats coming. Broadcom works differently and thats why they are at 63.5% operating jncome and producing EBITDA of $5.11B in one Qtr alone.

Once you are over the hump and a good chunk of you who make it to Broadcom, you will be initisally uncomfortable and those of you who are asked to or chose to stay, will find - eventually - that Broadcom isnt all bad after all, just very very different!

Good luck and best wishes!!

BroadcomGuy is actually RoaringKitty, who’s getting paid by Krause to leverage social networks and discussion boards to accelerate the voluntary resignations at VMW :)

Now broadcomguy will say Tom Krause will allow WFH and this that. But soon it will be empty offices as all VMware worker bees already started applying outside. Tan-Tom can have their 61b dollar products without people.

Broadcom guy and others from Broadcom are playing here or paid by Tom to troll VMware posts

This post will get trolled

Regarding the "Go Shop" provision:
The merger agreement between Broadcom and VMware includes a "go-shop" provision that allows VMware to actively solicit competing offers during a 40-day period ending July 5. Should VMware choose another offer, it agreed to pay Broadcom a termination fee of $750 million before July 5 or $1.5 billion after

Does anyone really think there is going to be another, better offer for which VMware will pay the termination fee for? I didn't think so...

All of the thrashing about all of the possibilities aside, VMware as we know it, both organizationally and culturally, will cease to exist over the next 1-2 years, with many of us likely gone a year from now. That said, think about what the timing of this has given VMware employees...the summer off! It was announced on the Thursday before Memorial Day, which typically kicks off the summer (in the US), and has everyone sideways and checked out. So people will take it easy over the summer, and start their searches in earnest as Labor Day approaches, trying to time an offer with whenever severance and packages might be offered, in order to double dip. More proactive employees are already launching their searches, to get ahead of the rush that is going to hit after Labor Day. Better off lining up a good job now, then trying to time a double dip.

But regardless, it is going to be a lazy summer at VMware...on the surface, at least. Behind the scenes, in the employee ranks...not so much.

By the way, Broadcom cannot be that bad. It must have nice breaks, too, since BroadcomGuy has plenty of time on his hands to post on this site.

We don't know how good/bad performer a Broadcom he/she is; we don't know if we are listening to a disgruntled employee; we don't know if he/she is freaking out because can lose their job due to the talent that VMware will bring over; heck, we even don't know if this guy works for Broadcom at all. Wake up, colleagues! Focus on your life and work, and wait until we learn more details after the Go Shop period.

Thanks for the last post. I stopped short of saying that another possible exception may be if you were initially hired as remote employee, Broadcom will have to consider legality of things. For example, IMHO, they can't ask someone remote to stay but lay them off because the person doesnt want to come, if that person was initially Hired as remote.
That being said, general philosophy of Broadcom is work from office, and of course they will take all of these remote employment and criticality of people in remote jobs into account... but, I don't see Broadcom changing it's work philosophy altogether! They will offer some flexibility, I am sure, especially to key stellar folks, but I don't see a scenario where 80% of BU employees will be dialing in to work. Not under Hock!

Just FYI, Broadcom has been back to office since June of 2020...yes, you read it right 2020!!

As for talent, Yes there will be attrition and some brain drain, driven by this, but Broadcom always make it work... as per Broadcom stsndards, vmw has a lot of fat, so people leaving on their own may not be bad for Broadcom. I don't see 50% of people leaving on their own, my experience states otherwise and job market is starting to tighten up and like Broadcom VMW pays very well, so finding that 400/500K+ of TC job is not that easy to land.
Long story short: Based on what you told, I think Broadcom will approve more exceptions, but they will be exceptions, not the rule and will be reviewed annually, at least thats hoe it is today. Best to wait 2-3 months and more clarity on this, as Broadcom will learn more about these things and may offer more flexibility than I am imaging...

But you need to ask yourself an honest question, are you ok being on an exception list every year? And work for a company who openly despises WFH.

Good luck and thanks for a positive post!

Continuing the WFH debate... Just do the math, guys.

If you reduced VMware to only 30% of employees, which will not happen overnight, does Broadcom have office space readily available to sit 12,000 heads under a roof? I doubt Broadcom, or even anyone, does. Not quickly, at least.

Second, building/buying office space in CA is not cheap, and based on Broadcom's reputation for being pretty frugal, would you think they have interest of throwing money in -just out of pride or stubbornness, to get the same capacity/productivity of 12,000 new folks if they stayed remote?

At the end, the dollars will dictate the story and what happens with the WFH approach. Forget about "Hock's iron fist", it's a business - and money rules.

I think everyone should be very grateful to BCG for posting what he did. Good to know now what all of us who have worked in non-Tech industries have known for years, C-staff don't care about you the employee, they only care about bottom line/shareholder value. It's what they are hired to deliver, so Hoke truly doesn't care if you leave bc you want to WFH, BCG is right, there are plenty of people near an office who will take your job. So buck up, put on your big girl/boy pants and realize you are on your own with the normally sh---y layoff package most people get in the US when laid off. If you think BC is going to pay $1 more than 2 wks/yr with a minimum of 1 month as severance you ate not being realistic, this is the minimum package companies in other industries give for white collar employees. And for benefits, if you think BC will permit 4 month maternity/paternity leave, as well as keep all the other typical Silicon Valley soft benefits VMware offers, you're fooling yourself. BCG is right, usually these type of bennies are kept 1 yr max due to various laws about when you can change benefits vs close date. Welcome to the real world, and be grateful of the transparency and notice given by BCG. He's done every VMware employee a solid with this post. EVERYONE should be looking now, no exceptions. Better to face reality then live in the denial phase of grief for too long, and be very grateful you know what to expect and won't be blindsided on Day 1. We are now competing against each other for jobs, early bird catches the worm.

@Broadcomguy I understand all your points about WFH/hybrid for people who were already in offices pre-Covid. I'm not sure if you understand that VMware - and its acquisitions - have thousands of employees who were hired as permanent remote employees. Many of these do not have a VMware or Broadcom office anywhere near them. Many of them are also Senior/Principal/Staff engineers who are in this situation because they are some of the most talented engineers and can get a job with any company they want, while living wherever they want. I'm not sure this is being appreciated by VMware or Broadcom, or that they realize that most of these people are already hitting the job boards and will be gone by the end of the year regardless of what happens. This will be a huge brain drain and loss of talent for whatever the company becomes. Talent is still king in software, and while many people at Broadcom may be there due to the limited pool of companies looking for hardware engineers, this is simply not the case for software. These people are as good as gone which will set the company back years of innovation (if that matters anymore).

Wow @Broadcomguy - quite the response there, given your chosen posting name. All I can say is absolutely GFY, in all interpretations possible.

Spinoff product line: Well someone has to be willing to buy the product line. If its sellable then Broadcom will keep all of you and let the buyer decide your fate.

Product mgmt remote guy: really like your post and attitude - best of luck to you Sir!

Speculation on other suitors: Extremely unlikely, hope is not a strategy so don't count on it. With AVGO stock track record and the fact that Mr Dell will benefit from stock conversion rather than cashing out, don't think anything will pan out - remember he is your #1 shareholdet by a margin, and frankly hard to beat this 61B offer.

Closing date: Broadcom prefence wud be to close by Nov 1st, but I think this may likely come down to Feb 1st.

WFH comment: No, sir, there won't be any revolt. When Broadcom is trying to cut fat, they will find more than enough people who will be willing to come to office and be gainfully employed!

I know this is a touchy subject, but those who want perpetual WFH should go find an employment which offers WFH or remote work, but don't try to speak for 37-38K employees. It was a luxury driven by Covid to be able to WFH, personally I like hybrid, but I work for a company whose policy is work from office, like it has been the case pre-Covid for most of jobs, so I am totally fine with daily coming to office. If I decide to move to timbuktu and expect my employer will be forced to make it work, then its my fault, not employer's - as always brutually honest response!

If for whatever reason including personal preference if i think I like to have flexibility of WFH, I will find another employer who will offer me that option, rather than trying to "revolt" against my current employer for not meeting my whims - its as simple as that. No more, no less!

Again guys, good luck, most of you are hard working guys, and instead of fighting just prepare for what's in front of you, which unfortunately is a lot of uncertainity. But as I said earlier sharpen your resume/ skills / network, to be ready if you need to jump in the market for finding jobs. If you are sure you don't want to come to office, and unless you are in sales or in a super critical job, that Tom/ Hock will approve your exception, go find a job now or wait for your package. What you don't want is -- you are offered a job, but requires coming to office and if you decline, then it would mean voluntary termination, that too in 2023, and that May not be a good option given all the talk about looming recession in 2023 and the fact that you will be laid off without a package... decide what suits you best!

Lets make this thread not about WFH, this will be my last comment on WFH, but will be happy to answer any other questions!

Guys, the WFH threat is very real. Just consider Tom's reaction when Raghu asked him about WFH. He's a former CFO heading SW and he was talking about our beautiful but empty campus as a sunk cost. Do you really think he will allow WFH and disrupt the existing Broadcom culture? Hock talked about learning and evolving with each acquisition. He will simply say he considered it carefully and decided that WFH is not possible. If WFH is important to you, start looking and switch after collecting your severance. Exceptions for nobel-prize-winner-like-performers (read as nobody) may have to be approved by Hock and it will be less than what you count with one hand. Hock runs this ship and what he says is the rule. No point revolting, we'll simply be asked to depart. It is not our company. Accept this reality and start looking if WFH is important to you.