If you're scratching your head as to why Michael Dell would want to sell VMware? Everyone said VMware is Dell's crown jewel in his portfolio. Everyone celebrated VMware going independent and said it was going to be a $20b revenue company, $100b market cap etc etc. So, why sell? And why such a cheap price of $140 per share?
Here's one reason.
In Q1, Dell grew their infrastructure business by 16% - server growth was 22%. Guidance for Q2 was 10% growth, even with all the Russia and supply chain issues.
https://blocksandfiles.com/2022/05/27/dell-q1-2023/
In Q1, VMware only grew by 3%, when the Street was expecting 6% - a major miss. They blamed Russia, supply chain and any other excuse, except their poor execution. No Q2 guidance because of the Broadcom deal, maybe Q2 was going to be worse than Q1.
https://www.nasdaq.com/articles/vmware-vmw-q1-earnings-miss-estimates-revenues-rise-y-y
Michael Dell probably sees one business executing well (Dell), and the other business tanking (VMware). So he decided to sell before the VMware shares collapsed. VMware management has themselves to blame for getting sold off to Broadcom at $140 per share, instead of a much higher price. Or to a better buyer that won't layoff 20K jobs.