Broadcom’s Annual Report 2022 summarises key risks associated with the VMware merger. It lists these on page 19…
“Although we expect significant benefits to result from the VMware Merger, there can be no assurance that we will actually realize any of them, or realize them within the anticipated timeframe. Achieving these benefits will depend, in part, on our ability to integrate VMware's business successfully and efficiently. The challenges involved in this integration, which will be complex and time consuming, include the following:
• preserving customer and other important relationships of VMware and attracting new business and operational relationships;
• integrating financial forecasting and controls, procedures and reporting cycles;
• consolidating and integrating corporate, information technology, finance and administrative infrastructures;
• coordinating sales and marketing efforts to effectively position our capabilities;
• coordinating and integrating operations in countries in which we have not previously operated; and
• integrating employees and related HR systems and benefits, maintaining employee morale and retaining key employees.”
That last point appears to acknowledge that poor morale among ex-VMware employees and failure to keep top talent could directly impact the value of the deal. The last thing BC shareholders would want to hear in the first quarter post-merger is
The report does not describe how BC intend to mitigate these risks, but someone in BC is ultimately responsible for making sure the worst does not happen here. Makes you wonder.