VMware taps Raghu Raghuram as its new CEO

Recently, VMware Inc named its co-Chief Operating Officer Raghu Raghuram as its new CEO, prompting Sanjay Poonen, the business software company's other co-COO, who was vying for the top job, to depart.

Raghuram is tasked with navigating VMware as a company free from majority owner Dell Technologies Inc, which last month said it would spin off its 81 percent stake in the cloud computing giant in exchange for a special cash dividend of 9.7 billion.

Raghuram's antecedent, Pat Gelsinger, was named Intel Corp's chief executive in February. Raghuram, an 18-year expert of VMWare, was presented the CEO Job after peripheral candidates turned it down, people memorable with the matter said. VMware declined to comment on the other candidates.

VMware produces software that helps business customers extend run their software on immense fleets of physical computers in data centers. Pat Gelsinger helped VMware navigate the transition from the era in which most big businesses owned their own data centers to the era of cloud computing, in which companies rent computing power from vendors such as Amazon Web Services or Microsoft Corp's Azure.

Raghuram said he planned to double down on that strategy by helping VMware customers move their software among multiple cloud providers as well as their own data centers.

"Embedded in the VMware DNA is this Switzerland mentality of working with all kinds of computing providers, what I hope to do is accelerate it even further," said Raghuram, CEO, VMware.

The company states, “Sumit Dhawan, a senior vice president, will be elevated to the role of president. Zane Rowe, who has served as VMware's interim chief executive while the board undertook a search, will return to his previous job as the company's chief financial officer.”

VMware, which tactics to release its full fiscal first-quarter 2022 financial results on May 27, also released preliminary results recently. The company stated it expected 2.99 billion in fiscal first-quarter revenue and adjusted profits of 1.76 per share. Analysts are expecting 2.91 billion in sales and 1.50 in adjusted earnings per share.