A Few More Thoughts on VMware’s $1.54 Billion Acquisition of AirWatch

Paula Musich

Summary Bullets:

• Consolidation of the enterprise mobility management market (EMM) will continue, but it doesn’t necessarily mean that’s good for EMM customers.
• When the dust settles from continued consolidation, at least one pure-play, independent provider will be left standing to supply a best-of-breed alternative.

I can’t resist the opportunity to weigh in on the still fairly recent news of VMware’s planned acquisition of leading pure-play enterprise mobility management provider AirWatch for a reported $1.54 billion.  Of course, this move was not surprising given the continued march of consolidation activities in the EMM market.  VMware follows IBM with its Fiberlink acquisition, the much smaller and stealthier acquisition of BitzerMobile by Oracle, and VMware rival Citrix’s acquisition of Zenprise just over a year earlier.  The move is also not surprising, given the failure of VMware’s Horizon Workspace to catch any traction in the mobile application management segment, as well as the appointment of former SAP mobility chief Sanjay Poonen as GM and EVP of VMware’s End-User Computing group last August.