News

VMware Closes Out a Strong Financial 2016

Revenues exceed $7 billion for the year.

• By Keith Ward
• 01/27/2017

VMware finished out a strong 2016 fiscal year by beating analyst's expectations for fourth-quarter revenue. The showing was especially meaningful as it marked the first full earnings report under the leadership of Dell Technologies, VMware's new owner.

Earnings for Q4 came in at $441 million, on total revenue of $2.03 billion. That was an increase of 9 percent from the same quarter of 2015 ($373 million), VMware stated in a press release. Analysts had predicted $1.99 billion in revenue.

The revenue also represented strong growth from the previous quarter, which was $1.78 billion.

The revenues mirrored a solid 2016 overall for VMware, with total revenue of $7.09 billion, up 8 percent from 2015 on a GAAP basis and 7 percent on a non-GAAP basis.

VMware CEO Pat Gelsinger was understandably enthused at the results. "Q4 closed out a strong fiscal 2016 and was one of the most balanced quarters for VMware in years," he said in the press release. "We're very pleased with our strong product momentum and customer enthusiasm for our Cloud strategy."

The deal in which Dell acquired VMware parent company EMC Inc. closed last September. There was much speculation in the industry as to how the deal would affect VMware, which enjoyed great autonomy under EMC's ownership. In fact, the earnings call from almost exactly one year ago was markedly different than yesterday's. During that call, VMware announced it was laying off 800 employees, and it marked the exit of VMware CFO Jonathan Chadwick, one of a series of high-level executive departures.

The lack of drama in the latest earnings report, along with the financial numbers in the report, will undoubtedly be taken as a positive sign that the Dell acquisition is going smoothly for VMware.