Broadcom, the semiconductor giant, is in talks to acquire VMware, according to a person familiar with the matter.
A deal is not finalized yet, the person said Sunday evening, who was not authorized to talk about it publicly. Bloomberg first reported the talks.
Broadcom has long been very buying power and its chief executive, Hock E. Tan, is known for making deals. The chip company, which was based in Singapore but has moved its headquarters to San Jose, California, initially bought mainly other chip companies. But since the $117 billion deal to buy US chipmaker Qualcomm was blocked by President Donald J. Trump in March 2018 over national security concerns, Broadcom has diversified its goals. It bought software company CA Technologies for $18.9 billion later that year and a security division of Symantec for $10.7 billion in 2019.
VMware, which spun off from Dell Technologies last November, is known for creating virtualization software that allows one computer to act like many machines and essentially make computing more efficient. It has also diversified and makes a range of data center software.
