Vmware

• VMware today thusly faces unprecedented marketing challenges. Its technology leadership and savvy may not be enough to beat Microsoft. And the spoils of victory in virtualization are simply too strategic to Microsoft and others to assume that the coming high stakes battle will be easy. Chances are that it will be grueling for VMware when the time comes for Hyper-V to move up market.

That's why I think Maritz was an especially strong candidate to replace Green. He knows Microsoft well and he knows where the market is ultimately going (into the clouds). He may be able to help groom a technology leader into a marketing powerhouse at a critical time in its history.

“http://seekingalpha.com/article/84447-maritz-replaces-greene-at-vmware-some-implications-for-the-coming-microsoft-battle”

• For months, Wall Street has been pressuring EMC (EMC), which owns most of VMware's (VMW) stock and controls virtually all of its voting rights and board, to replace Greene. She co-founded VMware a decade ago and sold it to storage vendor EMC in 2004, and stayed at the helm after VMware's blockbuster IPO last year. But Wall Street analysts and people close to the company say Greene clashed with EMC management over costs, the company's independence, and its ability to strike deals to distribute its software with EMC competitors like IBM (IBM) and Hewlett-Packard (HPQ). As VMware prepared to lower its 2008 sales estimate for the second time in six months, warning that revenues would fall "modestly below" previous guidance of 50% growth, the board made its move.

http://www.businessweek.com/stories/2008-07-08/vmware-ousts-ceo-diane-greenebusinessweek-business-news-stock-market-and-financial-advice

• Maritz, 53, who spent 14 years with the company before departing in 2000. More recently, he headed a cloud-computing startup called Pi, acquired by EMC in February.

Tucci says EMC's eight-member board, six of whom are now EMC employees or directors, tried to persuade Greene to stay in a...