VMware has cut a deal to acquire privately held Nicira Inc and its cloudy open source network virtualization widgetry for $1.05 billion in cash plus roughly $210 million in unvested equity awards. So that makes a tidy $1.26 altogether.
It’s VMware’s biggest acquisition ever and should close this half.
Paul Maritz, now VMware’s lame duck CEO and going out with a bang, said in a statement that “VMware has led the server virtualization revolution, and we have the opportunity to do the same in data center and cloud networking. The acquisition of Nicira adds to our portfolio of networking assets and positions VMware to be the industry leader in software-defined networking.”