EMC to Purchase VMware Shares

EMC Corporation announced that its Board of Directors has authorized a stock purchase program to allow the company to make open market purchases of VMware Class A common stock in order to maintain EMC’s approximately 80% majority ownership at its current level over the long term.  

The stock purchase program underscores VMware’s role in EMC’s strategic direction and acknowledges VMware’s leading position as the global leader in virtualization solutions from the desktop through the data center and to the cloud, and as one of the IT industry’s most compelling value propositions.  

David Goulden, EMC Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer said:" The public offering of VMware’s stock has enabled EMC to expose the value of VMware to the public markets, attract and retain the best talent in the industry and continually reinforce VMware’s commitment to an open platform strategy. We believe maintaining EMC’s ownership level in VMware at approximately 80% allows us to continue to achieve the above objectives while also maximizing value for EMC shareholders over the long term."