Nine weeks to the day VMware (NYSE: VMW) CEO Diane Green was ousted, her husband Mendel Rosenblum, who co-founded the virtualization software firm in 1998, is leaving his the role as chief scientist.
Rosenblum is heading back to the classrooms at Stanford University, according to Reuters. He’s the second high-ranking VMware executive to depart this month. VMware’s top leader in product development, Richard Sarwal, left on September 2 head back to Oracle.
While Greene’s abrupt departure pushed VMware shares down by 27 percent back on July 8, Rosenblum’s announcement that today would his last day didn’t resonate as deep on the stock by mid Tuesday. Shares had dropped $2.26 to $32.64, a 6.47 percent loss by mid afternoon.
EMC, bought VMware for $635 million in 2004, and netted about a billion on a special IPO three years later, declined to comment for InternetNews.com. A VMWare representative did not return calls for comment.
It’s clear newly minted CEO Paul Maritz now has more work on his plate than ever given that EMC is expecting improved financial results by the end of the third quarter. Maritz is also gearing up for his first appearance at the virtualization leader’s annual user conference next week in Las Vegas. Maritz came to EMC through the acquisition of Pi.
Pundits have described VMware as caught between a rock and a hard space in terms of market strategy: It doesn’t want to change its obviously successful model, yet the fact it’s competing with titans such as CA (NASDAQ: CA) and IBM will require some new strategy.
