EMC has confirmed the rumours that were swirling around yesterday – Paul Maritz is leaving his role as VMware CEO and moving over to EMC. He will be replaced by EMC COO Pat Gelsinger.
Maritz will take on the job title of "technology strategist" at EMC, where it is likely he will help develop EMC’s strategy as the industry shifts to cloud computing and deals with the Big Data explosion. He will remain on the VMware board of directors.
Gelsinger, a 30-year Intel veteran, will take over Maritz’s role at virtualisation giant VMware. He will also take a seat on the VMware board. David Goulden, who was VP and chief financial officer at EMC, will become COO, filling Gelsinger’s shoes.
The moves reflect the big changes the technology industry is going through at the moment, EMC CEO Joe Tucci said in a statement. "Today we are witnessing an extraordinary transformation in the IT industry unlike anything we have seen before – a major shift to Cloud Computing, Big Data applications and delivering IT-as-a-Service," he said.
"To capitalise on this tremendous opportunity we are positioning our executive talent so that we can benefit from their exceptional professional strengths with the goal of further advantaging EMC and VMware to deliver long-term value to our respective shareholders," he added."
"Maritz is one of the brightest minds in the IT industry. He has created a compelling and lasting vision that has transformed VMware from a technology leader in virtualization to a category leader in cloud computing," said Tucci. "Paul leaves VMware in an enviable strategic position and in great financial health."
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"In Pat and Paul, we are fortunate to have two world-class leaders," Tucci added. "The strong teams that we now have in place at VMware and EMC allow me to ask Pat and Paul to take on two of the defining challenges and opportunities of the new, unfolding IT era."
Both Maritz and Gelsinger have been heavily linked with the EMC CEO role when Tucci eventually retires. That was originally expected to happen this year but is now likely to be 2013 at the earliest. During a conference call with analysts to discuss this news Tucci gave no indication when he may step down.
EMC also took the opportunity to release preliminary financial results for the second quarter of 2012. The company said it expects revenue to climb 10% to around $5.31bn, which would be a record for the quarter. The company added it expects to meets it full year revenue guidance of $22bn.
VMware also released preliminary financial results. The company expects record revenue of $1.12bn, up 22% on the year ago quarter. It expects full year revenue of between $4.54bn and $4.63bn.
