Broadcom is said to be in discussions with VMware to buy the cloud computing company for as much as $50 billion.
The news was first reported by Bloomberg and then by The Financial Times. The discussions are said to be ongoing, which means it's unclear whether the deal will be confirmed. VMware was spun off from Dell Technologies last November, and has had multiple owners in the past.
The reported $50 billion figure would be a 25% premium on VMware's market cap at the close of trading on Friday, and pre-market trading on Monday saw the company's stock price rise 15%. The company has been reimagining itself for the multicloud era in recent times. “I think we've done a good job of repositioning and re-aligning the company around the tremendous opportunity that's ahead of us,” CEO Raghu Raghuram told Protocol last week.
The acquisition would significantly diversify Broadcom's offerings, though the company has been acquiring software companies in recent years, including Symantec Endpoint Security.