In its first full quarter under Broadcom’s ownership, VMware’s revenue fell by $600 million, dropping to $2.7 billion. Despite this decline, Broadcom CEO Hock Tan highlighted strong growth in forward bookings and substantial cost cuts at VMware during Broadcom’s Q2 2024 earnings call.
Broadcom has aggressively cut costs at VMware, reducing quarterly expenses from $2.3 billion to $1.6 billion, with plans to further reduce costs to $1.2 billion. This cost-cutting aligns with Broadcom’s strategy to enhance profitability and efficiency within its acquired businesses. Tan announced that 3,000 of VMware’s 10,000 largest customers have signed multi-year deals, marking significant progress in transitioning VMware products to a subscription licensing model.
VMware’s annualized booking values, a metric of commitment to long-term contracts, rose from $1.2 billion to $1.9 billion this quarter. Broadcom sees considerable interest from customers looking to use VMware’s portfolio to build on-prem private clouds as alternatives or complements to public clouds. Tan expressed optimism about VMware’s future, predicting that the business unit’s revenue will accelerate towards a $4 billion per quarter run rate.
Broadcom’s software division, which includes VMware, CA, and Symantec, reported quarterly revenue of $5.3 billion, up from $1.9 billion in the same quarter of 2023. This growth is attributed to Broadcom’s effective management of its software businesses.
On the silicon side, Broadcom’s revenue improved by six percent year-over-year to $7.2 billion. AI-related products contributed significantly, with revenue increasing by 280 percent year-on-year to $3.1 billion. Networking revenue also grew by 44 percent to $3.8 billion, driven by strong demand from hyperscalers for AI networking and custom accelerators.
Broadcom has increased its guidance for FY 2024 to $51 billion, up by $1 billion from its Q1 forecast. This optimistic outlook is supported by the growing demand for AI-related silicon and anticipated growth at VMware. Broadcom’s total revenue for the quarter was $12.5 billion, with a net income of $2.1 billion. The company also announced a ten-for-one stock split in July, aiming to make its shares more accessible to investors.
