Broadcom will buy VMWare for $61 billion, its latest multi-billion dollar acquisition.

The companies announced today that chip maker Broadcom will acquire VMWare for $61 billion in cash and stock.

Broadcom is best known for developing and selling a wide range of wired and wireless communications chips, including Wi-Fi and Bluetooth chips, as well as the processors that power many routers and modems. But the company has spent billions in recent years acquiring an enterprise software portfolio — $18.9 billion at CA Technologies in 2018 and $10.7 billion at Symantec in 2019. The VMWare purchase is much larger than any of those purchases, but it fits the Broadcom model. other software acquisitions.

Upon completion of the acquisition, Broadcom Software Group will adopt the VMWare name. If approved, Broadcom expects the deal to close sometime in 2023.

This won’t be the first time someone has paid big bucks for VMWare. The company was first bought by EMC back in 2004 for $625 million (or just under $1 billion inflation-adjusted). EMC itself was acquired by Dell for $67 billion at the end of 2015, and VMWare was part of that acquisition. Dell sold most of its VMWare shares at the end of 2021 to pay off debts, although Michael Dell still owns about 40% of VMWare shares and remains chairman of VMWare’s board of directors.

VMWare makes most of its money from subscriptions to its enterprise software products that deal with PC and application virtualization, networking and security. Ars readers may know him better from consumer virtualization products, including VMWare Fusion for Mac and the free VMWare Workstation Player for home use.