VMware Acquires Mobile Device Management Company AirWatch

In another round of tech company acquisitions, server virtualization company VMware agreed to pay $1.54 Billion for AirWatch. This allows VMware to move into the fast growing portable and mobility market of smartphones, tablets, wearable electronics and other interconnected devices.

The acquisition also brings in nearly 10,000 existing AirWatch customers that have relied on the company for their mobile device management (MDM) and security requirements. VMware has not announced how the 1,600 AirWatch employees will be deployed in the new organization other than they will be part of the end-user computing group. The current AirWatch CEO John Marshall will also transition to VMware.

This deal signals the growing market evolving around “BYOD” (Bring Your Own Devices) embraced by many companies. As smartphones, tablets and portable computing devices, particularly those from Apple, displace personal computers, IT professionals are looking to ways to easily monitor and secure these devices. The AirWatch technology

VMware was itself originally a Silicon Valley startup that was acquired by global IT leader EMC . VMware was later spun out as its own company, with EMC retaining majority ownership.  Their core business focused on server virtualization in which a single computer is configured to do the work of multiple individual computers. As the pre-cursor to cloud computing, this provided companies significant cost savings by purchasing a single, powerful computer rather dozens of computers for each employee.

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