Some of the most prized aspects of VMware’s culture likely won’t survive the Broadcom acquisition.
Broadcom closed its $69 billion acquisition of VMware on November 22. On Tuesday, Broadcom CEO Hock Tan addressed questions from VMware employees in an all-hands meeting. Some employees asked about company culture perks such as employee-resource groups and company-wide parties – both of which Tan said Broadcom doesn’t do, according to a recording of the meeting viewed by Business Insider.
One employee asked Tan if Broadcom supports ERGs, which are work groups that aim to build community among underrepresented groups at the company and can be focused on race, gender, sexual orientation, or other aspects of identity. At VMware, ERGs were known as “pods.”
“One experience that I know I had and a lot of other people had from VMware was pods, which are employee-resource groups,” the employee asked. “I’m curious what kind of support Broadcom has for programs like that.”
Tan laughed and replied, “What is that? I’m just kidding. You want me to be direct? That’s an alien concept to me.”
Tan added that Broadcom doesn’t have those groups although it doesn’t mean the company shouldn’t and that it could learn from them.
Another employee asked Tan what Broadcom celebrates.
“You got a good point,” Tan replied. “We don’t do Bollywood dances.”
Tan added that Broadcom used to have a Christmas party but no longer does. He said Broadcom doesn’t do celebrations on a company-wide basis, but each division can choose to have celebratory or team-building events if they want.
“I was Santa, but that didn’t get done very well, so we killed it,” Tan said. “No, we don’t have like, annual dinners or stuff like that. We don’t. But having said that, each of the product divisions have full liberty to go do their thing. We let them do it.”
Tan also said at the meeting that he expects employees living within 50 miles of an office to return to the office – a shift from VMware’s remote-friendly culture. Another email sent Thursday said employees should return to the office by December 4, BI first reported.
Since the acquisition was first announced in May 2022, VMware employees told BI that they were concerned about the future of VMware, as they expected deep job cuts, certain units to get divested, and a completely different work culture at Broadcom.
Broadcom laid off VMware employees on Monday. Before the acquisition closed, VMware employees received an email saying they would either get an offer from Broadcom, a transitional role, or severance, BI first reported. VMware had also started cutting jobs before the acquisition closed.
Broadcom did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Got a tip? Contact this reporter via email at rmchan@businessinsider.com, Signal at 646.376.6106, or Telegram at @rosaliechan. (PR pitches by email only, please.) Other types of secure messaging available upon request.
Read the full article here
