Posted
by
Bink on
on September 10 2008, 9:07 PM
with no comments
Shares in VMware Inc., the virtualization technology specialist, fell for a second day Tuesday amid increasing competition from Microsoft Corp., and a number of high-profile staff departures.
Shares in the Palo Alto, Calif., company, closed down almost 7% at $32.47 Tuesday, after sliding 3.5% Monday.
VMware is facing a number of challenges following the departure two months ago of its founder and Chief Executive
Diane Greene
, including competition from Microsoft and others and the impact of lower information-technology budgets on sales. Its shares have fallen almost 39% since Greene's departure in July.
Microsoft on Monday launched a stand-alone version of a product that competes directly with VMware's core virtualization technology. Microsoft launched a number of new products and services and said its Hyper-V Server 2008 will be available free via the Internet, easing restrictions that had previously made Hyper-V free only to customers with specific licenses.
Microsoft, which launched Hyper-V earlier this year, has recently made aggressive moves to win market share from VMware, by launching new products and making it easier for customers to license and use those products with its own.
Chris Wolf
, a senior analyst with Burton Group, said he believed Microsoft ultimately wanted to win more high-end customers from VMware.
"Virtualization is an infrastructure technology, and organizations are looking to commit to a vendor. Microsoft has done a good job of linking virtualization to other key applications and is providing a roadmap for product development."
Continue At Source
28852 Views