By Carryl Roy published: Wednesday, September 17 2008
A markedly reserved press room welcomed the VMware CEO on Tuesday
LAS VEGAS – September 16, 2008 – VMware CEO Paul Maritz took the stage again Tuesday
afternoon at VMworld 2008 in an exclusive Q & A with press and analysts.
After
recapping the 3 main points of his keynote speech, Maritz immediately faced a
question about the mood at VMware in the light of the management changes, high
turnover and falling stock price.
Maritz’
response was clear, that a bit of turmoil and turnover is expected when a
company undergoes executive leadership change. He described VMware’s future as
“a journey we are going to embark upon.”
He also
emphasized that the plan laid out this morning is aggressive and noted that,
“We’re going to need all the friends we can” in order to succeed with vCloud,
vClient and the Virtual Datacenter Operating System.
Maritz’
most notable reply came when a reporter approached the microphone showing off a
Microsoft poker chip bearing the Web address www.vmwarecostswaytoomuch.com.
When asked for a reaction to the guerilla marketing, Maritz simply smiled and
said, “You do that when you’re a distant second and trying to get attention.”
