Stock in VMware (NYSE: VMW), the skyrocketing subsidiary of Hopkinton-based storage-systems giant EMC (NYSE: EMC), blew past analysts’ expected ceiling today after the company announced the acquisition of Dunes Technologies, a Swiss startup that makes software that automates the management of virtualized computing systems.
VMware stock briefly peaked at about $82 per share—well above the $60 to $75 target price expected by firms such as Thomson Financial—before settling back down to the $79 range by mid-afternoon, up about 3 percent since the market opening.
Dunes Technologies was founded in 2001 and is headquartered in Lausanne, Switzerland, with offices in Stamford, CT. The company sells software that makes it easier to manage computer systems that have been virtualized using software from VMware and other companies.
Virtualization makes servers more efficient by dividing them into multiple virtual machines capable of running multiple applications on multiple operating systems. But it also makes managing these servers more complicated. By automatically handling tricky, multi-step tasks such as migrating data and virtual machines in batches from one data center to another, Dunes’ software reduces the number of systems engineers needed to run a virtualized computer environment.
“As customers move toward large-scale virtual infrastructure deployments, they need solutions that allow them to maintain control over a growing number of virtual machines,” Raghu Raghuram, VMware’s vice president of products and solutions, said in a statement. “Dunes has developed a powerful orchestration platform that will allow us to automate the entire virtual machine lifecycle from requisition to de-commissioning.”
Dunes is backed by private equity firm Affentranger Associates, which will receive an undisclosed price from VMware. The acquisition was announced just as VMworld, the company’s annual conference for virtualization users, opened in San Francisco.
