VMware CEO Maritz Says No Spin-Off Of Cloud, Big Data Assets

"We have no specific plans [for a spin-off] at this point in time," outgoing VMware CEO Paul Maritz said Monday when asked about the spin-off speculation in a Q&A during VMware's fiscal second quarter earnings call.

In fact, VMware will look to step up its spending on cloud technologies and be more strategic about utilizing those it has already developed, according to Maritz.

"We see the cloud investments we have made as being absolutely critical, and we intend to make further investments going forward," Maritz said on the call. "We are thinking about how to use those assets even more effectively in the future."

[Related: VMware Blockbuster: Maritz Out As CEO After Four-Year Tenure ]

VMware has not commented publicly on the Cloud Foundry/Greenplum spin-off reports, which first surfaced last Monday. But in a memo to employees last week, VMware described the speculation as "unfounded" and said it and EMC would continue "to aggressively invest" in both properties.

VMware unveiled Cloud Foundry last April and is positioning it as an open version of PaaS that works with a variety of clouds and cloud infrastructure.

EMC acquired data warehousing vendor Greenplum in 2010 and has established it as the cornerstone of its big data strategy.

Maritz, who last week was also mentioned as a possible candidate to lead the spin-off, is stepping down as CEO of VMware on Sept. 1 and moving over to EMC in the role of chief strategist. Pat Gelsinger, president and COO of EMC's information infrastructure division, will take over as CEO of VMware.

PUBLISHED JULY 23, 2012