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If you look at its history, Broadcom is a financial acquisition company that operates in technology. I think Tan's position is: these are (mostly) mature techn

by patfla 2y ago

If you look at its history, Broadcom is a financial acquisition company that operates in technology. I think Tan's position is: these are (mostly) mature technologies and should be horse traded like financial assets. Got lucky with the LSI Logic design team and Google TPU's. Presently $8 bln/yr I understand. Although such serendipity increases when you're able to buy everything you see. With the exception of Qualcomm.

belter 2y ago
Let's see how that turns out for them this time. This was last year but buy now is probably 5 in 5...: "1 in 5 VMware customers plan to jump off its stack next year" - https://www.theregister.com/2023/11/08/vmware_customer_forrester_prediction/ https://www.theregister.com/2023/11/08/vmware_customer_forre...
- peeters 2y ago
  They want 1 in 5 VMWare customers to jump. If they don't, they'll be forcibly pushed off of the edge. Broadcom's entire growth model is to take an established player that is entrenched in massive corporations, introduce that product to the existing portfolio Broadcom offers that customer, and then jack the price on the lot. If you're not in the Fortune 500, Broadcom doesn't want to talk to you and if they keep your business at all it'll be through digital sales or third party resellers. I am not a fan of them and didn't like working for them, but their financial results speak for themselves. You can attack the ethics of Tan's leadership certainly, but to call him an idiot ignores the fact that he's doing exactly what his shareholders want. Growing the company at obscene returns.
  - patfla 2y ago
    Unfortunately, an economy is now wholly peopled by shareholders, and the most important shareholders are usually the owners and corporate officers. Software dev who's worked in both tech and finance. I don't measure things in just shareholder returns.
    - peeters 2y ago
      Nor do I, just saying "idiotic" is the wrong pejorative here. He's doing what he's being paid to do and doing it competently and successfully.
      - deleted 2y ago
        [deleted]
      - patfla 2y ago
        Don't disagree. I regard Tan as a (powerful) local optimization where the counter argument to broader optimizations is that they're riskier. The latter are though more fundamental. New businesses, new processes, new products are one thing. Profit-taking is another. To get new industries you need far-ranging optimizations.
      - belter 2y ago
        People like to do business with people they like, and the Juniors of today are the future CFO, CEO and CTO's. Also IT people have a very, very long memory, and aiming to become the next Oracle is not an advisable strategy. Being the optimizer of local minima, is bad business strategy, and smart shareholders should plug for a better optimizer.
  - superb_dev 2y ago
    And so the line goes up, while the product and everything else goes to shit

by patfla 2y ago

belter 2y ago

Let's see how that turns out for them this time. This was last year but buy now is probably 5 in 5...: "1 in 5 VMware customers plan to jump off its stack next year" - https://www.theregister.com/2023/11/08/vmware_customer_forrester_prediction/ https://www.theregister.com/2023/11/08/vmware_customer_forre...

peeters 2y ago
They want 1 in 5 VMWare customers to jump. If they don't, they'll be forcibly pushed off of the edge. Broadcom's entire growth model is to take an established player that is entrenched in massive corporations, introduce that product to the existing portfolio Broadcom offers that customer, and then jack the price on the lot. If you're not in the Fortune 500, Broadcom doesn't want to talk to you and if they keep your business at all it'll be through digital sales or third party resellers. I am not a fan of them and didn't like working for them, but their financial results speak for themselves. You can attack the ethics of Tan's leadership certainly, but to call him an idiot ignores the fact that he's doing exactly what his shareholders want. Growing the company at obscene returns.
- patfla 2y ago
  Unfortunately, an economy is now wholly peopled by shareholders, and the most important shareholders are usually the owners and corporate officers. Software dev who's worked in both tech and finance. I don't measure things in just shareholder returns.
  - peeters 2y ago
    Nor do I, just saying "idiotic" is the wrong pejorative here. He's doing what he's being paid to do and doing it competently and successfully.
    - deleted 2y ago
      [deleted]
    - patfla 2y ago
      Don't disagree. I regard Tan as a (powerful) local optimization where the counter argument to broader optimizations is that they're riskier. The latter are though more fundamental. New businesses, new processes, new products are one thing. Profit-taking is another. To get new industries you need far-ranging optimizations.
    - belter 2y ago
      People like to do business with people they like, and the Juniors of today are the future CFO, CEO and CTO's. Also IT people have a very, very long memory, and aiming to become the next Oracle is not an advisable strategy. Being the optimizer of local minima, is bad business strategy, and smart shareholders should plug for a better optimizer.
- superb_dev 2y ago
  And so the line goes up, while the product and everything else goes to shit