Thread regarding VMware layoffs

@1chc+1oWMM9ao

Depending on your group, for RSUs to be 90% of TC is not a common thing at least not in our group. Unless you should have joined BC just before the couple of big runs and should have been pretty senior IC.

I think in general, RSUs are about 70-80% of your TC.

"And if VMware turns out to be more like Novell ... well let's hope for all the gravy train doesn't come to a sudden end."

For most employees, isn't it clear that it will come to a sudden end? And, for customers, there are too many better alternatives to paying the VMW-tax to Broacom for legacy virtualization solutions.

I'm one of those managers who will occasionally work 15 hours a week.

However, my team's job is "insurance". When something goes wrong, I'll be the one pulling all-nighters and working through weekends without sleep. The hours average out.

Depending on when my work is assessed I'm either dead weight or someone you're glad you have so you don't have to do it.

im making north of 800k this year and north of 600k last year for W2 as a sales bozo too but I have to say there are a lot of people who work for VMW who cannot tell you what their job is or the value they add. We need to whack a bunch of dead weight. My manager will make 800k this year and he tells me his team is so good that he is bored because his team doesn’t need coaching. He told me last week that he is working about 15 hours a week. It’s time.

Broadcom are actually very conservative on debt huge amounts of profit (EBITDA) , enormous market cap, they borrowed 28B for VMW, which when our revenue is added to it and costs slashed hugely will only be good for them

https://finance.yahoo.com/news/think-broadcom-nasdaq-avgo-manage-110020444.html

"BCOM pay down debt fast, look at their financials, we have 8B of debt they aim to clear within 3 years"

Broadcom is also paying 61 billion to acquire VMW. So this is a 69B total cost for them. They are taking out 28B of new debt for this acquisition, plus inheriting the 8B from VMW that you mention. PLUS they are using cash/stock to pay for the rest. This is a massive amount in this type of economic environment, especially if their stock begins to correct a bit.

BCOM pay down debt fast, look at their financials, we have 8B of debt they aim to clear within 3 years

Remember that debt is why VMware is in this bad situation. When interest rates started to rise, Michael Dell could no longer afford his $60 billion boondoggle purchase of us and EMC. If it were not for the rising interest rates, Dell would not sell. Hock is taking on his biggest gamble yet and may lose it all. One thing is absolute: there will be no fluff or extra anything around VMware, especially employees.

Can’t see this working out positivity for UK people who will be kept on by Broadcom. Tax in RSUs means that they are not really that worthwhile. US citizens tend for get a lot more RSUs as part of their comp whereas UK and EU staff make most of their gains in base salary, bonuses and commissions. I’m no economist but I suspect that AVGO won’t be skyrocketing any time soon, western economies are tightening up and seem to be heading for recession. I expect that Broadcom will be hit by slow earnings and revenue growth which will translate to small or non-existent bonuses. The AVGO stock price will be flat and many more rounds of redundancies will come in the next 2 years. For me, I think the chances of getting equal or better compensation at Broadcom for what might be a greater amount of work is close to zero. I’m looking elsewhere.

Prosperity is far from certain. Interest rates are rising with no end in sight. Hock is borrowing a lot in these terrible economic times. He will certainly want to raise prices but may find a market of customers failing as economies crash around the world. And if VMware turns out to be more like Novell ... well let's hope for all the gravy train doesn't come to a sudden end.

As long as the stock grows exponentially, I agree with all this. If it doesn’t, or worse it contracts…the situation gets ugly.

Even when I first joined Broadcom from the CA Tech acquisition when the stock was $250 or so the RSU and bonus structure were MUCH nicer than my salary-only CA Tech based compensation.

Now after four+ years the stock has skyrocketed and my title has increased one notch and the pay is even crazier (for what I do anyway).

Bottom line;

If you have a chance to hang with Broadcom for even 4-6 years you’d be wise to snag the job even if it means doing the office thing.

You can always go back to a wfh job later.

Pink Floyd said it best

“And did we tell you the name of the game, boy?”

“We call it riding the gravy train”

the stock rsu's seem crazy... do they differ by grading. What does a basic engineer receive vs senior?

People not willing to join Broadcom always have choice to switch job or not to accept BC offer(if given). You have to accept that old vmware will be history soon.

For those skeptical about the RSUs and their worth, consider this: the 5 year stock growth rate of VMW is 13% while AVGO is 262%. I had the same fears as you all do when my company was being acquired by BroadCom. But as it turns out, it has not been close to what I was thinking it was going to be. In fact, I really enjoy what I’m working on and who I’m working with. And I’m seeing better business decisions being made than were made pre-BroadCom. I know that not everyone’s situation will turn out the same way as mine has, but you might be surprised. There is hope. Good luck to all no matter the outcome.

"Broadcom is the corporate embodiment of a financial equation. That’s it. There’s nothing else there."

Exactly why Broadcom Software has a Private Equity business model. The future of the products really don't matter in the profitability equation. There are lots of lazy large enterprise CIOs who will stay with legacy VMW solutions, even after annual license price increases. Hock's prediction of huge investments in VMW is a smoke screen for what come next. People who believe that he will abandon his proven playbook are naive.

Even less here in Ireland. I can't see myself hanging around if RSUs are supposed to be the big reason to stay.

The RSUs sound great in the US but they won’t be all that attractive in countries like the UK. Based on what has been said on here, I calculated a 90% grant in the first year based on my salary and then divided it over 4 quarters over 4 years and after my effective tax rate on RSUs of 55% it comes to about £3300 a quarter. This doesn’t come close to my current commission. Even when year 2 grants kick in this doesn’t sound great to me. Maybe this works better for US folks?

Appreciate Op and Broadcom people to share insights of BC. Pls ignore negative comments. I am vmware employee and we have very negative perception of Broadcom. Thanks again for your information.

@1ffb+1oWMM9ao
Was just sharing because I was in your situation before and I wished I had known this info.

Posting here for folks who are interested. Take it or leave it. There will be enough folks who will accept.

@1rjl+1oWMM9ao said it correct - there is no culture as in neutral other than just doing your job that you signed up for and getting paid significantly more than you get now.

Broadcom does not have a toxic company culture.

Broadcom simply has NO culture.

It’s not toxic and it’s not good. It’s just neutral.

What keep Broadcom’s acquired entities (franchises) together and functioning is the compensation plan it has for its employees.

That’s it

That’s the whole story in a nutshell.

Broadcom executive management has no presence.

Hock Tan is not particularly engaging or charismatic.

Broadcom is the corporate embodiment of a financial equation.

That’s it.

There’s nothing else there.

Agreed, Broadcom employees are now posting propaganda here. Don't believe their lies. The company culture is toxic and every day you will be expected to sell your soul.

Broadcom HR doing heavy work here, keep it up.

This is actually a high bar to cross over. FYI, CA and Symantec were notoriously bad environments -- their motto should be: "This is a place where good ideas go to die."

So now VMW will join them, as yet another place were employees worship the stock price. No thank you, I'd rather cash out and move on to a place where Hock isn't the CEO.

Are these RSU numbers specifically applicable for R&D or all ICs in Broadcom? Ex - non engineering functions, Sales, support etc.

We'll see what's left when Hock gets done winding things down! Good luck all.

“To confirm, you get RSUs every year to the value of 90% of your salary? and they vest in how long?“

Yes, grants are given out in March*, with first vesting in June, and each quarter after that. Grants vest over a 4 year period, so year 2, you have two grants vesting each quarter, then 3 the next year, until you get to 4 each quarter, each year. After 4 years you are most likely making more in stock than salary.

They clearly don’t explain it well since this seems to be news. But yes, I would venture that compensation isn’t even close to what VMware did. The salary isn’t what is exceptional, it’s the RSUs.

*Vmware will get their first year grants in December 2023, with first vesting in March 2024. Sometimes Broadcom does multi year grants so you lock in the lower stock price. This is what they did for employees this past year.

Everyday when I enter the Broadcom building, I thank God for the opportunity to be here. 500k 2023 TC at current AI bo-m inflated stock levels. Mid level software engineer in the same team. Product is stable and actually doing above average. Joined AVGO at exact same Symantec salary in 2019 acquisition.

I’m a Broadcom remote employee, we exist. No one is trying to force me to move to where an office is, or go into the office nearby that doesn’t have any employees from my division. The return to office will be a thing where there is already an existing office nearby, and/or they still have too many heads and decide it’s an easy way to cut people. But we certainly exist. There will end up being a few main VMware locations and that’s it. If you are near San Jose I would prepare to go in, other places that remain will have to align to what products they end up keeping/investing in.

@1xnk+1oWMM9ao
@1hbq+1oWMM9ao

From classic Broadcom here. Hock knows exactly what to do and it’s simple. You guys are making it complicated. Eliminate low margin BUs by either winding down or preferably sell to other companies and keep high profit margin BUs. Cut the rest of employee count by 50-60%. Not his first rodeo.

@1kno+1oWMM9ao, I can so relate to that! Have to do 10 more years with currently all three kids in college. I want to earn enough for them to be able to get a great education and maybe pamper them a bit financially:-). But I missed so many moments with them when they were younger, climbing up that ladder and working my a.. off.:-(
Looking forward to less visibility and bigger pay!

VMware is much bigger than both Symantec and CA. It has far more major product lines and far more issues. It is also much more expensive. Hock is making quite a gamble. He bought VMware before he saw the cards. And he has never tried something this scale with software before. We will see how the hands play out. But in this economy all of Broadcom is at risk if it turns out he got too much of a vLemon. Good luck all.

WRT to remote workers and AVGO, I have always been a remote worker at VMW (long before the COVID days awakened the masses to the reality that WFH is awesome). I don't live anywhere near an office, nor do my teammates for the most part.

I can understand the masses of workers in the PA area being forced to come back (I don't agree but I understand). But how will this apply to the "legacy" remote workers like me and my team? Even if we reported to the nearest office, that doesn't really help anyone in terms of the much lauded and over-hyped face-to-face interaction.

Anyway, I agree with @1kno+1oWMM9ao that as a late career person, AVGO sounds perfect otherwise.

I used to be obsessed with climbing the corp ladder. I was obsessed with leaving a legacy in the software world, with having my name on something important that made a difference.

Now that I'm planning retirement (10 years away but still better to have a plan than not!), I've come to realize that my legacy is my family. And all I care about is leaving a legacy for my son so that he's taken care of and can have the support he needs to be successful in school and in life (he's 22).

I don't care what my title is, as long as I have the financial means to make my family's dreams a reality. If that means working hard, I'm up for the challenge. I've busted my butt to be where I am and if that butt-busting continues for the next 10 years, I'll go into retirement (maybe even early if the cards play out right) proud of myself for what I contributed.

"RSU grant is equivalent to about 90% of your salary"...

To confirm, you get RSUs every year to the value of 90% of your salary? and they vest in how long?

"VMware is a far bigger and far more dysfunctional acquisition than CA or Symantec."

This is actually a high bar to cross over. FYI, CA and Symantec were notoriously bad environments -- their motto should be: "This is a place where good ideas go to die."

VMware is a far bigger and far more dystunctional acquisition than CA or Symantec. Broadcom is going to discover lots of unfortunate things about products and market projections. Will VMware be the feast that ends up ki-ling the Broadcom beast? Time will tell. But everyone prospering is far from certain, in this economy especially.

“You would have to be crazy not to accept a stay offer just because you don’t want to work from an office.”

The nearest office is 150 miles, no thank you

“All these people from CA and Symantec posting about the huge sums of money seem to be really underestimating what VMware already pays us. I'm glad you all got a nice bump, for VMware people, we're not getting a bump we're just losing a bunch of stuff.”

VMware’s pay is good but it’s not above industry standard. Certainly not even close to the top paying companies.

Also for the naysayers and people worried about being ground up at BC, if you get an offer and don’t have something else lined up a) no one is forcing you to take it, but b) more importantly, you are in control of your own time, and you should never forget that. No one can make you work 80 hour weeks if you choose not to. You have to set your own boundaries as an adult, and if someone steps all over those boundaries, then you can look for another job at that time…