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VMware Completes $2.1 Billion Acquisition of Carbon Black

VMware closed its all-cash Carbon Black acquisition on October 8, 2019, offering $26 per share and citing a $2.1 billion enterprise value. Here is how the deal worked and what VMware said it aimed to build.
From TheFinanceBase Team3 min to read
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VMware completed its all-cash acquisition of Carbon Black on October 8, 2019. The deal offered Carbon Black shareholders $26 in cash per share and was described by VMware as representing an enterprise value of $2.1 billion. Those figures measure different things: the first is the consideration for each share, while the second is the transaction’s stated enterprise value.

When did VMware complete the Carbon Black acquisition?

VMware announced the transaction’s completion on October 8, 2019. The tender offer expired on October 7, according to VMware’s filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The filing says that 64,173,721 shares—approximately 85.1% of Carbon Black’s outstanding shares—were validly tendered and not withdrawn. The merger was consummated on October 8.

How much did VMware pay?

Measure Amount What it means
Per-share consideration $26 in cash The amount payable for each Carbon Black share, subject to applicable withholding
Enterprise value $2.1 billion VMware’s stated value for the transaction; it is not the same as $26 multiplied by a particular share count

Shares that were not tendered before the offer expired were converted in the merger into the right to receive $26 in cash per share, subject to applicable withholding. VMware’s October 8, 2019 completion announcement is the source for both the $26 consideration and the stated $2.1 billion enterprise value.

How the transaction was structured

  1. VMware made a cash tender offer for Carbon Black shares.
  2. The offer expired on October 7, 2019, with approximately 85.1% of outstanding shares validly tendered and not withdrawn, according to the SEC filing.
  3. VMware completed the follow-on merger on October 8, 2019.
  4. Untendered shares received the same $26-per-share cash right in the merger, subject to applicable withholding.

Why did VMware acquire Carbon Black?

VMware said Carbon Black would become the nucleus of a new VMware Security Business Unit. Its stated strategy was to combine Carbon Black with products such as NSX and Workspace ONE and extend what it called intrinsic security across endpoints, workloads, networks, identity, cloud and analytics.

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VMware’s rationale was strategic positioning, not a published proof of security performance or financial synergies. In the completion announcement, Sanjay Poonen, then VMware’s chief operating officer for Customer Operations, described Carbon Black this way:

“Carbon Black brings us an industry-leading endpoint and workload security platform, with a cloud-native architecture, an AI-powered data lake and a smart, lightweight agent.”

VMware’s fiscal 2023 proxy materials later referred to the Carbon Black endpoint-security platform among security solutions launched after the acquisition. That documents VMware’s subsequent product context, but it does not independently establish effectiveness, adoption or realized synergies.

What happened after Broadcom acquired VMware?

Broadcom announced that it completed its acquisition of VMware on November 22, 2023. Five days later, on November 27, Carbon Black’s Jason Rolleston wrote that “Carbon Black is now an autonomous business unit within Broadcom.” That is a dated 2023 description and should not be treated as confirmation of Carbon Black’s product lineup, ownership details or support arrangements in 2026.

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What the available record does—and does not—show

  • The close date, cash consideration, stated enterprise value and tender participation are documented transaction facts.
  • VMware’s security-business plans are company statements about intended strategy, not independent evidence of outcomes.
  • The available record does not establish Carbon Black’s current 2026 products, availability, customer-support terms or present operating structure.
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The Bottom Line

VMware closed its Carbon Black acquisition on October 8, 2019, paying $26 cash per share and describing the transaction as having a $2.1 billion enterprise value. VMware positioned Carbon Black as the foundation of a broader security business; after Broadcom’s 2023 VMware acquisition, Carbon Black described itself as an autonomous Broadcom business unit, but that statement does not establish its 2026 status.

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