VMware CEO tight-lipped on Dell rumours as hybrid cloud strategy drives up revenue

Vendor will bring its 'VMware Cloud on AWS' solution to Europe next week

VMware has remained tight-lipped on rumours it could acquire Dell, after posting strong Q4 numbers.

For the three months ending 2 February VMware saw revenue jump 14 per cent year on year to $2.31bn (£1.68bn). GAAP losses were $440m (compared with a GAAP profit of $441m in 2016) as a result of a one-off $970m tax bill.

Speaking on an earnings call, transcribed by Seeking Alpha, VMware CEO Pat Gelsinger said he would not comment on rumours that VMware could acquire Dell in a reverse merger, after Dell confirmed in February that it was exploring various options.

Gelsinger (pictured) attributed VMware's financials to the response it has seen from customers towards its cloud strategy.

Hybrid cloud and software-as-a-service accounted for eight per cent of VMware's total revenue.

"We are very pleased with customer enthusiasm for our cloud strategy," he said. "We believe we have the world's most complete and capable hybrid cloud architecture, uniquely offering customers freedom and control in their infrastructure decisions.

"We are also pleased with the traction the VMware Cloud Provider Programme continues to gain. The VMware Cloud Provider Programme achieved an annual revenue growth rate of over 30 per cent in fiscal year 2018.

"We are also experiencing great global customer momentum with our VMware Cloud for IBM with customers such as Amdocs, Ricoh and Vodafone."

Gelsinger also highlighted the future importance of VMware's partnership with Amazon Web Services (AWS), which recently launched in the US. The CEO said the service is set to launch in Europe next week.

"The VMware Cloud on AWS continues to get great resonance from our customers, and customers really see this idea of the best of public and the best of private coming together as a very powerful force," he said.

"In many cases it's this unique way for them to accelerate their move to the cloud without disrupting their applications - being able to do this in a seamless hybrid way to move into the public and back to the private cloud.

"From the business, as we said, it's not material this year, and it's starting to build up. We also see that, given it's a subscription business, that will also delay the direct fiscal impact."