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VMware Has Hottest New Software

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The Associated Press

Published: September 12, 2007

SAN FRANCISCO - Fresh off this year's hottest debut on Wall Street, trendsetting software maker VMware Inc. is hosting nearly 11,000 people clamoring to learn more about a computing twist that is turning into high-tech's next big jackpot.

VMware's three-day conference, which began Tuesday in San Francisco, provides the once-obscure company with an opportunity to build on the buzz created by its lucrative initial public offering of stock less than a month ago.

VMware's software steers a process known as 'virtualization,' which allows computers to harness more of their unused power and run more applications at once without a hiccup. More than 20,000 companies use VMware's software.

Investors are flocking to VMware, too. The Palo Alto-based company's initial public offering raised $1.1 billion.

VMware's shares have nearly tripled from their initial price of $29. The stock hit a new high of $82.75 Tuesday before finishing the regular trading session at $76.65.

The central idea of VMware's visualization software is to turn a single computer into the equivalent of multiple machines, enabling companies to save money on the hardware and electricity needed to keep their data centers humming. Virtualization also is supposed to make it easier to recover after computers crash.

Those benefits are expected to spur one of corporate America's biggest spending sprees on technology since the dot-com boom ended in 2000.

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