By Timothy Prickett Morgan
Publication Date: 2026-03-05 18:33:00
Here’s
a funny thought. If Broadcom had not bought legacy software maker Computer Associates
in November 2018 for $18.9 billion, it would have had a harder time buying
server virtualization juggernaut VMware for $69 billion in November 2023.
And without the enormous profits it gets from both of these legacy software
providers, it would have been hard pressed to have the patience to build a
custom AI XPU business that will soon dominate its vast chip business.
The
fact that chief executive officer Hock Tan, who was running Avago Technologies
when he took a shining to chip maker Broadcom, came up with the
$37 billion it took to do the Broadcom deal in May 2015 in the first place
to even do that monster deal has made the modern Broadcom as we know it today even
possible.
This
has been no mean feat.
Building
conglomerates rarely works out the way Wall Street or the top brass at a company
hopes. Sure, the bankers do fine collecting their fees for putting things
together…
