VMware is almost entirely reliant on legacy products which are losing their niche fast. Competitors are catching up and VMware needs somewhere to go to differentiate. They have bought several promising technologies (Zimbra, Socialcast, SlideRocket, Horizon App Manager, Horizon Mobile) but they are not investing enough to keep them abreast of the competition. Management is entirely, 100% focused on revenue and becoming a $4B company - and the cuts show. Raises are next to nonexistent (even for internal promotions, which are rare.) Employees who used to have their cell phones taken care of by the company now have to "Bring Your Own Mobile" (this was billed as a great benefit to employees, but in reality we now have to purchase our own phones and pay for our own plans, with an entirely-to-small cap on what we can expense for monthly costs.) Rumor is they will be doing the same with laptops in the future, without giving employees any money towards purchasing their own computer. Within the next year, they play to eliminate vacation and sick leave (rather than earning leave, you will just "work it out with your manager" - I can only imagine this will cut back on the amount of vacation you can take.)
Upper management has a decent vision but it is crippled by the all-encompassing focus on revenue. The company has a whole slew of useless VPs (many brought in and given lofty titles due to acquisitions.) Middle management is largely incompetent yes-men who are focused on managing upwards - a lot of them have been with the company for a long time or were part of acquisitions, so they are just "resting and vesting." Until a lot of them are sidelined or fired, I don't foresee much improvement. The market has started to realize that the company is all glitter but no gold, and the stock price is being adjusted to reflect this.
