VMware Gains After Report That Amazon Deal Could Expand To Data-center Software

VMware Inc. stock gained Monday morning after a report said that the software company is in talks with Amazon.com Inc.'s cloud business to expand their partnership into software for corporate data centers. The Information reported Monday, based on an anonymous source, that VMware and Amazon Web Services are discussing developing software for corporate data centers that would allow companies better access to public-cloud resources like AWS while keeping some information on their own servers. The hybrid-cloud software approach would be a first for Amazon on such a large scale, and could allow VMware, an important software component for many data centers, to address a larger market of companies that want a hybrid-cloud approach. The two rivals are already working on a partnership that would allow AWS customers to access the VMware public cloud. Neither company confirmed the talks with The Information, though VMware cloud exec Mark Lohmeyer said, "there will definitely be opportunities to create more integration points between VMware and AWS over time." VMware jumped after the report landed about a half-hour into Monday's trading session, and was up about 2.5% in midday trading; Amazon had gained about 0.9% as the S&P 500 and other broad indexes tracked gains of about 0.1%.