Employees at the company Dell is about to acquire are venting about mass layoffs
VMWare is owned by EMC, which is the company Dell is trying to acquire for around $67 billion (£47 billion). The layoffs, which will reportedly affect around 5% of the work force or 900 people, are thought to be part of cost-cutting measures ahead of the Dell deal.
According to Fortune, the layoffs are coming from various departments situated around the world. WMWare has competed with Amazon and Microsoft for some time and has chosen to out-source some of its development to other countries, creating layoffs.
TheLayoff.com is an anonymous resource for employees to vent about the changes going on at a company. The VMWare section has suddenly become active over the past 24 hours with around 40 posts, each with thousands of views.
Many of the posts are looking for clarification on what, exactly, was going on at VMWare.
"We all know that there is a layoff going on right now," wrote one anonymous user. "My question is: Is this the only round of layoff in 2016?"
"I think they are looking at performance as the key factor in deciding on who to let go," wrote another user. "My husband works [in one of the affected units] and I am not with the company."
"Just got whacked," wrote one user who had worked at VMWare for over eight years. "I knew I would be the one sacrificed so the blood letting is starting."
Other users tried to reassure employees that the layoffs were over. "Guys be free today," one wrote. "Nothing [is] gonna happen today."
"I've been at VMWare 10 years, and the idea that 'top performers need not worry' is nonsense," wrote another user. "Plenty of time talented folks were let go in favor of keeping brown nosers." The comments agreed.
Business Insider has reached out to WMWare to ask about the scope of the layoffs.
According to a report from Reuters, the deal - which would be the biggest technology acquisition ever - is set to get its seal of approval (or disapproval) from the European Union on February 29.
Dell is taking on a massive amount of debt - around $50 billion (£35 billion) - to finance the deal, which would create one of the biggest networked storage providers in the world.