The President of EMC's Cloud Computing Division, Paul Maritz, has been made President & CEO of VMware, immediately replacing co-founder and virtualization pioneer Diane Greene. Here Virtualization Journal brings a round up of the early reactions from the virtualization blogosphere.

"Is the party [over] for VMware and the virtualization market? Yes and no. In a surprise move, former Microsoft executive Paul Maritz has been named president and CEO of VMware, replacing ousted co-founder Diane Greene. One possible reason, notes Barron’s: VMware’s revenue growth for 2008 won’t quite meet the 50 percent target that Wall Street was expecting. Plenty of companies would welcome such growth problems, but VMware shares are down more than 20 percent on the news."

The VAR Guy


"Although VMWare issued a nice statement praising Greene for her contributions, the company made it clear that the decision for Greene to leave was made by the board.

"VMware's Board of Directors announced today that it has made a change in the leadership of the company with the departure of Diane Greene as president and CEO," the company said.

The move comes as VMware faces stepped-up competition in the virtualization field it has dominated, including from Maritz's former employer, Microsoft."

Ina Fried 


"Wow… this came as a total and complete surprise. VMWare announced that Diane Greene, President and CEO, of the hot virtualization company is leaving and will be replaced by Paul Maritz, whose company, Pi Corporation was acquired by EMC Corp in February 2008. I am flummoxed by this move since VMWare has been on an upswing and despite increased competition, has been pretty bullish about the future."
 
Om Malik


"Predictably, VMware’s stock is being hammered on Tuesday, down $13, or 25%, to $40 an hour after the announcement. As relevant is the decline in EMC, VMware’s majority owner, whose shares are down about 9%, or below $14, a new 52-week low. (Maritz recently has been an executive at EMC, which bought a company he started.)"

Adam Lashinsky


"Her departure comes as VMware, the de facto leader in virtualization technology, faces a new challenge from Microsoft, which last week released Hyper-v, a free virtualization solution the vendor is distributing with several editions of its Windows 2008 Server. Microsoft, which is holding its annual partner conference in Houston this week, is pushing to make Hyper-v the standard in the enterprise."

Pedro Pereira


"Since going public, VMware has had a lumpy quarter, but for the most part has been a relative technology darling as the march to virtualize technology infrastructure continues. It’s unclear why Greene is departing another quarter of weaker than expected revenue growth couldn’t please VMware’s parent EMC. Joe Tucci, chairman of VMware and EMC, said that Maritz’s has the track record “to lead VMware to its next stage of growth and development.” The subtext: Greene couldn’t get VMware there."

Larry Dignan


"VMware's board is turning to a former Microsoft executive to lead the company. Maritz managed the development and marketing of the successful Windows 95 and NT operating systems and database software. He left the company in 2000, founding Pi Corp., which EMC acquired in February 2008. Maritz became president of the EMC's cloud-computing division."

Ivy Lessner


"In early trading, VMware's stock fell $15.78 - nearly 30 percent - to $37.41."

Steve Johnson


"The key thing for me is, what will the new EMC-VMware relationship look like? Is VMware being brought closer to the fold, with more  oversight and control by VMware? If so, how will this impact VMware's relationships with companies like IBM, NetApp, and HP, who are direct competitors with EMC? Will we see VMware catering to EMC? If so, this could signal a serious sea change within the virtualization industry."

Scott Lowe

VMware's Dr Stephen Herrod keynoting last month's 3rd International Virtualization Conference & Expo in NYC.