Some of the most prized aspects of VMware's culture probably won't survive the Broadcom acquisition.
Broadcom closed its $69 billion acquisition of VMware on November 22. On Tuesday, Broadcom CEO Hock Tan addressed questions from VMware employees in an all-hands meeting. Some employees asked about company-culture perks such as employee-resource groups and companywide parties — both of which Tan said Broadcom didn't do, according to a recording of the meeting reviewed by Business Insider.
One employee asked Tan whether Broadcom supported ERGs, which are work groups that aim to build community among underrepresented groups at the company and can be focused on race, gender, sexual orientation, or other aspects of identity. At VMware, ERGs were known as "pods."
"One experience that I know I had and a lot of other people had from VMware was pods, which are employee-resource groups," the employee asked. "I'm curious what kind of support Broadcom has for programs like that."
Tan laughed and replied, "What is that? I'm just kidding. You want me to be direct? That's an alien concept to me."
Tan said Broadcom didn't have those groups but added that it didn't mean the company shouldn't and that it could learn from them.
Another employee asked Tan what Broadcom celebrated.
"You got a good point," Tan replied. "We don't do Bollywood dances."
Tan added that Broadcom used to have a Christmas party but no longer did. He said Broadcom didn't do celebrations on a companywide basis, but each division could choose to have celebratory or team-building events if they wanted to.
"I was Santa, but that didn't get done very well, so we killed it," Tan said. "No, we don't have, like, annual dinners or stuff like that. We don't. But having said that, each of the product divisions have full liberty to go do their thing. We let them do it."
Tan also said at the meeting he expected employees living within 50 miles of an office to return to the office — a shift from VMware's remote-friendly culture. Another email sent Thursday said employees should return to the office by December 4, BI first reported.
Since the acquisition was first announced in May 2022, VMware employees told BI that they were concerned about the future of VMware, as they expected deep job cuts, certain units to get divested, and a completely different work culture at Broadcom.
Broadcom laid off VMware employees on Monday. Before the acquisition closed, VMware employees received an email saying they would either get an offer from Broadcom, a transitional role, or severance, BI first reported. VMware had also started cutting jobs before the acquisition closed.
Broadcom did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
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