VMware IPO Debut Dazzles

In addition to promoting virtualization as a means to server consolidation, "there are a number of areas where our products are applicable," said Karthik Rau, vice president of product development. VMware also markets virtualization products for disaster recovery. "Other customers also use our platform to do desktop management," Rau said.

Demand for shares in the Palo Alto, Calif., developer of virtualization software was oversubscribed on Monday by as much as 25 times the number of shares available, according to MorningNotes.

"They are the largest technology IPO to come public since Google(GOOG Quote)," said Scott Sweet, managing director at IPO Boutique. Before adding the overallotment of shares to the deal's 12 underwriters, the listing amounts to $957 million, he added.

VMware's revenue jumped 92% year over year during the two most recent quarters, to $554.1 million, and is on track to break $1 billion for the fiscal year.

Intel(INTC Quote) and Cisco(CSCO Quote) recently took equity stakes in VMware.

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Virtualization enables corporate IT departments to put multiple operating systems and applications on individual servers, and even on desktops, to easily shift computing workloads for better equipment utilization and energy efficiency.

With virtualization, VMware estimates server utilization rates, which are usually as low as 10%, can be boosted to 80%. "That's a highly leverageable value proposition," EMC CFO David Goulden said at an analyst conference in May. "You can pay for virtualization software just through consolidated savings alone."