VMware, Inc. (VMW): These Are Pivotal Times for EMC Corporation (EMC)

This means that, despite a soft-spending environment, when it’s all said and done, customers are still willing to shell out the big bucks for EMC’s superior equipment. So, if there ever were concerns about pricing or margin pressure, they have not been seen. I do wonder, though, how well Pivotal, which will have a “horizontal” structure, can help EMC Corporation (NYSE:EMC) fend off the likes of Oracle Corporation (NASDAQ:ORCL) and IBM, which have “vertical” structures.

I was then reminded of a statement made by Joe Tucci, EMC’s CEO, who is one of the most underrated leaders in the market today. During the company’s fourth-quarter earnings announcement, Tucci said:

EMC remains squarely at the center of the most disruptive and opportunity-rich shift in IT history, propelled by the benefits of cloud computing, Big Data and trusted IT. These high-priority IT spending areas are core to our strategic focus and represent market segments where EMC has established leadership positions and competitive advantage.

These are certainly strong statements. And although Pivotal deserves the optimism shown so far, it’s not yet clear how this eliminates previous concerns over the competition. EMC will still need to prove that it can withstand threats from products such as Oracle’s Exadata and IBM’s SmartCloud. And, considering how fast things are moving, NetApp should take cue and begin to shop itself to either Oracle or IBM. While these are certainly pivotal times for EMC Corporation (NYSE:EMC), it just might have become crucial for one of its chief rivals.

The article These Are Pivotal Times for EMC originally appeared on Fool.com and is written by Richard Saintvilus.

Fool contributor Richard Saintvilus has no position in any stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool recommends VMware. The Motley Fool owns shares of EMC, International Business Machines., Oracle., and VMware.

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