Sadly, VMware is no Google

With shares of virtualization software maker VMware (VMW) in free-fall, it’s worth noting that for all the comparisons that have been made between the EMC-controlled (EMC) company and Google (GOOG), VMware’s stock has now done something Google’s never did: It trades well below it’s opening price in 2007. As I noted when VMware went public not quite a year ago, the shares were offered at $29 but opened at $52. At one point VMware’s shares soared above $125.

Thursday they were down about 5% at $35 shortly before the close.

VMware and Google are in completely different businesses, but the comparisons were and are still relevant. When I spoke to executives there for the feature I wrote about ex-CEO Diane Greene last fall, more than one noted to me that VMware was competing – and winning – against Google in the battle for engineering talent. Both companies have beaten Microsoft (MSFT), by the way, in their respective markets. Wall Street currently seems to think Google will continue to do a better job fending off Mr. Softee than a Greene-less VMware will.

On the subject of Greene’s departure, I blogged the news on July 8. But frankly it wasn’t until I read this post that I remembered that I’d noted last year that Greene only had a one-year contract that ended in July.