Tom Krause exits Broadcom, to be new Citrix CEO

Broadcom Inc. is losing a senior executive who helped negotiate its planned $61 billion acquisition of VMware Inc.

The San Jose chip giant said in a regulatory filing on Monday that Tom Krause, 44, is leaving as president of its software unit effective on Friday.

Krause was announced on Monday afternoon as the new CEO of Citrix Systems Inc., which is being merged with Palo Alto-based Tibco Software Inc. in a $16.5 billion private equity deal. That merger was approved by shareholders in April but is awaiting regulatory approval.

CEO Hock Tan is assuming Krause’s responsibilities and the job of software group president is being eliminated, the company said. The company also said that Chief Operating Officer Charlie Kawwas has added being president of Broadcom’s new semiconductor solutions group to his current responsibilities.

Krause was vice president of corporate development at San Jose-based Avago Ltd in 2016 when it acquired Irvine-based Broadcom for $37 million and assumed its name. He became chief financial officer of the combined companies later that year. He has been software group president since December 2020.

A key goal of Broadcom’s acquisition of VMware is to make the company less reliant on semiconductor revenue. It started down that road with its 2018 acquisition of CA Technologies for $18.7 million and its 2019 purchase of Symantec Corp. for $10.7 billion.

Broadcom plans to rebrand all of its software business as VMware after the deal is completed in its fiscal year that began this month. The deal cleared a “go-shop” period last week in which no better bids for VMware emerged. Silicon Valley Business Journal