SEC Charges VMware with Misleading Investors by Obscuring Financial Performance

The Securities and Exchange Commission today charged VMware Inc. for misleading investors about its order backlog management practices, which enabled the Palo Alto, California-based technology company to push revenue into future quarters by delaying product deliveries to customers, concealing the company’s slowing performance relative to its projections. The SEC’s order finds that, beginning in fiscal year 2019, VMware began delaying the delivery of license keys on some sales orders until just after quarter-end so that it could recognize revenue from the corresponding license sales in the following quarter. According to the SEC’s order, VMware shifted tens of millions of dollars in revenue into future quarters, building a buffer in those periods and obscuring the company’s financial performance as its business slowed relative to projections in fiscal year 2020.