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Rosenblum Leaves VMware

Mendel Rosenblum, the co-founder of VMware, has resigned his post as Chief Scientist and left the company.

Mendel Rosenblum, the co-founder of VMware, has resigned his post as Chief Scientist and left the company.

The departure of Rosenblum is not a surprise, coming just two months after the board fired his wife and co-founder Diane Greene as CEO. Rosenblum's exit comes at an awkward time, becoming public just ahead of next week's VMworld trade show in Las Vegas, where a record crowd of 14,000 attendees is expected. Rosenblum's resignation was reported in a New York Times story about the ongoing fallout from Greene's firing, which also noted that VMware recently lost another key executive, Executve Vice President of R&D Richard Sarwal.

The Times story also includes an account of Greene's July 7 firing:

After Ms. Greene made a special presentation to VMware’s board, (Joseph) Tucci, who heads VMware’s parent company, EMC, pulled her aside, according to people familiar with the events, who asked for anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss internal company decisions. Inviting Mendel Rosenblum, Ms. Greene’s husband and the co-founder of VMware, into the room, Mr. Tucci told Ms. Greene she was fired, effective immediately. And he said the board wanted Mr. Rosenblum, VMware’s chief scientist, to take her seat on the board. Mr. Rosenblum declined the offer.

Here's a quiz for married guys: If someone fires your wife and then immediately turns and offers you her position, what do you do? How did Tucci expect Rosenblum to respond?

His final answer came last night. It will be interesting to see whether Rosenblum's departure is already built into VMware's stock price.

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