In one of the largest acquisitions in computing history, Dell acquired storage behemoth EMC, finalizing the deal last month. No one is sure yet what this bodes for the future of Dell, EMC, or EMC’s crowning jewel, virtualization infrastructure provider VMware. Rumors swirl about what Dell will do with VMware — now that they have the goose that lays the golden eggs, will they feast and fatten themselves, or sell the goose off to the highest bidder?

The underpinnings of this speculation revolve around Dell’s considerable debt. Some industry analysts wonder if Dell may need to sell off VMware to get in the black again, even though Michael Dell recently stated that would not happen. During the kickoff to Dell EMC World in Austin, TX, Stu Miniman (@stu) and Dave Vellante (@dvellante), cohosts of theCUBE, from the SiliconANGLE Media team, discussed these questions, and more.

According to Miniman, in his conversations with Michael Dell, CEO of Dell Technologies Inc., Dell has been adamant that there are no such plans to sell off VMware.

Vellante told Miniman he is not surprised. “I never felt like that was necessary. I thought that would have been a strategic mistake. VMware is such a crown jewel and a pivot point within the enterprise,” he said, adding, “The growth obviously is not going to be the same as it was the last 10 years, but I never felt as though it would make any sense.”

AWS plot twist

“EMC and Dell are obviously working through their alignment, their portfolio, their so-called swim lanes,” Vellante went on. He brought up a new plot twist that promises to make things more interesting for the market. “Last week, the big news between VMware and AWS … where VMware and AWS are partnering to become each other’s preferred provider of hybrid cloud.”

Miniman said that Microsoft in the mix could mean heavy cloud clout for this collaboration.

“In the cloud space, it’s Dell plus Microsoft — big partnership, now VMware plus Amazon partnership announced. It seems pretty important. How do those two go forward? What does that mean for this whole Dell Technologies?” he asked.

Watch the complete video interview below, and be sure to check out more of SiliconANGLE and theCUBE’s coverage of Dell EMC World.

Photo by SiliconANGLE