• Home
  • Latest
  • Fortune 500
  • Finance
  • Tech
  • Leadership
  • Lifestyle
  • Rankings
  • Multimedia

Trendingnow

1

Mark Cuban says he has the solution to growing income inequality, and it's to reward every employee—from CEO to janitor—with company stock

2

‘I want to die broke’: Billionaire philanthropist Denny Sanford dies after giving away $4 billion

3

'Dr. Doom' Nouriel Roubini says we're headed for universal basic income or 'some form of socialism' as AI revolutionizes work—He calls that optimistic

1

Mark Cuban says he has the solution to growing income inequality, and it's to reward every employee—from CEO to janitor—with company stock

2

‘I want to die broke’: Billionaire philanthropist Denny Sanford dies after giving away $4 billion

3

'Dr. Doom' Nouriel Roubini says we're headed for universal basic income or 'some form of socialism' as AI revolutionizes work—He calls that optimistic
TechFortune 500

What’s next for Pivotal?

Barb Darrow
By
Barb Darrow
Barb Darrow
Down Arrow Button Icon
Barb Darrow
By
Barb Darrow
Barb Darrow
Down Arrow Button Icon
August 21, 2015, 9:50 AM ET
Paul Maritz, chief strategy executive of EMC, speaks during the Reuters Global Technology Summit in San Francisco
Paul Maritz, chief strategy executive of EMC, speaks during the Reuters Global Technology Summit in San Francisco June 19, 2013. REUTERS/Stephen Lam (UNITED STATES - Tags: BUSINESS SCIENCE TECHNOLOGY) - RTX10U5O© Stephen Lam / Reuters REUTERS
Add Fortune on Google for similar content.

Now that Pivotal has a new CEO in Robert Mee, with his predecessor Paul Maritz staying on as vice-chairman, the company could still be headed for an initial public offering.

Or not.

When it announced the management changes earlier this week, Pivotal also said that Cloud Foundry, a software development platform for building next-generation cloud applications, is now generating $100 million in annual revenue. Two sources close to the company said its other two core businesses, the Pivotal Labs development shop that builds custom applications for customers and the Big Data Suite, also each log about $100 million in revenue, if not profit. In a February talk, Scott Yara, the Pivotal president and head of products (and co-founder of Greenplum which is now part of Pivotal) said Pivotal had surpassed $100 million in data product sales.

A Pivotal spokesman would not comment on revenue of the other businesses and there is no way to verify that $300 million number, but if it is even close, Pivotal has way more revenue than many other IPO-bound companies. Hadoop star Hortonworks(HDP), for example, was short of its own $100 million revenue goal when it filed for its IPO last November.

The Pivotal spokesman would only say the company remains “hyper focused on executing against our vision to help good companies transform into great software companies” and that all of its businesses are “successful.”

Complicating matters is that Pivotal is partly owned by parent companies EMC (EMC) and VMware (VMW) which spun it out two years ago, with General Electric (GE), a big customer, taking a 10% stake for $105 million. If you do that math, Cloud Foundry was valued at $1.05 billion. A few weeks ago, GE announced its own “industrial cloud” that taps into Cloud Foundry.

The continued presence of Maritz at Pivotal as vice chairman could ease the path to a public offering. Maritz, after years as a top Microsoft executive followed by a turn as CEO of VMware and now most recently of Pivotal, has a lot of credibility on Wall Street.

Both Maritz and EMC CEO Joe Tucci have talked about a Pivotal IPO being the goal, but there was never a timeline. Many observers assumed EMC will follow its own VMware playbook by taking Pivotal public but retaining a healthy stake. But for the past year, Elliott Management, which has taken its own stake in EMC, has been pushing Tucci to offload VMware in the interest of maximizing shareholder value. It’s hard to see Elliott endorsing VMware redux with Pivotal.

A standstill agreement between Elliott Management and EMC ends next month, which means that we may be hearing more about Elliot’s wish list for EMC, VMware, and Pivotal going forward. In the past month alone, there has been talk of EMC tightening its grip on VMware, selling off its stake in VMware, and even of VMware buying EMC.

Analysts agree that almost anything can happen. Forrester Research(FORR) principal analyst Dave Bartoletti sees no immediate indication of an IPO. “The Pivotal numbers are looking good, and momentum is building. PaaS is a tough market, though,” he said via email. Platform as a Service or PaaS, is the tech jargon for the software development category encompassing Cloud Foundry, Red Hat(RHT) OpenShift and other offerings.

So the long and short of it is that Pivotal watchers, like company insiders, have to wait and see what happens.

Sign up for Data Sheet, Fortune’s morning newsletter about the business of technology.

 

About the Author
Barb Darrow
By Barb Darrow
See full bioRight Arrow Button Icon
Add Fortune on Google for similar content.

Latest in Tech

Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025

Most Popular

Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Fortune Secondary Logo
Rankings
  • 100 Best Companies
  • Fortune 500
  • Global 500
  • Fortune 500 Europe
  • Most Powerful Women
  • World's Most Admired Companies
  • See All Rankings
  • Lists Calendar
Sections
  • Finance
  • Fortune Crypto
  • Features
  • Leadership
  • Health
  • Commentary
  • Success
  • Retail
  • Mpw
  • Tech
  • Lifestyle
  • CEO Initiative
  • Asia
  • Politics
  • Conferences
  • Europe
  • Newsletters
  • Personal Finance
  • Environment
  • Magazine
  • Education
Customer Support
  • Frequently Asked Questions
  • Customer Service Portal
  • Privacy Policy
  • Terms Of Use
  • Single Issues For Purchase
  • International Print
Commercial Services
  • Advertising
  • Fortune Brand Studio
  • Fortune Analytics
  • Fortune Conferences
  • Business Development
  • Group Subscriptions
About Us
  • About Us
  • Press Center
  • Work At Fortune
  • Terms And Conditions
  • Site Map
  • About Us
  • Press Center
  • Work At Fortune
  • Terms And Conditions
  • Site Map
  • Facebook icon
  • Twitter icon
  • LinkedIn icon
  • Instagram icon
  • Pinterest icon

Latest in Tech

$5 billion tech CEO says unemployed Gen Z should be out 3 days a week building their network: ‘Sometimes those jobs you want, they’re never published’
SuccessCareers
$5 billion tech CEO says unemployed Gen Z should be out 3 days a week building their network: ‘Sometimes those jobs you want, they’re never published’
By Orianna Rosa RoyleJuly 21, 2026
1 hour ago
A Jersey Mike's logo is displayed outside one of their stores in San Diego, California.
InvestingIPOs
Jersey Mike’s IPO valuation could reach eight times Sweetgreen’s market cap
By Sheryl EstradaJuly 21, 2026
1 hour ago
LaLiga president says tech is already making the fan experience better, and it could solve football’s money problem too
AISports
LaLiga president says tech is already making the fan experience better, and it could solve football’s money problem too
By Catherina GioinoJuly 20, 2026
12 hours ago
A 13-year-old teenage boy looks at an iPhone screen displaying various social media apps.
PoliticsSocial Media
French President Macron backs effort to ban kids under 15 from social media before departing office next year
By The Associated Press and Samuel PetrequinJuly 20, 2026
13 hours ago
Photo of Hugging Face cofounder and CEO Clement Delangue.
CybersecurityAI agents
Hugging Face says it resorted to a Chinese AI model to battle a fully autonomous cyberattack because U.S. model guardrails stymied its defense
By Emily ForliniJuly 20, 2026
13 hours ago
Sumeet Agrawal is VP of Product Management (Data, AI Governance & Context Engineering for Agentic Systems) at Salesforce.
CommentaryAI agents
Salesforce VP on the leaky AI pipeline: why cheaper tokens won’t fix enterprise AI
By Sumeet AgrawalJuly 20, 2026
18 hours ago

Most Popular

Mark Cuban says he has the solution to growing income inequality, and it's to reward every employee—from CEO to janitor—with company stock
Success
Mark Cuban says he has the solution to growing income inequality, and it's to reward every employee—from CEO to janitor—with company stock
By Sasha RogelbergJuly 20, 2026
15 hours ago
‘I want to die broke’: Billionaire philanthropist Denny Sanford dies after giving away $4 billion
Success
‘I want to die broke’: Billionaire philanthropist Denny Sanford dies after giving away $4 billion
By Sydney LakeJuly 20, 2026
19 hours ago
'Dr. Doom' Nouriel Roubini says we're headed for universal basic income or 'some form of socialism' as AI revolutionizes work—He calls that optimistic
AI
'Dr. Doom' Nouriel Roubini says we're headed for universal basic income or 'some form of socialism' as AI revolutionizes work—He calls that optimistic
By Jason MaJuly 18, 2026
2 days ago
Warren Buffett says his $147 billion investing career was an accident: ‘I may be one of the 10 luckiest in the world’
Future of Work
Warren Buffett says his $147 billion investing career was an accident: ‘I may be one of the 10 luckiest in the world’
By Sarah GlodekJuly 20, 2026
1 day ago
Current price of silver as of Monday, July 20, 2026
Personal Finance
Current price of silver as of Monday, July 20, 2026
By Joseph HostetlerJuly 20, 2026
23 hours ago
It’s not just Taco Bell lettuce and possible glass in Pillsbury rolls: Food and drink recall events reached a 6-year year-over-year high
Retail
It’s not just Taco Bell lettuce and possible glass in Pillsbury rolls: Food and drink recall events reached a 6-year year-over-year high
By Sasha RogelbergJuly 20, 2026
22 hours ago

© 2026 Fortune Media IP Limited. All Rights Reserved. Use of this site constitutes acceptance of our Terms of Use and Privacy Policy | CA Notice at Collection and Privacy Notice | Do Not Sell/Share My Personal Information
FORTUNE is a trademark of Fortune Media IP Limited, registered in the U.S. and other countries. FORTUNE may receive compensation for some links to products and services on this website. Offers may be subject to change without notice.