Michael Dell reflects on 37 years and VMware spinoff

Michael Dell called his company's plan to spin off VMware "a great thing" for both businesses during the virtual Dell Technologies Summit on Wednesday.

Why it matters: His remarks come six months after Austin-based Dell announced that it's spinning off its ownership stake in VMware, meaning the company will offer VMware shareholders a special cash dividend between $11.5 and $12 billion.

• Dell Technologies owns roughly 81% of VMware, a California-based cloud computing and virtualization software company, through its $67 billion purchase of data storage company EMC in 2016.
• Even after the spinoff, founder and CEO Michael Dell will own about 41% of VMware and remain chairman of both companies, CRN reported in May.

What they're saying: "We have done an enormous amount of co-innovation with VMware, and that's going to continue," Dell promised stakeholders Wednesday.

• Jeff Clarke, Dell Technologies' chief operating officer and Michael Dell's right-hand man, added that the company "won't be replicating" what VMware does: "You will see us continue to move into more higher value software on top of our products that are traditional core platforms."

The annual Dell Technologies Summit is seen as a chance to show stakeholders why they should continue to invest in the future of the company.

Dell, 56, founded the company in his University of Texas dorm room 37 years ago and has since grown it into one of the world's biggest technology providers. Dell is one of the largest employers in Central Texas, with roughly 14,000 workers.

As for the next 37 years, Dell said: "We're actively reinventing the company."