VMware's Gelsinger May Replace Intel's Otellini: Report

Online news site Quartz, owned by the parent company of The Atlantic, on Friday said that VMware CEO Pat Gelsinger and former Motorola CEO Sanjay Jha are among the names being considered to take over as CEO at Intel when current CEO Paul Otellini steps down this year.

Gelsinger would feel right at home at Intel.

[Related: Gelsinger Taking Over VMware As Storage, Virtualization Come To A Crossroads ]

Prior to joining EMC in late 2009, Gelsinger was senior vice president and co-general manager of Intel's Digital Enterprise Group, a group that accounted for more than half of Intel's annual revenue and was responsible for Intel's enterprise products including products for PCs, servers, embedded systems, communications, visualization and storage. Gelsinger at the time had been widely expected to be in line to succeed Otellini as president and CEO of Intel.

Gelsinger was on the short list of candidates to take over as EMC CEO when current top exec Joe Tucci retires. Tucci has said he will remain at his post through early 2015.

Gelsinger in July took over as VMware CEO after then-CEO Paul Maritz moved to EMC to manage the two companies' joint Pivotal Initiative cloud computing project.

Joining Gelsinger on the list of Otellini successors is Sanjay Jha, who last year left Motorola Mobility after its acquisition by Google.

A VMware spokesperson said VMware does not comment on rumor or speculation.

Meanwhile, VMware on Friday confirmed a Tech Crunch report that Rick Jackson, the company's CMO, is stepping down from that role to a new position as senior vice president of global enablement. Jackson will help with the search for a new CMO.

VMware, in a statement sent to CRN, wrote, "Serving for 4-plus years as CMO, Rick is a seasoned member of VMware's leadership team and has decided to take on a new role as SVP of Global Enablement, focused on field and partner enablement. VMware is engaged in a search for its next CMO, with Rick's active engagement throughout the search and transition."

PUBLISHED MARCH 8, 2013