Sounds like a boycott of VMware products is in order.

Has the company issued a statement about why Diane Green is gone? Has she or any other officer publicly announced the conditions under which she left?

I was hoping to see some journalistic investigation and reporting in this article and all I see is conjecture and speculation.

Removing the primary force and visionary from the head of a company like this is dreadful news. Unfortunately, we're now probably going to watch the slow death of another innovative competitor to the same old junk turned out by the me too crowd.

I'm now seriously reconsidering my company's future investment in VMWare technology. Damned bean counters.

Amazing how the assumption is that she is being booted for being a woman. Could we see a little investigation here? Maybe a few facts?

Before you lemmings follow this guy over the cliff consider what you read.

He hasn't reported anything, so this was not journalism. At best it could be an opinion but alas it is not that either. Why? Because there is no basis in fact for rendering the attempted opinion. Therefore this is entirely speculation.

I'll have to wait and see if Ms Greene files a lawsuit or at the very least makes some sort of public statement, followed by VMWare's retort.

No, you guys are right. There is no sexism in tech. (Cue laughter please.)
Look, investors were so convinced that Greene was doing a BAD job and SHOULD have been fired that they celebrated her departure by buying shares of VMware and EMC... um, no, that didn't happen. In fact, the companies lost a combined $8 BILLION in market value yesterday.
Diane Greene won't comment on her departure because, frankly, she's got a lot of green riding on her silence.
The irony is that Joe Tucci has been quoted as saying that she lacked the experience in running the $2 billion company she herself created; Bill Gates, Larry Ellison, and Marc Benioff are other founding CEOs who didn't have experience running the size companies they created either. No one questions their abilities based on experience. But they're men.

No, you guys are right. There is no sexism in tech. (Cue laughter please.)
Look, investors were so convinced that Greene was doing a BAD job and SHOULD have been fired that they celebrated her departure by buying shares of VMware and EMC... um, no, that didn't happen. In fact, the companies lost a combined $8 BILLION in market value yesterday.
Diane Greene won't comment on her departure because, frankly, she's got a lot of green riding on her silence.
The irony is that Joe Tucci has been quoted as saying that she lacked the experience in running the $2 billion company she herself created; Bill Gates, Larry Ellison, and Marc Benioff are other founding CEOs who didn't have experience running the size companies they created either. No one questions their abilities based on experience. But they're men.

Numbers are meaningless for your argument of sexism. Also your argument introducing Bill Gates, Et al., is baseless as well.

Mr. Gates had twenty-eight or so years to grow into the CEO he became. For Mr. Ellison, eighteen... twenty years? Microsoft didn't start out with Windows Vista. It was Cassette Basic for pre-PC 8080 computers. I'm reasonably certain that the Bill Gates of that small start up would not have been up to the task of running the Microsoft of today.

Ms Greene has a proven record of accomplishment, of that there is little doubt, however, since you or I were not present at the directors meeting we can only, here comes that word again, speculate, as to the why of her dismissal. You choose to jump into the sexism pit, I choose to consider the possibility that maybe she tried to push a decision, of whatever nature, on the board and that a plurality of those directors voted to can her.

Are we calling blogs journalism now? Bad decision. Journalism aspires to objectivity and includes multi-level fact checking; blogs are (presumably informed) opinions.

Sexism is not an unreasonable assumption in tech. That said, Michael could probably, without much effort, back it up with data comparing company performance metrics and consequences for executives. Looks like many people would like to see that happen.

Kim, I stand corrected, you are correct that a blog is not journalism. Q.E.D.

Data and metrics can indicate a corporate mindset but we still don't know and can't know since none of the principals are talking.

If her exit is as Michael has blogged then I agree it has no place in business today. It's a shame we still have to be concerned with this issue.