Broadcom Pined for VMware From Afar Before Making Its Move (1)

Long before Broadcom Inc. sealed a deal to buy VMware Inc. for $61 billion Thursday, it eyed the company secretly from a distance.

VMware had been one of the assets at the top of Broadcom’s target list for some time, according to people familiar with the matter, but the suitor quietly scrutinized the business before it went further. Broadcom crunched numbers, scoped out VMware’s products and ran scenarios for about a year before making an approach, said the people, who asked not to identified because the deliberations were private.

Thus began what is set to be the biggest takeover by ...