VMware delivers solid Q1 as subscription, SaaS revenue jumps

VMware delivered better-than-expected first quarter results as its subscription and software as a service revenue jumped 39% from a year ago.

The company reported first quarter earnings of $386 million, or 92 cents a share, on revenue of $2.73 billion, up 12% from a year ago. Non-GAAP earnings were $1.52 a share.

Wall Street was looking for revenue of $2.64 billion with non-GAAP earnings of $1.20 a share for the first quarter.

CEO Pat Gelsinger said the company’s software was critical to cloud providers and enterprise customers that had to shift to remote work amid the COVID-19 pandemic.

Gelsinger said that products like Workplace One and VMware on AWS resonated well in the quarter.

Customers continue to look to VMware for solutions across app monetization, multi-cloud, digital workspace, intrinsic security and virtual cloud network as they rely more heavily on fewer strategic partners. 

With Workspace ONE, we are uniquely positioned to help our customers enable their employees to productively work remotely, work more securely with Carbon Black Cloud, increase connectivity with VMware SD-WAN and scale their applications with VMware Cloud. 

VMware’s subscription and SaaS revenue is nearing parity with its license revenue. 

The company didn’t provide an outlook for the second quarter.