Robbins Geller Secures $102.5 Million Recovery for VMware Shareholders

Robbins Geller Rudman & Dowd LLP has secured a $102.5 million settlement in a securities fraud class action against VMware LLC (formerly VMware, Inc.) and certain of its former executives. VMware, now owned by Broadcom, Inc., is a cloud computing and virtualization technology company.

Appointed as lead plaintiff in July of 2020, Eastern Atlantic States Carpenters Pension Fund has been leading the prosecution of the case on behalf of purchasers of VMware Class A common stock during the period August 24, 2018 through February 27, 2020.

Defendants allegedly failed to disclose VMware’s practice of discretionarily holding back sales as backlog in 2019 to artificially enhance the company’s reported revenue throughout fiscal year 2020 by drawing down that backlog amid operational challenges facing the company.

The true conditions at the company were revealed through a series of disclosures in fiscal year 2020, culminating in a February 27, 2020 announcement that the United States Securities and Exchange Commission (“SEC”) had launched an investigation into the company’s backlog and associated accounting and disclosures, causing VMware’s stock price to decline. The SEC’s investigation resulted in the company paying an $8 million civil money penalty. The settlement is a remarkable result, and represents nearly 13 times what the SEC recovered from the company. 

“With our client’s leadership, we were able to obtain a significant recovery for the class,” said partner Scott H. Saham, who serves as the lead attorney in the case.

Lead plaintiff Eastern Atlantic States Carpenters Pension Fund is represented by Robbins Geller attorneys Spencer A. Burkholz, Scott H. Saham, Laurie L. Largent, Laura M. Andracchio, Ashley M. Kelly, Ting H. Liu, and Stephen Johnson.  

About Robbins Geller

Robbins Geller Rudman & Dowd LLP is one of the world’s leading complex class action firms, representing plaintiffs in securities fraud, shareholder derivative, antitrust, corporate takeover, and consumer fraud and privacy cases. With 200 lawyers in 10 offices, Robbins Geller is one of the world’s largest plaintiffs’ firms and the Firm’s attorneys have obtained many of the largest securities, antitrust, and consumer class action recoveries in history.

Over the last decade, our Firm has been ranked #1 on the ISS Securities Class Action Services law firm rankings for six out of the last ten years for securing the most monetary relief for investors. In the last four years, Robbins Geller recovered $6.6 billion for investors in securities-related class action cases – over $2.2 billion more than any other law firm during that time. The Firm secured the largest-ever securities fraud class action settlement – $7.2 billion – in In re Enron Corp. Securities Litigation. 

For media inquiries, please contact media@rgrdlaw.com or call (619) 338-3821.

Lamartina v. VMware, Inc., No. 5:20-cv-02182-EJD (N.D. Cal.).