RISK FACTORS

You should carefully consider the risks described below before making a decision to buy our Class A common stock. If any of the following risks actually occur, our business, financial condition and results of operations could be harmed. In that case, the trading price of our Class A common stock could decline and you might lose all or part of your investment in our Class A common stock. You should also refer to the other information set forth in this prospectus, including “Forward-Looking Statements” and our consolidated financial statements and the related notes.

Risks Related to Our Business

The virtualization products and services we sell are based on an emerging technology and therefore the potential market for our products remains uncertain.

The virtualization products and services we develop and sell are based on an emerging technology platform and our success depends on organizations and customers perceiving technological and operational benefits and cost savings associated with adopting virtualization solutions. Our relatively limited operating history and the relatively limited extent to which virtualization solutions have been currently adopted may make it difficult to evaluate our business because the potential market for our products remains uncertain. To the extent that the virtualization market develops more slowly or less comprehensively than we expect, our revenue growth rates may slow materially or our revenue may decline substantially.

We expect to face increasing competition that could result in a loss of customers, reduced revenues or decreased profit margins.

The market for our products is competitive and we expect competition to significantly intensify in the future. For example, Microsoft currently provides products that compete with some of our entry-level offerings and has announced its intention to provide products that will compete with some of our enterprise-class products in the future. We also face competition from other companies, including several recent market entrants. Existing and future competitors may introduce products in the same markets we serve or intend to serve, and competing products may have better performance, lower prices, better functionality and broader acceptance than our products. Many of our current or potential competitors also have longer operating histories, greater name recognition, larger customer bases and significantly greater financial, technical, sales, marketing and other resources than we do. This competition could result in increased pricing pressure and sales and marketing expenses, thereby materially reducing our profit margins, and could harm our ability to increase, or cause us to lose, market share. Increased competition also may prevent us from entering into or renewing service contracts on terms similar to those that we currently offer.

Some of our competitors and potential competitors supply a wide variety of products to, and have well-established relationships with, our current and prospective end users. Some of these competitors have in the past and may in the future take advantage of their existing relationships to engage in business practices that make our products less attractive to our end users. For example, Microsoft has recently implemented distribution arrangements with x86 system vendors and independent software vendors, or ISVs, related to certain of their operating systems that only permit the use of Microsoft’s virtualization format and do not allow the use of our corresponding format. Microsoft has also recently implemented pricing policies that require customers to pay additional license fees based on certain uses of virtualization technology. These distribution and licensing restrictions, as well as other business practices that may be adopted in the future by our competitors, could materially impact our prospects regardless of the merits of our products. In addition, competitors with existing relationships with our current or prospective end users could in the future integrate competitive capabilities into their existing products and make them available without additional charge.

We also face potential competition from our partners. For example, third parties currently selling our products could build and market their own competing products and services or market competing products and services of third parties. If we are unable to compete effectively, our growth and our ability to sell products at profitable margins could be materially and adversely affected.

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Industry alliances or consolidation may result in increased competition.

Some of our competitors have made acquisitions or entered into partnerships or other strategic relationships with one another to offer a more comprehensive virtualization solution than they individually had offered. We expect these trends to continue as companies attempt to strengthen or maintain their market positions in the evolving virtualization infrastructure industry. Many of the companies driving this trend have significantly greater financial, technical and other resources than we do and may be better positioned to acquire and offer complementary products and technologies. The companies resulting from these possible combinations may create more compelling product offerings and be able to offer greater pricing flexibility than we can or may engage in business practices that make it more difficult for us to compete effectively, including on the basis of price, sales and marketing programs, technology or product functionality. These pressures could result in a substantial loss of customers or a reduction in our revenues.

Our operating results may fluctuate significantly, which makes our future results difficult to predict and may result in our operating results falling below expectations or our guidance, which could cause the price of our Class A common stock to decline.

Our operating results may fluctuate due to a variety of factors, many of which are outside of our control. As a result, comparing our operating results on a period-to-period basis may not be meaningful. You should not rely on our past results as an indication of our future performance. In addition, a significant portion of our quarterly sales typically occurs during the last month of the quarter, which we believe generally reflects customer buying patterns for enterprise technology. As a result, our quarterly operating results are difficult to predict even in the near term. If our revenue or operating results fall below the expectations of investors or securities analysts or below any guidance we may provide to the market, the price of our common stock would likely decline substantially.

In addition, factors that may affect our operating results include, among others:

If operating system and hardware vendors do not cooperate with us or we are unable to obtain early access to their new products, or access to certain information about their new products to ensure that our solutions interoperate with those products, our product development efforts may be delayed or foreclosed.

Our products interoperate with Windows, Linux and other operating systems and the hardware devices of numerous manufacturers. Developing products that interoperate properly requires substantial partnering, capital

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investment and employee resources, as well as the cooperation of the vendors or developers of the operating systems and hardware. Operating system and hardware vendors may not provide us with early access to their technology and products, assist us in these development efforts or share with or sell to us any APIs, formats, or protocols we may need. If they do not provide us with the necessary early access, assistance or proprietary technology on a timely basis, we may experience product development delays or be unable to expand our products into other areas. To the extent that software or hardware vendors develop products that compete with ours or those of EMC, they may have an incentive to withhold their cooperation, decline to share access or sell to us their proprietary APIs, protocols or formats or engage in practices to actively limit the functionality, or compatibility, and certification of our products. In addition, hardware or operating system vendors may fail to certify or support or continue to certify or support, our products for their systems. If any of the foregoing occurs, our product development efforts may be delayed or foreclosed and our business and results of operations may be adversely affected.

We rely on distributors, resellers, x86 system vendors and systems integrators to sell our products, and our failure to effectively develop, manage or prevent disruptions to our distribution channels and the processes and procedures that support them could cause a reduction in the number of end users of our products.

Our future success is highly dependent upon maintaining and increasing the number of our relationships with distributors, resellers, x86 system vendors and systems integrators. By relying on distributors, resellers, x86 system vendors and systems integrators, we may have little or no contact with the ultimate users of our products, thereby making it more difficult for us to establish brand awareness, ensure proper delivery and installation of our products, service ongoing customer requirements, estimate end user demand and respond to evolving customer needs.

Recruiting and retaining qualified channel partners and training them in the use of our technology and product offerings requires significant time and resources. In order to develop and expand our distribution channel, we must continue to expand and improve our processes and procedures that support our channel, including our investment in systems and training, and those processes and procedures may become increasingly complex and difficult to manage. We generally do not have long-term contracts or minimum purchase commitments with our distributors, resellers, x86 system vendors and systems integrators, and our contracts with these channel partners do not prohibit them from offering products or services that compete with ours. Our competitors may be effective in providing incentives to existing and potential channel partners to favor products of our competitors or to prevent or reduce sales of our products. Our channel partners and x86 system vendors may choose not to offer our products exclusively or at all. Our failure to maintain and increase the number of relationships with channel partners would likely lead to a loss of end users of our products which would result in us receiving lower revenues from our channel partners. One of the Company’s distribution agreements is with Ingram Micro, which accounted for 29% of our revenues in 2006. The agreement with Ingram Micro under which the Company receives the substantial majority of its Ingram Micro revenues is terminable by either party upon 90 days’ prior written notice to the other party, and neither party has any obligation to purchase or sell any products under the agreement. While we believe that we have in place, or will have in place by the date of any such termination, agreements with other distributors sufficient to maintain our revenues from distribution, if we were to lose Ingram Micro’s distribution services, such loss could have a short-term negative impact on our results of operations.

The concentration of our product sales among a limited number of distributors increases our potential credit risk and could cause significant fluctuations or declines in our product revenues.

As of December 31, 2006, approximately 28% and 11%, and as of December 31, 2005, approximately 30% and 11%, of our total accounts receivable outstanding were from two distributors. We anticipate that sales of our products to a limited number of distributors will continue to account for a significant portion of our total product revenues for the foreseeable future. The concentration of product sales among certain distributors increases our potential credit risks. One or more of these customers could delay payments or default on credit extended to

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them. Any significant delay or default in the collection of significant accounts receivable could result in an increased need for us to obtain working capital from other sources, possibly on worse terms than we could have negotiated if we had established such working capital resources prior to such delays or defaults. Any significant default could result in a negative impact on our results of operations.

We are dependent on our existing management and our key development personnel, and the loss of key personnel may prevent us from implementing our business plan in a timely manner.

Our success depends largely upon the continued services of our existing management. We are also substantially dependent on the continued service of our key development personnel for product innovation. We generally do not have employment or non-compete agreements with our existing management or development personnel and, therefore, they could terminate their employment with us at any time without penalty and could pursue employment opportunities with any of our competitors. The loss of key employees could seriously harm our ability to release new products on a timely basis and could significantly help our competitors.

Because competition for our target employees is intense, we may not be able to attract and retain the highly skilled employees we need to support our planned growth.

To execute our growth plan, we must attract and retain highly qualified personnel. Competition for these personnel is intense, especially for engineers with high levels of experience in designing and developing software and senior sales executives. We may not be successful in attracting and retaining qualified personnel. We have from time to time in the past experienced, and we expect to continue to experience in the future, difficulty in hiring and retaining highly skilled employees with appropriate qualifications. Many of the companies with which we compete for experienced personnel have greater resources than we have. In addition, in making employment decisions, particularly in the high-technology industry, job candidates often consider the value of the stock options, restricted stock grants or other equity-based compensation they are to receive in connection with their employment. A decline in the value of our stock after this offering could adversely affect our ability to attract or retain key employees. If we fail to attract new personnel or fail to retain and motivate our current personnel, our business and future growth prospects could be severely harmed.

If we are unable to protect our intellectual property rights, our competitive position could be harmed or we could be required to incur significant expenses to enforce our rights.

We depend on our ability to protect our proprietary technology. We rely on trade secret, patent, copyright and trademark laws and confidentiality agreements with employees and third parties, all of which offer only limited protection. As such, despite our efforts, the steps we have taken to protect our proprietary rights may not be adequate to preclude misappropriation of our proprietary information or infringement of our intellectual property rights, and our ability to police such misappropriation or infringement is uncertain, particularly in countries outside of the United States. Further, with respect to patent rights, we do not know whether any of our pending patent applications will result in the issuance of patents or whether the examination process will require us to narrow our claims. Even if patents are issued from our patent applications, which is not certain, they may be contested, circumvented or invalidated in the future. Moreover, the rights granted under any issued patents may not provide us with proprietary protection or competitive advantages, and, as with any technology, competitors may be able to develop similar or superior technologies to our own now or in the future. In addition, we rely on contractual and license agreements with third parties in connection with their use of our products and technology. There is no guarantee that such parties will abide by the terms of such agreements or that we will be able to adequately enforce our rights, in part because we rely on “click-wrap” and “shrink-wrap” licenses in some instances.

Detecting and protecting against the unauthorized use of our products, technology and proprietary rights is expensive, difficult and, in some cases, impossible. Litigation may be necessary in the future to enforce or defend our intellectual property rights, to protect our trade secrets or to determine the validity and scope of the proprietary rights of others. Such litigation could result in substantial costs and diversion of management

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resources, either of which could harm our business, operating results and financial condition, and there is no guarantee that we would be successful. Furthermore, many of our current and potential competitors have the ability to dedicate substantially greater resources to protecting their technology or intellectual property rights than do we. Accordingly, despite our efforts, we may not be able to prevent third parties from infringing upon or misappropriating our intellectual property, which could result in a substantial loss of our market share.

We provide access to our hypervisor and other selected source code to partners, which creates additional risk that our competitors could develop products that are similar or better than ours.

Our success and ability to compete depend substantially upon our internally developed technology, which is incorporated in the source code for our products. We seek to protect the source code, design code, documentation and other written materials for our software, under trade secret and copyright laws. However, we have chosen to provide access to our hypervisor and other selected source code to more than 35 of our partners for co-development, as well as for open APIs, formats and protocols. Though we generally control access to our source code and other intellectual property, and enter into confidentiality or license agreements with such partners, as well as with our employees and consultants, our safeguards may be insufficient to protect our rights to our technology. Our protective measures may be inadequate, especially because we may not be able to prevent our partners, employees or consultants from violating any agreements or licenses we may have in place or abusing their access granted to our source code. Improper disclosure or use of our source code could help competitors develop products similar to or better than ours.

Claims by others that we infringe their proprietary technology could force us to pay damages or prevent us from using certain technology in our products.

Third parties could claim that our products or technology infringe their proprietary rights. This risk may increase as the number of products and competitors in our market increases and overlaps occur. In addition, to the extent that we gain greater visibility and market exposure as a public company, we face a higher risk of being the subject of intellectual property infringement claims. Any claim of infringement by a third party, even one without merit, could cause us to incur substantial costs defending against the claim, and could distract our management from our business. Furthermore, a party making such a claim, if successful, could secure a judgment that requires us to pay substantial damages. A judgment could also include an injunction or other court order that could prevent us from offering our products. In addition, we might be required to seek a license for the use of such intellectual property, which may not be available on commercially reasonable terms or at all. Alternatively, we may be required to develop non-infringing technology, which could require significant effort and expense and may ultimately not be successful. Any of these events could seriously harm our business, operating results and financial condition. Third parties may also assert infringement claims against our customers and channel partners. Any of these claims could require us to initiate or defend potentially protracted and costly litigation on their behalf, regardless of the merits of these claims, because we generally indemnify our customers and channel partners from claims of infringement of proprietary rights of third parties in connection with the use of our products. If any of these claims succeed, we may be forced to pay damages on behalf of our customers or channel partners, which could materially reduce our income.

Our use of “open source” software could negatively affect our ability to sell our products and subject us to possible litigation.

A significant portion of the products or technologies acquired, licensed or developed by us may incorporate so-called “open source” software, and we may incorporate open source software into other products in the future. Such open source software is generally licensed by its authors or other third parties under open source licenses, including, for example, the GNU General Public License, the GNU Lesser General Public License, “Apache-style” licenses, “Berkeley Software Distribution,” “BSD-style” licenses and other open source licenses. We monitor our use of open source software in an effort to avoid subjecting our products to conditions we do not intend. Although we believe that we have complied with our obligations under the various applicable licenses for

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open source software that we use such that we have not triggered any such conditions, there is little or no legal precedent governing the interpretation of many of the terms of certain of these licenses, and therefore the potential impact of these terms on our business is somewhat unknown and may result in unanticipated obligations regarding our products and technologies. For example, we may be subjected to certain conditions, including requirements that we offer our products that use the open source software for no cost, that we make available source code for modifications or derivative works we create based upon, incorporating or using the open source software and/or that we license such modifications or derivative works under the terms of the particular open source license.

If an author or other third party that distributes such open source software were to allege that we had not complied with the conditions of one or more of these licenses, we could be required to incur significant legal expenses defending against such allegations. If our defenses were not successful, we could be subject to significant damages, enjoined from the distribution of our products that contained the open source software and required to comply with the foregoing conditions, which could disrupt the distribution and sale of some of our products. In addition, if we combine our proprietary software with open source software in a certain manner, under some open source licenses we could be required to release the source code of our proprietary software, which could substantially help our competitors develop products that are similar to or better than ours.

Our sales cycles can be long and unpredictable, and our sales efforts require considerable time and expense. As a result, our sales are difficult to predict and may vary substantially from quarter to quarter, which may cause our operating results to fluctuate significantly.

The timing of our revenue is difficult to predict. Our sales efforts involve educating our customers about the use and benefit of our products, including their technical capabilities and potential cost savings to an organization. Customers typically undertake a significant evaluation process that has in the past resulted in a lengthy sales cycle, which typically lasts several months, and may last a year or longer. We spend substantial time, effort and money on our sales efforts without any assurance that our efforts will produce any sales. In addition, product purchases are frequently subject to budget constraints, multiple approvals, and unplanned administrative, processing and other delays. If sales expected from a specific customer for a particular quarter are not realized in that quarter or at all, our results could fall short of public expectations and our business, operating results and financial condition could be materially adversely affected.

Our current research and development efforts may not produce significant revenues for several years, if at all.

Developing our products is expensive. Our investment in research and development may not result in marketable products or may result in products that take longer to generate revenues, or generate less revenues, than we anticipate. Our research and development expenses were $148.3 million, or 21.1% of our total revenues in 2006, and $72.6 million, or 18.7% of our total revenues in 2005. Our future plans include significant investments in software research and development and related product opportunities. We believe that we must continue to dedicate a significant amount of resources to our research and development efforts to maintain our competitive position. However, we may not receive significant revenues from these investments for several years, if at all.

We may not be able to respond to rapid technological changes with new solutions and services offerings, which could have a material adverse effect on our sales and profitability.

The markets for our software solutions are characterized by rapid technological changes, changing customer needs, frequent new software product introductions and evolving industry standards. The introduction of third- party solutions embodying new technologies and the emergence of new industry standards could make our existing and future software solutions obsolete and unmarketable. We may not be able to develop updated products that keep pace with technological developments and emerging industry standards and that address the

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increasingly sophisticated needs of our customers or that interoperate with new or updated operating systems and hardware devices or certify our products to work with these systems and devices, and there is no assurance that any of our new offerings would be accepted in the marketplace. Significant reductions in server-related costs or the rise of more efficient infrastructure management software could also affect demand for our software solutions. As a result, we may not be able to accurately predict the lifecycle of our software solutions, and they may become obsolete before we receive the amount of revenues that we anticipate from them. If any of the foregoing events were to occur, our ability to retain or increase market share in the virtualization software market could be materially adversely affected.

Our ability to sell our products is dependent on the quality of our support and services offerings, and our failure to offer high-quality support and services could have a material adverse effect on our sales and results of operations.

Once our products are integrated within our customers’ hardware and software systems, our customers may depend on our support organization to resolve any issues relating to our products. A high level of support is critical for the successful marketing and sale of our products. If we or our channel partners do not effectively assist our customers in deploying our products, succeed in helping our customers quickly resolve post-deployment issues, and provide effective ongoing support, our ability to sell our products to existing customers would be adversely affected, and our reputation with potential customers could be harmed. In addition, as we expand our operations internationally, our support organization will face additional challenges, including those associated with delivering support, training and documentation in languages other than English. As a result, our failure to maintain high-quality support and services, or to adequately assist our channel partners in providing high-quality support and services, could result in customers choosing to use our competitors’ products instead of ours in the future.

Adverse economic conditions or reduced information technology spending may adversely impact our revenues.

Our business depends on the overall demand for information technology and on the economic health of our current and prospective customers. The purchase of our products is often discretionary and may involve a significant commitment of capital and other resources. Weak economic conditions, or a reduction in information technology spending even if economic conditions improve, would likely adversely impact our business, operating results and financial condition in a number of ways, including by lengthening sales cycles, lowering prices for our products and services and reducing unit sales.

We may engage in future acquisitions that could disrupt our business, cause dilution to our stockholders and harm our business, operating results and financial condition.

In the future we may seek to acquire other businesses, products or technologies. However, we may not be able to find suitable acquisition candidates and we may not be able to complete acquisitions on favorable terms, if at all. If we do complete acquisitions, we may not ultimately strengthen our competitive position or achieve our goals, or may be viewed negatively by customers, financial markets or investors. Acquisitions may disrupt our ongoing operations, divert management from day-to-day responsibilities, increase our expenses and adversely impact our business, operating results and financial condition. Future acquisitions may reduce our cash available for operations and other uses and could result in an increase in amortization expense related to identifiable assets acquired, potentially dilutive issuances of equity securities or the incurrence of debt. We have limited historical experience with the integration of acquired companies. There can be no assurance that we will be able to manage the integration of acquired businesses effectively or be able to retain and motivate key personnel from these businesses. Any difficulties we encounter in the integration process could divert management from day-to-day responsibilities, increase our expenses and have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition and results of operations.

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Operating in foreign countries subjects us to additional risks that may harm our ability to increase or maintain our international sales and operations.

In 2006, we derived approximately 44% of our revenue from customers outside the United States. We have sales and technical support personnel in numerous countries worldwide. We expect to continue to add personnel in additional countries. Our international operations subject us to a variety of risks, including:

As we continue to expand our business globally, our success will depend, in large part, on our ability to anticipate and effectively manage these and other risks associated with our international operations. Our failure to manage any of these risks successfully could harm our international operations and reduce our international sales.

Our products are highly technical and may contain errors, which could cause harm to our reputation and adversely affect our business.

Our products are highly technical and complex and, when deployed, have contained and may contain errors, defects or security vulnerabilities. Some errors in our products may only be discovered after a product has been installed and used by customers. Any errors, defects or security vulnerabilities discovered in our products after commercial release could result in loss of revenue or delay in revenue recognition, loss of customers and increased service and warranty cost, any of which could adversely affect our business, operating results and financial condition. In addition, we could face claims for product liability, tort or breach of warranty, including claims relating to changes to our products made by our channel partners. Our contracts with customers contain provisions relating to warranty disclaimers and liability limitations, which may not be upheld. Defending a lawsuit, regardless of its merit, is costly and may divert management’s attention and adversely affect the market’s perception of us and our products. In addition, if our business liability insurance coverage proves inadequate or future coverage is unavailable on acceptable terms or at all, our business, operating results and financial condition could be adversely impacted.

Our independent registered public accounting firm identified a material weakness in the design and operation of our internal controls as of December 31, 2006, which, if not remedied, could result in material misstatements in our financial statements in future periods.

Our independent registered public accounting firm reported to our board of directors a material weakness in the design and operation of our internal controls as of December 31, 2006 related to the capitalization of software development costs. A material weakness is defined by the standards issued by the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board as a more than remote likelihood that a material misstatement of the annual or interim financial statements will not be prevented or detected. The material weakness resulted from a lack of adequate internal controls to ensure the timely identification and accumulation of costs once a project reaches technological

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feasibility under applicable accounting standards. The consolidated financial statements included in this prospectus reflect adjustments to properly state our capitalized software development costs for the periods included therein. Our independent registered public accounting firm was not engaged to audit the effectiveness of our internal control over financial reporting as of December 31, 2006. If such an evaluation had been performed, additional material weaknesses may have been identified.

Under Section 404 of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002 and the current rules of the Securities and Exchange Commission, or SEC, our management and auditors will be required to evaluate and report on the effectiveness of our internal control over financial reporting as of December 31, 2008. We believe we have a plan in place to remediate the material weakness by implementing additional formal policies, procedures and processes, hiring additional accounting personnel and increasing management review and oversight over the financial statement close process. We believe we will have adequate controls in place by June 30, 2007 to remediate the material weakness and that there will not be any material costs associated with such remediation. If our remediation is insufficient to address the material weakness, or if additional material weaknesses in our internal controls are discovered in the future, we may fail to meet our future reporting obligations, our financial statements may contain material misstatements and the price of our common stock may decline.

If we fail to implement an effective system of internal controls, we may not be able to accurately report our financial results or prevent fraud. As a result, our stockholders could lose confidence in our financial reporting, which could harm our business and the trading price of our common stock.

We are preparing for compliance with Section 404 by addressing the existing material weakness in our internal controls and by strengthening, assessing and testing our system of internal controls. In particular, we believe we will need to increase the number of our accounting personnel and improve our processes and systems to ensure timely and accurate reporting of our financial results in accordance with reporting obligations as a stand-alone public company following this offering. However, the continuous process of strengthening our internal controls and complying with Section 404 is expensive and time-consuming, and requires significant management attention. We cannot be certain that these measures will ensure that we will remediate the existing material weakness or implement adequate control over our financial processes and reporting. In addition, we have identified certain processes that need to be automated in order to ensure that we have effective internal control over financial reporting. If we are not able to automate these processes in a timely fashion, we will not be able to ensure compliance. Furthermore, if we rapidly grow our business, our internal controls will become more complex and we will require significantly more resources to ensure our internal controls overall remain effective. Failure to implement required new or improved controls, or difficulties encountered in their implementation, could harm our operating results or cause us to fail to meet our reporting obligations. If we or our independent registered public accounting firm discover additional material weaknesses, the disclosure of that fact, even if quickly remedied, could reduce the market’s confidence in our financial statements and harm our stock price. In addition, future non-compliance with Section 404 could subject us to a variety of administrative sanctions, including the suspension or delisting of our common stock from the exchange on which we decide to list and the inability of registered broker-dealers to make a market in our common stock, which could further reduce our stock price.

If we fail to manage future growth effectively, we may not be able to meet our customers’ needs or be able to meet our future reporting obligations.

We have expanded our operations significantly since inception and anticipate that further significant expansion will be required. This future growth, if it occurs, will place significant demands on our management, infrastructure and other resources. To manage any future growth, we will need to hire, integrate and retain highly skilled and motivated employees. We will also need to continue to improve our financial and management controls, reporting and operational systems and procedures. If we do not effectively manage our growth we may not be able to meet our customers’ needs, thereby adversely affecting our sales, or be able to meet our future reporting obligations.

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Our business is subject to the risks of earthquakes, fire, floods and other natural catastrophic events, and to interruption by man-made problems, such as computer viruses or terrorism, which could result in delays or cancellations of customer orders or the deployment of our products.

Our corporate headquarters are located in the San Francisco Bay Area, a region known for seismic activity. A significant natural disaster, such as an earthquake, fire or a flood, could have a material adverse impact on our business, operating results and financial condition. In addition, our servers are vulnerable to computer viruses, break-ins and similar disruptions from unauthorized tampering with our computer systems. In addition, acts of terrorism or war could cause disruptions in our or our customers’ business or the economy as a whole. To the extent that such disruptions result in delays or cancellations of customer orders, or the deployment of our products, our revenues would be adversely affected.

Changes to financial accounting standards may affect our reported financial results and cause us to change our business practices.

We prepare our financial statements to conform with generally accepted accounting principles, or GAAP, in the United States. These accounting principles are subject to interpretation by the SEC and various other bodies. A change in those policies can have a significant effect on our reported results and may affect our reporting of transactions completed before a change is announced. Changes to those rules or the interpretation of our current practices may adversely affect our reported financial results or the way we conduct our business.

Risks Related to Our Relationship with EMC

As long as EMC controls us, your ability to influence matters requiring stockholder approval will be limited.

After this offering, EMC will own 32,500,000 shares of Class A common stock and all 300,000,000 shares of Class B common stock, representing approximately             % of the total outstanding shares of common stock or         % of the voting power of outstanding common stock. The holders of our Class A common stock and our Class B common stock have identical rights, preferences and privileges except with respect to voting and conversion rights, certain actions that require the consent of holders of Class B common stock and other protective provisions as set forth in this prospectus. Holders of our Class B common stock will be entitled to 10 votes per share of Class B common stock, and the holders of our Class A common stock will be entitled to one vote per share of Class A common stock. If EMC transfers shares of our Class B common stock to any party other than a successor-in-interest or a subsidiary of EMC (other than in a distribution to its stockholders under Section 355 of the Internal Revenue Code of 1986, as amended, or the Code, or in transfers following such a distribution), those shares would automatically convert into Class A common stock. For so long as EMC or its successor-in-interest beneficially owns shares of our common stock representing at least a majority of the votes entitled to be cast by the holders of outstanding voting stock, EMC will be able to elect all of the members of our board of directors.

In addition, until such time as EMC or its successor-in-interest beneficially owns shares of our common stock representing less than a majority of the votes entitled to be cast by the holders of outstanding voting stock, EMC will have the ability to take stockholder action without the vote of any other stockholder and without having to call a stockholder meeting, and investors in this offering will not be able to affect the outcome of any stockholder vote during this period. As a result, EMC will have the ability to control all matters affecting us, including:

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Our certificate of incorporation and the master transaction agreement also contain provisions that require that as long as EMC beneficially owns at least 20% or more of the outstanding shares of our common stock, the prior affirmative vote or written consent of EMC (or its successor-in-interest) as the holder of the Class B common stock is required (subject in each case to certain exceptions) in order to authorize us to:

If EMC does not provide any requisite consent allowing us to conduct such activities when requested, we will not be able to conduct such activities and, as a result, our business and our operating results may be harmed.

EMC’s voting control and its additional rights described above may discourage transactions involving a change of control of us, including transactions in which you as a holder of our Class A common stock might otherwise receive a premium for your shares over the then-current market price. EMC is not prohibited from selling a controlling interest in us to a third party and may do so without your approval and without providing for a purchase of your shares of Class A common stock. Accordingly, your shares of Class A common stock may be worth less than they would be if EMC did not maintain voting control over us or have the additional rights described above.

In the event EMC is acquired or otherwise undergoes a change of control, any acquiror or successor will be entitled to exercise the voting control and contractual rights of EMC, and may do so in a manner that could vary significantly from that of EMC.

By becoming a stockholder in our company, you will be deemed to have notice of and have consented to the provisions of our certificate of incorporation and the master transaction agreement with respect to the limitations that are described above.

Our business and that of EMC overlap, and EMC may compete with us, which could reduce our market share.

EMC and we are both IT infrastructure companies providing products related to storage management, back-up, disaster recovery, security, system management and automation, provisioning and resource management. There can be no assurance that EMC will not engage in increased competition with us in the future. In addition,

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the intellectual property agreement that we will enter into with EMC will provide EMC the ability to use our source code and intellectual property, which, subject to limitations, it may use to produce certain products that compete with ours. EMC’s rights in this regard extend to its majority owned subsidiaries, which could include joint ventures where EMC holds a majority position and one or more of our competitors hold minority positions.

EMC could assert control over us in a manner which could impede our growth or our ability to enter new markets or otherwise adversely affect our business. Further, EMC could utilize its control over us to cause us to take or refrain from taking certain actions, including entering into relationships with channel, technology and other marketing partners, enforcing our intellectual property rights or pursuing corporate opportunities or product development initiatives that could adversely affect our competitive position, including our competitive position relative to that of EMC in markets where we compete with them. In addition, EMC maintains significant partnerships with certain of our competitors, including Microsoft.

EMC’s competition in certain markets may affect our ability to build and maintain partnerships.

Our existing and potential partner relationships may be affected by our relationship with EMC. We partner with a number of companies that compete with EMC in certain markets in which EMC participates. EMC’s majority ownership in us might affect our ability to effectively partner with these companies. These companies may favor our competitors because of our relationship with EMC.

EMC competes with certain of our significant channel, technology and other marketing partners, including IBM and Hewlett-Packard. Pursuant to our certificate of incorporation and other agreements that we will have with EMC, EMC may have the ability to impact our relationship with our partners that compete with EMC, which could have a material adverse effect on our results of operations or our ability to pursue opportunities which may otherwise be available to us.

Our historical financial information as a business segment of EMC may not be representative of our results as an independent public company.

The historical financial information we have included in this prospectus does not necessarily reflect what our financial position, results of operations or cash flows would have been had we been an independent entity during the historical periods presented. The historical costs and expenses reflected in our consolidated financial statements include an allocation for certain corporate functions historically provided by EMC, including tax, accounting, treasury, legal and human resources services. The historical financial information is not necessarily indicative of what our results of operations, financial position, cash flows or costs and expenses will be in the future. We have not made pro forma adjustments to reflect many significant changes that will occur in our cost structure, funding and operations as a result of our transition to becoming a public company, including changes in our employee base, potential increased costs associated with reduced economies of scale and increased costs associated with being a publicly traded, stand-alone company. For additional information, see “Selected Consolidated Financial Data,” “Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations” and our historical consolidated financial statements and notes thereto.

Our ability to operate our business effectively may suffer if we are unable to cost-effectively establish our own administrative and other support functions in order to operate as a stand-alone company after the expiration of our transitional services agreements with EMC.

As a subsidiary of EMC, we have relied on administrative and other resources of EMC to operate our business. In connection with this offering, we will enter into various service agreements to retain the ability for specified periods to use these EMC resources. See “Certain Relationships and Related Person Transactions.” These services may not be provided at the same level as when we were a wholly owned subsidiary of EMC, and we may not be able to obtain the same benefits that we received prior to this offering. These services may not be sufficient to meet our needs, and after our agreements with EMC expire, we may not be able to replace these

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services at all or obtain these services at prices and on terms as favorable as we currently have with EMC. We will need to create our own administrative and other support systems or contract with third parties to replace EMC’s systems. In addition, we have received informal support from EMC which may not be addressed in the agreements we will enter into with EMC; the level of this informal support may diminish as we become a more independent company. Any failure or significant downtime in our own administrative systems or in EMC’s administrative systems during the transitional period could result in unexpected costs, impact our results and/or prevent us from paying our suppliers or employees and performing other administrative services on a timely basis. See “Certain Relationships and Related Person Transactions—Relationship with EMC Corporation” for a description of these services.

After this offering, we will be a smaller company relative to EMC, which could result in increased costs because of a decrease in our purchasing power and difficulty maintaining existing customer relationships and obtaining new customers.

Prior to this offering, we were able to take advantage of EMC’s size and purchasing power in procuring goods, technology and services, including insurance, employee benefit support and audit and other professional services. We are a smaller company than EMC, and we cannot assure you that we will have access to financial and other resources comparable to those available to us prior to the offering. As a stand-alone company, we may be unable to obtain office space, goods, technology and services at prices or on terms as favorable as those available to us prior to this offering, which could increase our costs and reduce our profitability. Our future success depends on our ability to maintain our current relationships with existing customers, and we may have difficulty attracting new customers.

In order to preserve the ability for EMC to distribute its shares of our Class B common stock on a tax-free basis, we may be prevented from pursuing opportunities to raise capital, to effectuate acquisitions or to provide equity incentives to our employees, which could hurt our ability to grow.

Beneficial ownership of at least 80% of the total voting power and 80% of each class of nonvoting capital stock is required in order for EMC to effect a tax-free spin-off of VMware or certain other tax-free transactions. We have agreed that for so long as EMC or its successor-in-interest continues to own greater than 50% of the voting control of our outstanding common stock, we will not knowingly take or fail to take any action that could reasonably be expected to preclude EMC’s or its successor-in-interest’s ability to undertake a tax-free spin-off. Additionally, under our certificate of incorporation and the master transaction agreement, we must obtain the consent of EMC or its successor-in-interest as the holder of our Class B common stock to issue stock or other VMware securities excluding pursuant to employee benefit plans, which could cause us to forgo capital raising or acquisition opportunities that would otherwise be available to us. See “Certain Relationships and Related Person Transactions—Relationship with EMC Corporation.” As a result, we may be precluded from pursuing certain growth initiatives.

Third parties may seek to hold us responsible for liabilities of EMC, which could result in a decrease in our income.

Third parties may seek to hold us responsible for EMC’s liabilities. Under our master transaction agreement with EMC, EMC will indemnify us for claims and losses relating to liabilities related to EMC’s business and not related to our business. However, if those liabilities are significant and we are ultimately held liable for them, we cannot assure you that we will be able to recover the full amount of our losses from EMC.

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Although we intend to enter into a new tax sharing agreement with EMC under which our tax liabilities effectively will be determined as if we were not part of any consolidated, combined or unitary tax group of EMC Corporation and/or its subsidiaries, we nonetheless could be held liable for the tax liabilities of other members of these groups.

We have historically been included in EMC’s consolidated group for U.S. federal income tax purposes, as well as in certain consolidated, combined or unitary groups that include EMC Corporation and/or certain of its subsidiaries for state and local income tax purposes. We intend to enter into a new tax sharing agreement with EMC that will become effective upon consummation of this offering. Pursuant to the new tax sharing agreement, we and EMC generally will make payments to each other such that, with respect to tax returns for any taxable period in which we or any of our subsidiaries are included in EMC’s consolidated group for U.S. federal income tax purposes or any other consolidated, combined or unitary group of EMC Corporation and/or its subsidiaries, the amount of taxes to be paid by us will be determined, subject to certain adjustments, as if we and each of our subsidiaries included in such consolidated, combined or unitary group filed our own consolidated, combined or unitary tax return.

We have been included in the EMC consolidated group for U.S. federal income tax purposes for periods in which EMC owned at least 80% of the total voting power and value of our outstanding stock and expect to be included in such consolidated group following this offering. Each member of a consolidated group during any part of a consolidated return year is jointly and severally liable for tax on the consolidated return of such year and for any subsequently determined deficiency thereon. Similarly, in some jurisdictions, each member of a consolidated, combined or unitary group for state, local or foreign income tax purposes is jointly and severally liable for the state, local or foreign income tax liability of each other member of the consolidated, combined or unitary group. Accordingly, for any period in which we are included in the EMC consolidated group for U.S. federal income tax purposes or any other consolidated, combined or unitary group of EMC Corporation and/or its subsidiaries, we could be liable in the event that any income tax liability was incurred, but not discharged, by any other member of any such group.

Our inability to resolve favorably any disputes that arise between us and EMC with respect to our past and ongoing relationships may result in a significant reduction of our revenue.

Disputes may arise between EMC and us in a number of areas relating to our ongoing relationships, including:

We may not be able to resolve any potential conflicts, and even if we do, the resolution may be less favorable than if we were dealing with an unaffiliated party.

The agreements we will enter into with EMC may be amended upon agreement between the parties. While we are controlled by EMC, we may not have the leverage to negotiate amendments to these agreements if required on terms as favorable to us as those we would negotiate with an unaffiliated third party.

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Some of our directors and executive officers own EMC common stock, restricted shares of EMC common stock or options to acquire EMC common stock and hold management positions with EMC, which could cause conflicts of interests that result in our not acting on opportunities we otherwise may have.

Some of our directors and executive officers own EMC common stock and options to purchase EMC common stock. In addition, some of our directors are executive officers and/or directors of EMC. Ownership of EMC common stock, restricted shares of EMC common stock and options to purchase EMC common stock by our directors and officers after this offering and the presence of executive officers or directors of EMC on our board of directors could create, or appear to create, conflicts of interest with respect to matters involving both us and EMC that could have different implications for EMC than they do for us. Provisions of our certificate of incorporation and the master transaction agreement address corporate opportunities that are presented to our directors or officers that are also directors or officers of EMC. We cannot assure you that the provisions in our certificate of incorporation will adequately address potential conflicts of interest or that potential conflicts of interest will be resolved in our favor or that we will be able to take advantage of corporate opportunities presented to individuals who are officers or directors of both us and EMC. As a result, we may be precluded from pursuing certain growth initiatives.

EMC’s ability to control our board of directors may make it difficult for us to recruit high-quality independent directors.

So long as EMC beneficially owns shares of our common stock representing at least a majority of the votes entitled to be cast by the holders of outstanding voting stock, EMC can effectively control and direct our board of directors. Further, the interests of EMC and our other stockholders may diverge. Under these circumstances, persons who might otherwise accept our invitation to join our board of directors may decline.

We will be a “controlled company” within the meaning of the New York Stock Exchange rules, and, as a result, will rely on exemptions from certain corporate governance requirements that provide protection to stockholders of other companies.

After the completion of this offering, EMC will own more than 50% of the total voting power of our common shares and we will be a “controlled company” under the New York Stock Exchange corporate governance standards. As a controlled company, certain exemptions under the New York Stock Exchange standards free us from the obligation to comply with certain New York Stock Exchange corporate governance requirements, including the requirements:

While we will voluntarily cause our Compensation and Corporate Governance Committee to initially be composed entirely of independent directors in compliance with the requirements of the New York Stock Exchange, we are not required to maintain the independent composition of the committee. As a result of our use of the “controlled company” exemptions, you will not have the same protection afforded to stockholders of companies that are subject to all of the New York Stock Exchange corporate governance requirements.

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Risks Related to this Offering

Our stock price may be volatile, and you may not be able to resell shares of our Class A common stock at or above the price you paid.

Prior to this offering, our Class A common stock has not been traded in a public market. The estimated initial public offering price for the shares was determined by negotiations between us and the representatives of the underwriters and may not be indicative of prices that will prevail in the trading market. The trading price of our Class A common stock could be subject to wide fluctuations due to the factors discussed in this risk factors section and elsewhere in this prospectus. These broad market and industry factors may decrease the market price of our Class A common stock, regardless of our actual operating performance. The stock market in general and technology companies in particular also have experienced extreme price and volume fluctuations. In addition, in the past, following periods of volatility in the overall market and the market price of a company’s securities, securities class action litigation has often been instituted against these companies. This litigation, if instituted against us, could result in substantial costs and a diversion of our management’s attention and resources.

No public market for our common stock currently exists and an active trading market may not develop or be sustained following this offering.

Prior to this offering, there has been no public market for our common stock. An active trading market may not develop following the closing of this offering or, if developed, may not be sustained. The lack of an active market may impair your ability to sell your shares at the time you wish to sell them or at a price that you consider reasonable. The lack of an active market may also reduce the fair market value of your shares. In addition, an inactive market may impair our ability to raise capital by selling shares and may impair our ability to acquire other companies or technologies by using our shares as consideration, which in turn could materially adversely affect our business.

If securities or industry analysts do not publish or cease publishing research or reports about us, our business or our market, or if they change their recommendations regarding our stock adversely, our stock price and trading volume could decline.

The trading market for our Class A common stock will be influenced by the research and reports that industry or securities analysts may publish about us, our business, our market or our competitors. If any of the analysts who may cover us change their recommendation regarding our stock adversely, or provide more favorable relative recommendations about our competitors, our stock price would likely decline. If any analyst who may cover us were to cease coverage of our company or fail to regularly publish reports on us, we could lose visibility in the financial markets, which in turn could cause our stock price or trading volume to decline.

We will have broad discretion in the use of a significant part of the net proceeds from this offering and may not use them effectively.

Our management currently intends to use the net proceeds from this offering in the manner described in “Use of Proceeds” and will have broad discretion in the application of a significant part of the net proceeds from this offering. The failure by our management to apply these funds effectively could affect our ability to continue to develop and market our products.

Substantial future sales of our Class A common stock in the public market could cause our stock price to fall.

Sales of substantial amounts of our Class A common stock in the public market after this offering, or the perception that these sales could occur, could cause the market price of our Class A common stock to decline and impede our ability to raise capital through the issuance of additional equity securities. Upon completion of this offering, we will have         shares of Class A common stock outstanding, and EMC will own 32,500,000 shares

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of our Class A common stock and 300,000,000 shares of our Class B common stock, representing approximately         % of the outstanding shares of our common stock. All shares sold in this offering will be freely transferable, subject, in the case of affiliates, to applicable volume and other restrictions under Rule 144 under the Securities Act, and subject to the lock-up arrangements described in “Underwriting” and “Shares Eligible for Future Sale”. Our Class B common stock may be converted into Class A common stock at any time. EMC has no contractual obligation to retain these shares, other than the lock-up arrangement. In addition, EMC has the right to cause us to register the sale of its shares of our common stock under the Securities Act. Registration of these shares under the Securities Act would result in these shares, other than shares purchased by our affiliates, becoming freely tradable without restriction under the Securities Act immediately upon the effectiveness of the registration.

If EMC elects to convert its shares of Class B common stock into Class A common stock, an additional          shares of Class A common stock will be available for sale after the period of 180 days from date of this prospectus, subject to volume and other restrictions as applicable under Rule 144 of the Securities Act.

Immediately after this offering, we intend to file a registration statement on Form S-8 under the Securities Act covering the shares of Class A common stock issuable under outstanding options and the shares of Class A restricted stock which will be outstanding after this offering and          shares reserved for future issuance under our 2007 Equity and Incentive Plan. This registration statement will automatically become effective upon filing. Shares registered under this registration statement will be available for sale in the open market, subject to the lock-up arrangements described above, as well as any stock option vesting requirements and the lapsing of restrictions on restricted stock, although sales of shares held by our affiliates will be limited by Rule 144 volume limitations. Sales of substantial amounts of these securities could cause our stock price to fall.

Purchasers in this offering will immediately experience substantial dilution in net tangible book value.

The initial public offering price of our Class A common stock is substantially higher than the net tangible book value per outstanding share of our common stock. Purchasers of our Class A common stock in this offering will incur immediate and substantial dilution of $         per share in the net tangible book value of our common stock based on the assumed initial public offering price of $         per share (the midpoint of the range set forth on the cover page of this prospectus). If the underwriters exercise their over-allotment option in full, there will be dilution of $         per share in the net tangible book value of our common stock. The exercise of options and the grant of restricted stock pursuant to the exchange offer may result in further dilution.

The number of outstanding options to purchase our stock and the potential dilution to purchasers in this offering that may occur upon the exercise of such options will not be known until after the offering is priced.

Our eligible employees who have options to acquire shares of EMC stock or hold shares of EMC restricted stock will have the ability to exchange such options or restricted stock for options to acquire shares of our Class A common stock and our Class A restricted stock, respectively, pursuant to an exchange offer being conducted concurrently with this offering. The precise number of options or shares of our restricted stock to be issued pursuant to this exchange offer will not be known until the pricing of this offering. See “Summary—The Offering” for a description of the potential dilution that could occur as a result of the exchange offer.

The difference in the voting rights of our Class A and our Class B common stock may harm the value and liquidity of our Class A common stock.

The rights of the holders of Class A and Class B common stock are identical, except with respect to voting, conversion, certain actions that require the consent of holders of Class B common stock and other protective provisions as set forth in this prospectus. The holders of Class B common stock shall be entitled to 10 votes per share, as well as certain consent and other rights associated with the Class B common stock, and the holders of our Class A common stock shall be entitled to one vote per share. The difference in the voting rights of our

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Class A and Class B common stock could harm the value of the Class A common stock to the extent that any current or future investor in our common stock ascribes value to the rights of the holders of our Class B common stock to 10 votes per share. The existence of two classes of common stock could result in less liquidity for either class of common stock than if there were only one class of our common stock. See “Description of Capital Stock” for a description of our common stock and rights associated with it.

Delaware law and our certificate of incorporation and bylaws contain anti-takeover provisions that could delay or discourage takeover attempts that stockholders may consider favorable.

Provisions in our certificate of incorporation and bylaws will have the effect of delaying or preventing a change of control or changes in our management. These provisions include the following:

Until such time as EMC or its successor-in-interest ceases to beneficially own 20% or more of the outstanding shares of our common stock, the affirmative vote or written consent of the holders of a majority of the outstanding shares of the Class B common stock will be required to:

In addition, we have elected to apply the provisions of Section 203 of the Delaware General Corporation Law. These provisions may prohibit large stockholders, in particular those owning 15% or more of our outstanding voting stock, from merging or combining with us. These provisions in our certificate of incorporation and bylaws and under Delaware law could discourage potential takeover attempts and could reduce the price that investors might be willing to pay for shares of our common stock in the future and result in the market price of our shares of common stock being lower than it would be without these provisions.

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As a public company we will incur additional costs and face increased demands on our management.

As a public company, we will incur significant legal, accounting and other expenses that we did not directly incur as a private company. In addition, the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002, as well as the rules subsequently implemented by the SEC and the New York Stock Exchange, have required changes in corporate governance practices of public companies. We expect these rules and regulations to increase our legal and financial compliance costs and to make some activities more time-consuming and costly. For example, as a result of becoming a public company, we intend to add independent directors, create additional board committees and adopt certain policies regarding internal controls and disclosure controls and procedures. In addition, we will incur additional costs associated with our public company reporting requirements. We are currently evaluating and monitoring developments with respect to these rules, and we cannot predict or estimate the amount of additional costs we may incur or the timing of such costs. Furthermore, our management will have increased demands on its time in order to ensure we comply with public company reporting requirements and the compliance requirements of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002, as well as the rules subsequently implemented by the SEC and the applicable stock exchange requirements of the New York Stock Exchange.

After the completion of this offering, we do not expect to declare any dividends in the foreseeable future.

After the completion of this offering, we do not anticipate declaring any cash dividends to holders of our common stock in the foreseeable future. Consequently, investors must rely on sales of their common stock after price appreciation, which may never occur, as the only way to realize any future gains on their investment. Investors seeking cash dividends should not purchase our common stock.

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