Investment fund KKR is putting $4 billion on the table to acquire VMware’s end-user computing operations. Owner Broadcom had previously made it clear that it was not interested in this technology.

Broadcom has sold VMware’s end-user computing division to investment group KKR. Other investment funds also showed interest, but KKR won the contract at an auction.

“Workspace ONE and Horizon are best-in-class platforms chosen by many of the world’s leading companies to create seamless and secure digital work environments with interoperability across increasingly complex technology stacks,” said Bradley Brown, managing director at KKR.

“We see great potential to grow the EUC division by strengthening this talented team and investing in product innovation, delivering customer excellence and building strategic partnerships.” The EUC division will operate as a separate business unit within KKR.

Broadcom acquired VMware after a long battle and wants to run this company with different priorities. Under Broadcom, the VMware portfolio is being streamlined by bundling different solutions into one package. The pricing strategy appears to be primarily aimed at targeting very large customers, while smaller parties’ licensing costs are skyrocketing.

Not interested

Broadcom simply doesn’t care about other VMware solutions like end-user computing because they don’t fit into the new picture. This offering includes VMware’s VDI solution, which is popular with many companies. The acquisition would be very good news for customers of these VDI solutions, as they can avoid exploding their license costs through the bundling strategy.

KKR already has experience with technology companies. The company had previously purchased Barracuda Networks. Cloudera and BMC are also part of the portfolio.