Pivotal Software was formed in 2012 after spinning out of EMC Corporation and VMware (which was majority-owned by EMC).[2] The name came from the Pivotal Labs LLC which had been acquired by EMC, and briefly used the name GoPivotal, Incorporated.[3] On April 24, 2013, the organization announced a US$105 million investment from General Electric (for 10% equity) and Pivotal One, including Cloud Foundry for cloud computing.[4][5]
Paul Maritz became Pivotal's chief executive immediately after the spin-out.[5] Maritz had joined EMC in February 2008 when Pi Corporation, a company he co-founded, was acquired. He was previously the CEO of VMware.[6][7]
The Greenplum Database (acquired by EMC in 2010) formed the basis of a division selling software for the big data market.[8]
In March 2013, a distribution of Apache Hadoop called Pivotal HD was announced, including a version of the Greenplum software for it called Hawq.[9]
Paul Maritz became Pivotal's Chairman and Rob Mee, founder of Pivotal Labs, became chief executive officer of Pivotal Software on August 18, 2015. In May 2016, a US$253 million round of funding was announced, including an investment from Ford Motor Company.[10] EMC also converted US$400 million of debt into equity at that time.[11][12]
In March 2018, the company filed for an initial public offering, debuting on the NYSE on April 20, 2018.[13][14] The trading price began at $15 a share, and closed with a 5% increase on its first day.[15] The company raised $555 million in the IPO.[16]
On August 14, 2019, VMware announced merger discussions with Pivotal, and a definitive agreement to acquire Pivotal Software was signed on August 22, 2019.[17] The merger was completed on December 30, 2019.[18] VMware folded Pivotal into the Tanzu application suite, with the Pivotal Labs consulting group rebranding to become VMware Tanzu Labs in January 2021.[19]
