SOFIA (Bulgaria), November 14 (SeeNews) – U.S.-based software maker VMware aims to become a leader on the IT market in Bulgaria where it has opened a research and development centre, a top company official said on Wednesday.
VMware (www.vmware.com) provides virtualisation solutions for increasing the IT efficiency, including server consolidation and containment, data base recovery after disasters, desktop management, software development and testing. The company, owned by the global IT developer EMC, ended last year with a revenue of over $7.0 billion (4.8 billion euro).
“Several international analysts estimate that VMware has between 60% and 80% of the global market and I do not think any company can unseat us in Bulgaria,” the Director of Product Marketing for VMware, Bogomil Balkanski, told SeeNews. He declined to provide a timeframe for the company's plan to become market leader in Bulgaria.
VMware has recently launched a new research and development centre in Bulgaria's capital Sofia, which is the second largest after the one the company has in California, Balkanski told a news conference.
VMware entered Bulgaria earlier this year through the acquisition of Bulgarian IT outsourcing company Sciant for an undisclosed sum.
"The deal for Sciant was closed in the middle of October," Balkanski said.
A total of $535.82 million were spent on information technologies in Bulgaria in 2006, when the software market in the country grew by 13,5% to $79.2 million. Bulgaria’s IT market is expected to grow to $791.2 million by 2009, while IT services and software sales are forecast to grow by 22.1% and 14.9%, respectively.
($=1.4684 euro)