Bank of America Merrill Lynch Maintains Buy on VMware

Bank of America Merrill Lynch is out with its report today on VMware VMW, maintaining Buy. In a note to clients, Bank of America Merrill Lynch writes, "VMware has emerged as a virtualization platform with vSphere serving as a new software platform, enabling customers to perform sys mgt functions like VMotion, High Availability, and Distributed Resource Scheduling. VMW will likely maintain its lead over MSFT MSFT for at least a year. Key risk remains potential pause in server refresh cycle as the impact of 12 core Nehalem on sever unit demand is an unknown. Expect VMW to benefit from server refresh, increasing SMB push and EA renewals." Bank of America Merrill Lynch maintains a $108 PO on VMW. Shares of VMW closed Thursday at $100.55, up 0.27% from Wednesday's close.