Broadcom Chief Executive Hock Tan’s $61 billion deal to buy VMware marks the biggest bet yet that the boom in enterprise software demand will endure despite the economic tumult—and that bundling disparate offerings of low-profile products can yield outsize returns.
Mr. Tan built Broadcom into a microchip powerhouse by acquiring makers of a host of unsexy-but-essential components, then cutting costs and leveraging the company’s growing pricing power. He is now banking that the same model will work in corporate software.