AirWatch

AirWatch

Formerly	Wandering WiFi
Traded as	VMW
Industry	Enterprise mobility management software
Founded	2003 (2003) in Atlanta, Georgia, USA
Founder	John Marshall
Fate	Acquired by VMware, Inc.
Headquarters	Atlanta , USA
Key people	Alan Dabbiere, John Marshall
Products	AirWatch
Brands	AirWatch, AirWatch by VMware, VMware AirWatch, Wandering WiFi
Parent	VMware
Website	www.airwatch.com

AirWatch was an Atlanta-based provider of enterprise mobility management (EMM) software. VMware acquired AirWatch in 2014 ^[1] and rebranded the product as Workspace ONE Unified Endpoint Management (UEM) in 2018. ^[2] After Broadcom acquired VMware in 2023, the End-User Computing division was sold to KKR and rebranded as Omnissa in 2024, which now develops Workspace ONE UEM. ^{[3] [4]}

History

AirWatch headquarters in Sandy Springs, Georgia

AirWatch was founded in 2003 as Wandering WiFi by John Marshall, who served as president and CEO. Alan Dabbiere has been the chairman since 2006. ^{[5] [6]} In February 2013, AirWatch received its first round of funding from Insight Venture Partners and Accel. ^[7] In July 2013, the company acquired Motorola Solutions's MSP (Mobility Services Platform) seeking to extend its portfolio to ruggedized devices. ^[8]

On February 24, 2014, the company was acquired by VMware, Inc for 1.5 billion, ^{[9] [10]} and the EMM product eventually was rebranded as AirWatch by VMware and then VMware AirWatch. In May 2018 the enterprise product was rebranded to Workspace ONE Unified Endpoint Management with the release of version 9.4. ^[2] The product continued to sometimes be referred to as VMware Workspace ONE UEM powered by AirWatch. ^[11]

AirWatch UK Limited was dissolved on 24 April 2018 with the company's final absorption into VMware as a business unit rather than a wholly owned entity.

References

1. "VMWare Announces Definitive Agreement to Acquire AirWatch". air-watch.com.
2. Bayton, Jason. "Android Enterprise first: AirWatch 9.4 lands with a new name and focus | Jason Bayton". bayton.org. Retrieved 2019-04-10.
3. "Omnissa now independent with the close of KKR acquisition". Omnissa. Retrieved 2025-09-17.
4. A, Samrhitha; Sen, Anirban; A, Samrhitha; Sen, Anirban (2024-02-26). "Chipmaker Broadcom sells remote-access unit to KKR in $4 billion deal". Reuters. Retrieved 2025-09-17.
5. Rasmussen, Patty. "Power Players: Technology Ambassador". Georgia Trend Magazine. Retrieved 8 August 2013.
6. Hockenson, Lauren. "You're no longer a startup...so now what?". The Next Web. The Next Web, Inc. Retrieved 8 August 2013.
7. Ho, Victoria. "AirWatch Gets $200 Million Series A Funding". TechCrunch. Retrieved 7 August 2013.
8. Kim, Kathy. "AirWatch Acquires Motorola's Mobility Services Platform". CRN. UBM. Retrieved 8 August 2013.
9. Chatterjee, Soham; Alawadhi, Neha (22 January 2014). "VMware to buy mobile security firm AirWatch for $1.54 billion". Reuters. Retrieved 4 July 2024.
10. "VMware buys AirWatch for $1.54 billion, acquires mobility strategy". ZDNET. Retrieved 2024-07-05.
11. "What is Unified Endpoint Management (UEM) | Workspace ONE". VMware. Retrieved 2019-06-26.