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VMware Inc., seeking solid footing after being caught in the middle of the massive Dell Inc.-EMC Corp. merger, said Tuesday it was cutting some 800 positions and EMC's finance chief would replace a key executive.

The California-based company also posted stronger-than-expected results for its latest quarter with license revenue -- which generates nearly half of the top line -- climbing 6%.

The company unveiled the "restructuring and realignment" of about 800 roles and said it planned to take a charge between $55 million and $65 million during the first half of 2016.

VMare also announced the departure of chief financial officer and chief operating officer Jonathan Chadwick. He was slated to be replaced on March 1 by EMC's CFO Zane Rowe.

The appointment is made as EMC prepares to complete its previously announced combination with Dell. Once the transaction closes, EMC will be combined with Dell and VMware, which is majority-owned by EMC, will remain a publicly traded company. The Dell-EMC deal has left VMware investors wary, though, as about one-third of the stated deal value is riding on a plan to create a tracking stock for VMware. Shares of VMware have dropped 40% in the past 12 months.

For the quarter, VMware earned $373 million, or 88 cents a share, compared with a profit of $326 million, or 75 cents a share, a year earlier. Excluding certain items, adjusted earnings were $1.26 a share, up from $1.08 a share. Sales rose 9.7% to $1.87 billion.

Analysts surveyed by Thomson Reuters expected earnings of $1.25 a share on $1.85 billion in revenue.

In December, the company, which provides virtualization software that allows servers and other technology equipment to run more efficiently, said it wouldn't proceed with a joint venture that would take over an EMC cloud service called Virtustream. The joint venture between VMware and Virtustream was announced in late October shortly after Dell disclosed its $67 billion deal to buy EMC. Pat Gelsinger, VMware's chief executive, at the time said that combining the two companies' cloud services would offer customers more comprehensive services.

But VMware's shares, which already had slid following the announcement of the Dell-EMC deal, dropped nearly 20% in the wake of the Virtustream plan. Analysts raised questions about the plan's impact on VMware's profit margins because of increased spending on servers and data centers.

Shares of VMware rose 2.5% in after-hours trading.

Write to Ezequiel Minaya at ezequiel.minaya@wsj.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

January 26, 2016 18:05 ET (23:05 GMT)

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