The dismissal of VMware co-founder Diane Greene earlier this summer has had a number of negative repercussions for the leading virtualisation firm.

VMware shares fell by 24 per cent following Greene's departure and the company lost three of its most senior executives, including co-founder Mendel Rosenblum who had been offered Greene's position, according to a report in The New York Times.

The executives left the company because of the way Greene was fired by EMC chairman Joe Tucci, the article suggested.

Greene was sacked on 7 July after making a special presentation to VMware's board. "Mr Tucci told Ms Greene she was fired, effective immediately," the report added.

The other two executives to leave were research and development chief Richard Sarwal, and vice president of product development Paul Chan.

Sarwal will move to Oracle where he will compete with VMware in the development of virtualisation software.

The news arrives just before the VMworld conference in Las Vegas next week.

EMC and VMware had not provided a response to the news by the time this story was published.