The Dell Technologies-VMware train has been on a wild ride for the past few years.

As far back as early 2018, the two companies confirmed rumors that Dell Technologies, which already owned 81% of VMware, might just buy the virtualization giant outright. Of course, that option didn’t pan out, and Dell Technologies ended the year as a private company (again). But that didn’t stop the on-again, off-again talk of a possible merger — or a sale of what has arguably been Dell Technologies’ crown jewels for the past several years and key to its cloud strategy.

Those whispers continued into 2019. And well into 2020. It wasn’t until earlier this spring the companies announced they’d reached a deal to create two separate companies but preserve their “strategic partnership.”

Here’s a look back at some of VMware’s milestones on its road to freedom in 2021.

In April, Dell Technologies said it would spin off its 81% stake in VMware.

Under the terms of the agreement, VMware agreed to pay a cash dividend between $11.5 billion and $12 billion to all VMware shareholders ranging from $27.43 to $28.62 per share. Dell Technologies received a dividend between $9.3 billion and $9.7 billion that the company will use to pay down its debt.

Additionally, Dell Technologies’ stockholders got a pro-rata distribution of VMware shares held by Dell Technologies, and Michael Dell and Silver Lake Partners continue to own direct interests in VMware.

And finally, the two companies agreed to a five-year commercial agreement that essentially gives Dell Technologies continued access to VMware technology. Specifically, they agreed to continue to collaborate on several products: their market-leading hyperconverged infrastructure VxRail, VMware Cloud on Dell EMC, and VeloCloud SD-WAN along with other areas including security, telco, and edge computing.

In addition to working out the details of its post-Dell Technologies plan, VMware spent almost half of 2021 hunting for a new chief executive to replace Pat Gelsinger, who left VMware earlier this year to return to Intel as its CEO.

In May, the company’s board of directors selected Raghu Raghuram, who most recently was VMware’s COO of Products and Cloud Services, to fill the role.

The virtualization giant also announced that Sanjay Poonen, VMware’s COO for customer operations, “made the personal decision” to leave VMware after seven years with the company. Both Raghuram and Poonen were considered frontrunners for the chief executive post.

Almost immediately — before he even took over as CEO — Raghuram started talking about his intent to turbocharge VMware’s multicloud strategy, and how the Dell Technologies spinoff would accelerate this push.

“We are at the dawn of this multicloud era of computing that enterprises have the sovereignty to deploy their digital assets where it best fits their business,” Raghuram said on VMware’s first-quarter fiscal 2022 earnings call.

In addition to propelling VMware toward its goal to be the “Switzerland of multicloud,” the spinoff would allow vendors that are “competitors of Dell to now look at VMware in a new light and say, ‘hey, we can do strategic things with VMware,’” Raghuram said at a technology conference.

But the commercial agreement also maintains VMware’s cozy relationship with Dell Technologies, he added. “Post-spin, we’ll be in a best-of-both worlds situation.”

Finally, on Nov. 1, the two companies said they completed the spinoff, making VMware a $64 billion software giant.

In a blog post, Raghuram called the move a “landmark” for VMware as it becomes, once again, a standalone company. “We now have the flexibility to partner even more deeply with all cloud and on-premises infrastructure companies to create a better foundation that drives results for our customers,” he wrote. “And the increased flexibility we will have to use equity to complete future acquisitions will help us remain competitive.”

Michael Dell called the spinoff “an important milestone” for both companies. “We are unlocking significant value for stakeholders, while maintaining our close partnership in sales, support, and innovation for our customers,” he said in a statement.

Meanwhile, Michael Dell remains chairman of the VMware board and he still owns about 41% of the software vendor.

“The big winner” in the spinoff deal “is Michael,” said Zeus Kerravala, principal analyst at ZK Research, in an earlier interview. “He will still own a huge chunk of VMware. It’s not like he needs more money, but he stands to make a boatload of money.”

Happy New Year, indeed.