If you haven't already heard, the GemStone/S team is becoming an independent company after 3 years as part of VMware. The entire engineering team is moving to GemTalk Systems[1].
GemTalk Systems is completely focused on Smalltalk, GemStone/S and allied initiatives.
I've published a blog post[2] with my take on the acquisition (short answer is "excited!"), if you have any additional questions, feel free to contact me.