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The European Commission is currently conducting an exploratory investigation into Broadcom following its acquisition of the cloud computing company VMware. This investigation stems from complaints from various industry organizations regarding potential license violations and excessively high prices.
According to Reuters, the EU has requested information from Broadcom to address these concerns. Reports suggest that Broadcom may have made improper adjustments to VMware licenses and support terms. Industry organizations from Belgium, Germany, the Netherlands, France, and others have collectively lodged complaints about these alleged practices.
Shortly after the Reuters report, Broadcom CEO Hock Tan released a blog post acknowledging customer dissatisfaction with the rapid changes to VMware's offerings post-acquisition. Tan mentioned plans to extend support for certain products due to the longer implementation timeline for these changes. For instance, former holders of vSphere perpetual licenses will receive free "zero-day security updates." Similar benefits are expected for other VMware products in the future, although specifics were not disclosed.
The conflict between VMware users and Broadcom emerged shortly after the acquisition in late 2023. Since then, Broadcom has made significant changes to VMware's product portfolio, such as phasing out perpetual licenses in favor of subscription models and divesting certain products in the "end-user computing" segment. Additionally, the creation of the new subsidiary Carbon Black was also announced.
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