"In court filings, Tesco claims that the changes to licenses raised prices by 237%, according to a report on Law360, and accused Broadcom of refusing to negotiate terms or packages on the threat of pulling services that the grocery giant relies upon. The filing alleges that Broadcom is taking advantage of its market dominance to raise prices. Neither Tesco nor Broadcom had replied to a request for comment from ITPro at the time of publishing. The case has also pulled in the technology reseller Computacenter."
"When Broadcom bought VMware, the deal faced scrutiny from competition authorities. But after the deal was approved, the concerns didn't fade away. Broadcom shook up VMware's product lineup and licensing structure, cutting perpetual licenses, products, and introducing changes to its partner program and pricing tiers. Cloud Infrastructure Services Providers in Europe (CISPE) has called for the acquisition to be annulled, following a report that showed prices were up by 1,500% in some cases."
"According to court filings, Tesco had a perpetual license with VMware and in 2021 signed a further subscription-based license with the option to renew via reseller Computacenter, with support until 2030. After Broadcom cut perpetual licenses and simplified its software packages, Tesco said the firm would not renew its existing subscription and was shutting down products still used by the groceries giant."
Tesco is suing Broadcom for £100 million over changes to VMware licensing and support that Tesco says could disrupt the UK's grocery supply. The legal action follows Broadcom's $61 billion acquisition of VMware and subsequent restructuring that removed perpetual licenses, altered product lineups, and changed partner programs and pricing tiers. Tesco alleges license changes raised prices by 237%, that Broadcom refused to negotiate while threatening to withdraw essential services, and that Broadcom is exploiting market dominance to increase prices. The dispute involves reseller Computacenter and has drawn calls from CISPE to annul the acquisition amid steep reported price increases.
Read at IT Pro
Unable to calculate read time
Collection
[
|
...
]