Broadcom—Faced major customer lawsuits over VMware price increases of 800-1,500% post-acquisition
Following Broadcom's $69 billion VMware acquisition in November 2023, the company implemented dramatic price increases of 800-1,500% and eliminated perpetual licenses in favor of subscription-only models. This triggered multiple lawsuits: AT&T sued over licensing changes (settled), UK supermarket chain Tesco filed a £100 million lawsuit alleging Broadcom is forcing massive overpayment and threatening to shut down systems, and numerous other customers reported similar experiences. Broadcom's approach has been characterized as 'predatory' with customers facing 10-15x cost increases.
Scoring Impact
| Topic | Direction | Relevance | Contribution |
|---|---|---|---|
| Consumer Protection | -against | primary | -1.00 |
| Corporate Governance | -against | secondary | -0.50 |
| Overall incident score = | -0.161 | ||
Score = avg(topic contributions) × significance (high ×1.5) × confidence (0.57)× agency (compelled ×0.25)
Evidence (1 signal)
Tesco filed £100M lawsuit over VMware pricing practices
UK supermarket chain Tesco filed a £100 million lawsuit against Broadcom alleging the company is forcing massive overpayment for VMware software and threatening to shut down critical systems. The lawsuit is part of a broader pattern of customer complaints about 800-1,500% price increases following Broadcom's acquisition of VMware.