virtualization
Supermarket giant has turned to third-party support as court sets date to hear licensing dispute
UK retail giant Tesco is replacing VMware with an alternative product and pressing ahead with its licensing lawsuit against the virtualization pioneer's parent company, Broadcom, in a matter due to be heard by the UK's High Court starting in November 2027.The roots of the matter are a January 2021 contract that saw Tesco acquire perpetual licenses for VMware's vSphere Foundation and Cloud Foundation products, plus subscriptions to Virtzilla's Tanzu products.The supermarket giant also signed up for support services and software upgrades until 2026, with an option to extend that deal for four years. Computacenter signed up as a reseller and relied on Dell as the distributor of VMware's products. Tesco also uses some of Broadcom's mainframe software, and wanted to extend support for that too.
Tesco and VMware struck that deal before Broadcom acquired VMware. After the acquisition, Broadcom stopped selling standalone services for customers who did not adopt subscriptions for its software bundles. Broadcom was therefore unwilling to extend support for Tesco's VMware estate.
The supermarket sued Broadcom in mid-2025, alleging breach of contract and anti-competitive behavior.The case picked up again in late May with a flurry of filings that The Register has just digested.The new filings reveal that Tesco has decided to quit VMware and Broadcom's mainframe products, is rushing to migrate to alternatives, has turned to third-party support providers for its VMware estate, and alleges Broadcom is abusing its market power.
