EU officials have questioned cloud providers for more information ahead of a key deadline in their argument with Broadcom (AVGO) over the licensing overhaul for VMware, Bloomberg reports

EU competition scrutiny of software licensing changes follows a familiar pattern: after an acquisition closes, customers and trade groups complain that the buyer has restructured terms to extract more from an installed base, and the Commission opens an information-gathering phase that can run for an extended period before any formal proceedings. Questioning third parties such as cloud providers, rather than the merging parties themselves, signals the inquiry is building a market picture from the demand side, a step that in past episodes of this kind has preceded either a formal investigation or quiet commitments extracted to close the file. Broadcom's track record with large acquisitions has historically involved aggressive post-deal repricing and portfolio rationalisation, which is precisely the conduct that tends to attract this kind of attention, though information requests alone are well short of a Statement of Objections. The channel to the equity is limited at this stage: precedent suggests the stock effect comes with formal charges or remedies, not with evidence collection, and any realistic remedy would touch licensing terms for a segment of the VMware revenue base rather than the broader business. What is worth noting next is whether the inquiry escalates to a formal case, whether complainants pursue parallel action in other jurisdictions, and any disclosure in company filings of the revenue share attached to the contested licensing model.