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Virtualization
CA and VMware both suing insurance giant
Broadcom has accused Allstate Insurance of dodging a software license audit that the insurer claims only happened after it decided to stop using VMware and CA software.
Those two Broadcom business units – CA and VMware – have brought copyright infringement lawsuits against Allstate.
The CA suit, filed in May 2025, alleges that the insurer breached contracts after the sale of its Employer Voluntary Benefits business to an outfit called StanCorp. The VMware suit, filed in December 2025, alleges that Allstate didn’t comply with contract terms that required it to participate in license audits.
Software license audits are not unusual. Vendors routinely include the right to conduct audits in their contracts, and those rights can extend beyond the term of a license so that software companies can be paid for all use of code under a time-limited contract. Some vendors, however, are known to audit more often and more vigorously than others, or to use audits to gain leverage during license renewal negotiations.
Allstate claims Broadcom’s decision to audit it was not entirely reasonable.
“This case is about VMware’s decision to initiate a haphazard ‘audit’ of Allstate, once it was aware that Allstate did not intend to renew its contracts with VMware or its sister company, CA,” the company stated in a June 12 filing.
That accusation came after months of conflict.
An Allstate filing in the CA matter claims that Broadcom launched four audits, covering “Tanzu,” “VMWare,” “Agile Operations” and “Mainframe.” Broadcom advised of its intent to audit around April 2025.
Broadcom alleges Allstate didn’t co-operate with the audits. “Throughout August and September 2025, VMware sent weekly follow‑ups. Allstate continued to stonewall and withheld the requested materials,” according to VMware’s claim.
Allstate says it simply didn’t have the resources to respond to four simultaneous probes.
One of the tools Broadcom uses during software audits is a set of scripts that detect software installations. Allstate acknowledges it received the scripts and other audit material.
Then on September 12, Broadcom alleges, Allstate dropped a bombshell: It had “removed VMware from all devices.” On October 1, the insurance giant apparently told the virtualization pioneer “all VMWare instances have been terminated and removed” – at least from an environment governed by an enterprise license agreement.
After terminating its VMware estate, Allstate said Broadcom’s audit scripts wouldn’t work. The insurer nevertheless completed an audit questionnaire, but Broadcom said the info in that document was “woefully incomplete.”
Both cases continue and, on June 12, Allstate filed a document that offered its view of the matter – and includes the allegation that Broadcom only ordered its audits once it realized Allstate was binning VMware and CA software.
Allstate also accuses Broadcom of making “vague, competing, and contradictory demands of Allstate, often in direct violation of its contractual agreements.”
Broadcom and Allstate tried alternative dispute resolution in both matters but have not found common ground. Courts have proposed the two matters adopt the same timeline, which will see Dispositive Motions – an attempt to resolve a case before a full trial – take place no later than May 17, 2027.
The Register has asked Allstate why it decided to stop using Broadcom software and if it has replaced it. We’ve not heard back at the time of writing.
However we understand that the relationship between Allstate and Broadcom has not been good for quite some time, and that the insurer decided to move away from both VMware and CA at around the time Broadcom’s acquisition of VMware closed.
VMware points to major clients such as the London Stock Exchange and Nationwide Bank as evidence big corporate entities trust it with their private clouds, and therefore the heart of the IT estate that powers their business and enables innovation. And this week, AWS also showed confidence in VMware by adding support for version 9.x of its Cloud Foundation suite.
However, The Reg has also learned of several big users quitting VMware - including T-Mobile, Tesco, and Western Union - sometimes under acrimonious circumstances. ®
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