欧洲云基础设施服务提供商协会（CISPE）在欧盟普通法院作出裁决后，可继续对博通（Broadcom）保密支持其针对VMware并购案提出挑战的成员身份。该协会去年提起诉讼，寻求撤销欧盟委员会批准博通收购云计算和虚拟化巨头VMware的决定。CISPE认为，委员会在未对博通施加任何保护条件的情况下批准收购属于错误，这忽视了众多依赖VMware软件的欧洲云服务提供商及其客户的利益。
Euro cloud trade association CISPE can keep the identities of members backing its VMware merger challenge confidential from Broadcom following a ruling by the EU General Court. Cloud Infrastructure Services Providers in Europe filed an action last year seeking to annul the European Commission's approval of Broadcom's acquisition of the cloud and virtualization giant. CISPE believes the Commission erred in allowing the purchase to go ahead without imposing any conditions on Broadcom to protect the many European cloud providers and their customers who depend on VMware's software.
博通曾申请获取经过遮盖处理、可识别支持诉讼成员身份的信息，辩称需要这些信息来质疑诉讼的受理性。CISPE表示，该裁决允许案件在无需向博通披露这些身份的情况下继续推进。“这是一项关于保密性的程序性裁决，而非对案件实质的判决，但它消除了诉讼推进的当前障碍，”CISPE发言人告诉《国会山报》（The Hill）。
Broadcom sought access to redacted information identifying members supporting the action, arguing that it needed the information to challenge the action's admissibility. CISPE says the ruling allows the case to proceed without disclosing those identities to Broadcom. "It is a procedural ruling on confidentiality rather than a decision on the substance of the case, but it removes the immediate obstacle to the action moving forward," a CISPE spokesperson told The.
CISPE辩称，披露成员身份——这些成员是或曾是VMware客户——将使他们面临报复的重大风险，因为博通拥有市场支配地位。这些成员曾提供其与VMware商业关系的相关信息。就案件本身而言，CISPE称曾警告委员会，博通将利用VMware在私有云市场的主导地位重写许可条款，并重塑市场以利于自身。博通收购VMware于2023年11月完成仅一个月后，合作伙伴即被告知VMware渠道计划将于2024年初终止，博通还将放弃大多数VMware云服务提供商，仅保留营业额最大的少数精选合作伙伴。尽管博通首席执行官陈福阳（Hock Tan）公开表示涨价并非其策略，但涨价确实发生了。
CISPE argued that identifying the members, which are or have been VMware customers, would expose them to a significant risk of retaliation because of Broadcom's market power. Those members had supplied information about their commercial relationships with VMware. As far as the case itself goes, CISPE says it warned the Commission that Broadcom would use VMware's pre-eminent position in the private cloud market to rewrite licensing terms and reshape the market in its favor. Just a month after Broadcom's acquisition concluded in November 2023, partners were informed that VMware's channel program was to end in early 2024, and that Broadcom was also ditching the majority of VMware's Cloud Services Providers, keeping only a select few that had the largest turnover. Despite Broadcom CEO Hock Tan publicly stating that inflating prices was not his strategy, that is what happened.
AT&T 表示，博通提议将价格上调 1,050%。与此同时，在最近一项针对 VMware 客户的调查中，十分之九的受访者表示正在考虑转向替代方案。代表欧盟 48 家云基础设施服务提供商的 CISPE 称，目前获授权提供基于 VMware 服务的欧洲供应商不足 20 家，而此前曾超过一千家。
AT&T says that Broadcom proposed a 1,050 percent price increase, for example. Meanwhile, nine out of ten respondents to a recent survey of VMware customers said they were considering moving to alternatives. CISPE, which represents 48 cloud infrastructure service providers across the EU, says fewer than 20 European providers remain authorized to offer VMware-based services, down from more than a thousand.
针对最新裁决，CISPE 秘书长 Francisco Mingorance 宣称，这对该组织和欧洲法治而言是美好的一天。“此案在今天比我们提起诉讼时更为重要。自欧洲委员会在三年前无条件批准这笔交易以来，博通已拆解了欧洲 VMware 渠道，”他说。“被排除在外的供应商须在 2027 年 3 月 31 日前，将其基础设施或客户出售给博通指定的竞争对手，或选择关门歇业。这就是欧洲委员会曾被警告会出现的排斥效应。”
Commenting on the latest ruling, CISPE Secretary General Francisco Mingorance declared it a good day for the organization and for the rule of law in Europe. "The case matters even more today than when we filed it. In the three years since the European Commission waved this deal through without conditions, Broadcom has dismantled the European VMware channel," he said. "Those excluded have until 31 March, 2027, to sell their infrastructure or their customers to a competitor chosen by Broadcom, or to close. This is the foreclosure the European Commission was warned about."
我们询问 CISPE 在收购完成近三年后，希望达成何种结果。“当前的目标是让委员会的无条件批准被宣告无效，理由是其未能妥善评估该收购对欧洲云服务提供商和 VMware 渠道的影响，”CISPE 发言人告诉 The。委员会确实施加了关于与竞争对手硬件互操作性的条件，但 CISPE 认为这些条件并未解决云服务提供商面临的风险。“我们明白这希望渺茫（尽管有先例），”该发言人继续说道。“我们（连同其他方）还就博通合并后的行为，向竞争总司提交了竞争投诉。”
We asked CISPE what outcome it hoped to achieve, nearly three years after the acquisition closed. "The immediate objective is to have the Commission's unconditional clearance annulled, on the basis that it failed to properly assess the effect of the acquisition on European cloud providers and the VMware channel," CISPE's spokesperson told The. The Commission did impose conditions concerning interoperability with rival hardware, but CISPE argues these did not address the risks to cloud providers. "We appreciate that it's a long shot (although there is precedent)," the spokesperson continued. "We have (along with others) also filed a competition complaint with the Directorate-General for Competition against Broadcom for its actions post-merger."
所指的先例是欧盟委员会 2004 年批准索尼与 BMG 音乐部门的合并，两年后该批准被裁定不符合“必要的法律标准”。随后该交易经重新评估并再次获批。
The precedent referred to is the EC approval given to the merger of Sony and BMG's music divisions in 2004, which was ruled to be not of "the requisite legal standard" two years later. The deal was subsequently reassessed and re-cleared.
该发言人补充说：“归根结底，我们希望尽一切努力让博通坐到谈判桌前进行协商，并理想地终止其一些最恶劣的做法，以便欧洲云服务提供商能够再次以商业上公平且可行的方式为云客户提供支持。”本刊联系了欧盟委员会和博通请其置评，但截至发稿时双方均未回应。®
"Ultimately, we want to do whatever we can to bring Broadcom to the table to negotiate and ideally end some of its most egregious practices so that European cloud providers can once again support cloud customers in a commercially fair and viable manner," the spokesperson added. The asked both the European Commission and Broadcom to comment, but neither had responded by the time of publication. ®