AT&T filed a lawsuit [ PDF] against Broadcom, alleging that Broadcom is breaking a contract by refusing to provide a one-year renewal for support for perpetually licensed VMware software. Broadcom famously ended perpetual VMware license sales shortly after closing its acquisition in favor of a subscription model featuring about two bundles of products rather than many SKUs.

Broadcom's latest court filing alleged that AT&T’s lawsuit is an attempt to secure more time to transition to other software while still receiving discounted support services, which Broadcom has already phased out for perpetual license holders.

Counter-arguments in support spat paint unflattering picture of telco giant's IT estate Broadcom has claimed that AT&T plans to stop using VMware software, but has been tardy about making the move.… The allegation appears in a court filing related to the dispute initiated by AT&T over an extension of support services that we reported on September 5.