A month later we revealed that Broadcom intended to discontinue VMware's channel program, and that some solution providers/ resellers would be transitioned to its own scheme, but on an invitation-only basis, from February.

Chatter among some in the industry is that Broadcom is only interested in keeping the largest and most profitable customers, and the company simply doesn't care about the smaller users and the providers that service them.

"This all sounds very much like Broadcom taking an aggressive approach to its route to market and focusing on those partners that can deliver growth and significant revenue," said Omdia chief analyst Roy Illsley.

This would be ironic as Broadcom itself used the spin that its takeover of VMware would actually lead to more competition in the cloud market, back when it was trying to sweet talk European Union antitrust regulators into giving it the go-ahead.

The notion that the Broadcom-VMware merger might stifle competition was precisely why various regulatory bodies around the globe decided to look closely at the deal before allowing it to proceed.

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