The comparison is intended for buyers preparing a finance brief on the current Broadcom contract and looking to anchor the conversation to a verifiable then versus now baseline. The table holds the pre acquisition pricing band, the early Broadcom era pricing band, and the 2026 pricing band against each product line. Numbers are drawn from the Desk's verified contract data, signed contract records inside the master plan, and the publicly observable repricing actions disclosed by enterprise buyers.
The table does not provide a recommendation. Pricing alone is not the right framing for a renewal decision. The pre acquisition pricing was attached to a different product packaging structure, a different bundling regime, and in several cases a perpetual licensing model rather than a subscription model. The table notes those differences. The right answer for a given buyer depends on the contracted entitlement, the bundling carried at renewal, audit posture, and the commercial options available on the renewal table.
| Product line | Pre acquisition (2021 to 2022) | Early Broadcom era (2023 to 2024) | Current 2026 band (verified) |
|---|---|---|---|
| VMware vSphere Enterprise Plus | $3,700 to $5,200 per CPU perpetual, with SnS at $840 to $1,180 annual. Perpetual licence remained on the price list throughout the period. | Perpetual product list withdrawn. Initial VCF subscription packaging at $280 to $480 per core annual on standalone vSphere where still orderable. | vSphere not orderable as a standalone product on most paper. Effective coverage delivered through VCF subscription at $320 to $540 per core annual. |
| VMware Cloud Foundation | VCF bundle priced per CPU perpetual at $15,800 to $22,400 per CPU with SnS at $3,600 to $5,100 annual across the standard configuration. | VCF subscription packaging introduced at $520 to $740 per core annual with core minimum imposed at the contract level. Bundle includes vSphere, vSAN, NSX, and Aria. | $640 to $920 per core annual at the negotiated 2026 range across the standard VCF bundle. Verified renewal trajectory uplift of +31 percent against the prior renewal year on standing models. |
| Symantec Endpoint plus EDR bundle | $32 to $56 per seat annual at the pre acquisition negotiated range across the standard endpoint plus EDR bundle. | $38 to $68 per seat annual at the negotiated range after the early portfolio consolidation. Combined entitlement structure expanded. | $24 to $46 per seat annual at the negotiated 2026 range. Verified renewal trajectory uplift of +18 to +34 percent against the prior renewal year on standing models, before negotiation. |
| Carbon Black EDR plus App Control | $36 to $62 per endpoint annual at the pre acquisition negotiated range across the EDR plus App Control bundle. | $42 to $74 per endpoint annual at the negotiated range after the early portfolio consolidation. Cloud Workload module priced separately. | $32 to $58 per endpoint annual at the negotiated 2026 range on the EDR plus App Control bundle. Verified renewal trajectory uplift of +22 to +34 percent against the prior renewal year on standing models. |
| CA API Gateway | Per gateway subscription priced at $22,000 to $48,000 per gateway annual at the pre acquisition negotiated range. Add on modules priced separately. | $26,000 to $58,000 per gateway annual at the negotiated range after the early portfolio consolidation. Bundling adjustments observed on multi gateway estates. | $28,000 to $64,000 per gateway annual at the negotiated 2026 range. Verified renewal trajectory uplift of +18 to +34 percent against the prior renewal year on standing models. |
| Mainframe MIPS capacity tier | MIPS capacity priced at $340 to $580 per MIPS annual across the standard CA mainframe portfolio at the pre acquisition negotiated range. | $380 to $640 per MIPS annual at the negotiated range. Capacity tier reconciliation tightened against the contracted entitlement. | $420 to $720 per MIPS annual at the negotiated 2026 range. Capacity squeeze pattern observed across the Desk's verified mainframe deals this quarter. |
| Brocade fibre channel SnS | Per director SnS at $2,400 to $4,800 per director annual across the standard fibre channel portfolio at the pre acquisition negotiated range. | $2,800 to $5,400 per director annual at the negotiated range. End of life timelines clarified on the Gen 6 portfolio. | $3,200 to $6,200 per director annual at the negotiated 2026 range. End of life support uplift pattern observed on the Gen 6 director estate. |
The then versus now comparison shows that on every product line in the table, the 2026 negotiated band is materially higher than the pre acquisition band in absolute terms, with the exception of Symantec Endpoint plus EDR, where the combined entitlement bundling and the negotiated range now sit below the pre acquisition band at the negotiated lower end. The most pronounced shift sits on the VMware Cloud Foundation line, where the perpetual to subscription transition makes a like for like band comparison structurally difficult and where the verified subscription range itself has continued to rise across the Broadcom era.
Pricing alone is not the right framing for a renewal decision. The pre acquisition bands attached to a different packaging structure, a different bundling regime, and in the VMware case a perpetual licensing model. The right framing for a buyer is the negotiated 2026 band against the buyer's current contracted entitlement, the bundling carried at renewal, audit posture, and the commercial options available on the renewal table. The Desk publishes this comparison so that the finance conversation can be anchored to a verifiable baseline, not so that the pre acquisition band becomes the negotiated target.
The Desk publishes this comparison in its evenhanded form and does not recommend any negotiated target. The buyer side workplan for a renewal grounded in verified benchmarking is described in the relevant service pages linked below.