- VMware (VMW +0.1%) and reseller partner Carahsoft are paying $75.5M to settle a government suit (originally filed in 2010, on behalf of the GSA) accusing the company of "inaccurate pricing, inaccurate disclosures, and incomplete information about sales of VMware products to non-governmental customers," and of charging more than it did private companies for the same services.
- The prosecuting law firm calls the payout "one of the five largest recoveries against a technology company in the history of the False Claims Act." A VMware spokesperson: "VMware believes that its commercial sales practice disclosures to the GSA were accurate and denies that it violated the False Claims Act. The Company nevertheless elected to settle this lawsuit rather than engage in protracted litigation with one of its important customers – the federal government."
- The settlement comes a few months after the Pentagon cancelled a $1.6B software license contract with VMware following protests from rivals.