They got too greedy and put the frogs in the boiling water directly, then were surprised how many jumped out.

We all know how this play goes, they should have been more patient, promised treats for a year or two to calm skittish frogs, then slowly increased the water temp until it was boiling.

Trust is hard earned and easily lost.

Once these large customer started evaluating options and the engineers are furious with enough political power within the company to not go back using VMware. The war is over.

At this point they might as well open source VMware and work with those large customer again.

How would letting some accounts stay with channel partners entice people to stay? Can the partners charge less than Broadcom itself?