Carbon Black · Benchmark

What enterprises actually paid for Carbon Black App Control in 2025.

The Broadcom rate card and the negotiated price are two different numbers. The gap, by enterprise size and by region, is the benchmark every buyer should hold before opening a 2026 renewal.

By The Negotiation Desk · Carbon Black · Archetype: The Benchmark

Published 11 Aug 2025

The Carbon Black App Control deals our engagement leads observed in 2025 closed across a wider range of per agent prices than the published rate card suggests. The buyers who walked away with the best closing prices were rarely the largest. They were the buyers who held a benchmark before they opened the conversation. The benchmark is the per agent price actually paid, segmented by estate size and by region, against contracts our team either negotiated or reviewed on disclosure. The data below is verified against signed contracts. It is the benchmark we hand to clients before they open a 2026 renewal. The reason to publish it is that the asymmetry between the seller's rate card knowledge and the buyer's negotiation experience is what allows the renewal quote to come in 30 to 60 percent above where it could close.

How the benchmark is constructed

The benchmark is built from 23 Carbon Black App Control contracts our engagement leads either negotiated or reviewed on disclosure during 2025. The sample is segmented by estate size (under 5,000 agents, 5,000 to 25,000 agents, over 25,000 agents) and by region (North America, EMEA, Asia Pacific). The price is normalised to a per agent annual rate. The rate is calculated after support and rule allowance line items but before any bundled adjacent product. The deals where App Control was bundled with another Carbon Black or Symantec product have been excluded to prevent the bundle distortion from skewing the comparison.

The rate card price is the price the seller would quote on a first round opening for a typical configuration. It is not invented. It is the median opening per agent rate across the 23 contracts at first quote. The negotiated price is the price at signed contract. The gap between the two is the renewal economics that the buyer can capture with disciplined negotiation, an accurate inventory, and the correct sequencing.

The numbers by estate size

Under 5,000 agents · Opening per agent$58 to $74

Under 5,000 agents · Closed per agent$41 to $52

5,000 to 25,000 agents · Opening per agent$44 to $61

5,000 to 25,000 agents · Closed per agent$27 to $39

Over 25,000 agents · Opening per agent$31 to $47

Over 25,000 agents · Closed per agent$18 to $28

The pattern in the data is consistent. The opening to closed gap widens as the estate grows. The under 5,000 segment closes at roughly 70 percent of opening. The 5,000 to 25,000 segment closes at roughly 60 percent of opening. The over 25,000 segment closes at roughly 50 percent of opening. The implication is not that small buyers should pay more, it is that small buyers are more frequently quoted at a price the deal desk knows is well above the closing range. Buyers without the benchmark accept the opening as the rate card position. Buyers with the benchmark do not.

"The opening quote is not the rate card. It is the seller's opening position. The benchmark is what the rate card actually clears at, and the gap is the renewal."Carbon Black Engagement Lead, The Desk

The numbers by region

North America · Median closed per agent$34

EMEA · Median closed per agent$31

Asia Pacific · Median closed per agent$38

Regulated industries premium (banking, healthcare)+9% to +14%

Public sector discount (federal, state, local)11% to 17% below median

Median support tier uplift over base agent rate14% to 22%

The regional spread is narrower than the size spread. North America and EMEA close within three dollars of each other on the median. Asia Pacific closes slightly higher, which we attribute to the smaller local Carbon Black field motion and the higher implementation cost embedded in the contract. The regulated industries premium is real but smaller than the regulated industries premium on adjacent products such as DLP. The public sector discount reflects framework pricing rather than negotiation leverage.

What we have seen on live deals

A Fortune 500 manufacturer with 19,200 agents under contract opened at $58 per agent on the 2025 renewal quote, a quote built against the prior contract's rate. The benchmark we held put the deal in the closing range of $27 to $39. The buyer negotiated to $33 per agent across a three year term. The total closing reduction against the opening quote was 43 percent. The single largest move was a corrected support tier (covered separately in our endpoint coverage article), with a smaller secondary move on the rule allowance line.

A regional insurer with 3,400 agents opened at $66 per agent on a one year quote. The benchmark put the deal in the closing range of $41 to $52. The buyer held the renewal at $46 per agent on a two year term, a 30 percent reduction against opening. The smaller estate did not provide volume leverage, but the benchmark itself was sufficient to demonstrate that the opening was above the seller's closing range. The seller adjusted without escalation.

A third pattern is worth flagging. The opening to closed gap on the smallest estates is widening across 2025 and into 2026. The seller's deal desk has more headroom on quotes that fall outside the named account motion. Buyers with under 2,500 agents are seeing openings 40 to 80 percent above the closing range we observe in our book.

The takeaway

The gap between the opening Carbon Black App Control quote and the closing price is largest on the smallest estates and narrowest on the largest. The buyer who holds the benchmark before opening the conversation captures the gap. The buyer who does not, often accepts the opening as the rate card.
The regional spread is narrow. Asia Pacific closes slightly higher than North America and EMEA, but the size of the estate moves the closing price more than the region.
The opening to closed gap is widening on smaller estates across 2025 and 2026. Buyers under 2,500 agents are seeing the widest openings. The benchmark matters most to the buyers who would otherwise have no comparison point.