Schilit et al on Financial Shenanigans is instructive here.
Management might try playing this game to reach future bonuses staked to earnings targets.
Microsoft did it in the late 90s with unearned revenue reporting as a way to avoid bringing additional regulatory attention to their anti-competitive practices.
Enron did it in the early oughts using undisclosed reserve accounts to smooth income while manipulating the energy markets after landing huge windfall profits in its trading division to the tune of over $1 billion.
USRobotics did it when they merged with 3Com in 1997 by not booking over $600 million in revenue during a two-month stub period---instead reporting $15.2 million, compared to $690.2 million in the preceding quarter---for 3Com's benefit after the merger closed.
A few months ago, Broadcom announced plans to acquire VMware for ~$61 billion in cash and stock[1]. Speculating, suppose VMware were to pull a similar stunt into the merger, but rather than using it to conceal bad faith projections circa 2019, a variant of the 1997 USRobotics+3Com merger playbook were to pan out undetected.
There's a part of me that (perhaps naively) wants to believe this press release isn't really about some weak $8 million penalty, but a warning shot to both VMware and Broadcom that the SEC is watching very closely.
[1] https://www.broadcom.com/company/news/financial-releases/602...