Tag: office

Microsoft to Separate Teams and Office Globally Amid Antitrust Scrutiny

Microsoft will sell its chat and video app Teams separately from its Office product globally, the US tech giant said on Monday, six months after it unbundled the two products in Europe in a bid to avert a possible EU antitrust fine.

The European Commission has been investigating Microsoft’s tying of Office and Teams since a 2020 complaint by Salesforce-owned competing workspace messaging app Slack.

Teams, which was added to Office 365 in 2017 for free, subsequently replaced Skype for Business and became popular during the pandemic due in part to its video conferencing.

Rivals, however, said packaging the products together gives Microsoft an unfair advantage. The company started selling the two products separately in the EU and Switzerland on August 31 last year.

“To ensure clarity for our customers, we are extending the steps we took last year to unbundle Teams from M365 and O365 in the European Economic Area and Switzerland to customers globally,” a Microsoft spokesperson said.

“Doing so also addresses feedback from the European Commission by providing multinational companies more flexibility when they want to standardise their purchasing across geographies.”

Microsoft said in a blogpost that it was introducing a new lineup of commercial Microsoft 365 and Office 365 suites that do not include Teams in regions outside the EEA (European Economic Area) and Switzerland, and also a new standalone Teams offering for Enterprise customers in those regions.

Starting April 1, customers can either continue with their current licensing deal, renew, update or switch to the new offers.

For new commercial customers, prices for Office without Teams range from $7.75 to $54.75 (roughly from Rs. 646 to Rs. 4,566) depending on the product while Teams Standalone will cost $5.25 (roughly Rs. 437). The figures may vary by country and currency. The company did not disclose prices for current packaged products.

Microsoft’s unbundling may not be enough to stave off EU antitrust charges which will likely be sent to the company in the coming months as rivals criticise the level of the fees and the ability of their messaging services to function with Office Web Applications in their own services, sources said.

Microsoft, which has racked up EUR 2.2 billion ($2.4 billion or roughly Rs. 20,016 crore) in EU antitrust fines in the past decade for tying or bundling two or more products together, risks a fine of as much as 10 percent of its global annual turnover if found guilty of antitrust breaches.

© Thomson Reuters 2024

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Microsoft to Unbundle Teams From Office Product to Avert EU Antitrust Fine

Microsoft will unbundle its chat and video app Teams from its Office product and make it easier for rival products to work with its software, the US company said on Thursday in a move aimed at staving off a possible EU antitrust fine.

The proposed changes came a month after the European Commission launched an investigation into Microsoft’s tying of Office and Teams following a complaint by Salesforce-owned workspace messaging app Slack in 2020.

Microsoft’s preliminary concessions failed to address concerns. The EU competition enforcer on Thursday said it took note of the company’s announcement and declined further comment.

Teams was added to Office 365 in 2017 for free. It eventually replaced Skype for Business and gained in popularity during the pandemic due in part to its video conferencing.

“Today we are announcing proactive changes that we hope will start to address these concerns in a meaningful way, even while the European Commission’s investigation continues and we cooperate with it,” Nanna-Louise Linde, Microsoft’s vice president for European government affairs said in a blog post.

She said the changes seek to address two EU concerns, “that customers should be able to choose a business suite without Teams at a price less than those with Teams included, and that we should do more to make interoperability easier between rival communication and collaboration solutions and Microsoft 365 and Office 365 suites”.

The changes, effective from October 1, will apply in Europe and Switzerland. 

Office without Teams will be sold at a lower price, EUR 2 (nearly Rs. 180) less per month or EUR 24 (nearly Rs. 2,160) per year to Microsoft’s core enterprise customers, which represent most of the company’s commercial business in Europe.

New enterprise customers can buy Teams standalone and separately for EUR 5 (nearly Rs. 450) per month or EUR 60 (nearly Rs. 5,400) per year, while existing enterprise customers who already have a suite with Teams can choose to keep it or move to a without-Teams suite. 

New support resources will be introduced to help customers and independent software vendors who want to remove data from Teams and used it in another product.

Microsoft will also develop a new method for hosting the Office web applications within competing apps and services similar to what it does with Teams. 

The stakes are high for the US tech giant which racked up EUR 2.2 billion (nearly Rs. 19,800 crore) in EU antitrust fines in the previous decade for tying or bundling two or more products together but which has since then sought a more conciliatory approach with regulators.

© Thomson Reuters 2023

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Microsoft Said to Have Offered to Charge for Its Office Product to Address EU Antitrust Concerns

Microsoft has offered to charge different prices for its Office product with and without its Teams app to stave off a possible EU antitrust investigation and fine, two people familiar with the matter said.

Microsoft has been seeking to address the EU competition enforcer’s concerns since last year after Salesforce-owned workspace messaging app Slack complained to the European Commission, other people familiar with the matter told Reuters in December.

Slack in 2020 alleged that Microsoft has unfairly integrated its workplace chat and video app Teams into its Office product. The US tech giant introduced Teams in 2017 targeting the fast-growing and lucrative workplace collaboration market.

The European Commission on Thursday said there were other complainants besides Slack.

“We have received several complaints regarding Microsoft, including by Slack, regarding Microsoft’s conduct in relation to its Teams product. As you know the assessment is ongoing so we cannot comment further,” a spokesperson said.

Microsoft said it continued to engage cooperatively with the Commission and was “open to pragmatic solutions that address its concerns and serve customers well”.

Salesforce declined to comment.

The EU antitrust watchdog is seeking feedback from Microsoft rivals on its proposal, the people said.

In the last decade, the European Commission fined Microsoft EUR 2.2 billion (nearly Rs. 19,800 crore) for practices in breach of EU competition rules, including tying or bundling two or more products together.

© Thomson Reuters 2023  
 

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