Microsoft will separate Teams and Office globally

BRUSSELS: Microsoft (MSFT.O) Opens a new tab It will sell its chat and video app Teams globally separately from its Office product, the US tech giant said on Monday, six months after it sold the two products in Europe. Had unbundled. Potential EU antitrust fine.The European Commission is investigating Microsoft’s addition of Office and Teams following a 2020 complaint by Salesforce-owned (CRM.N)Opens new tab in competing workspace messaging app Slack.Teams, which It was added to Office 365 for free in 2017, later replaced Skype for Business, and became popular during the pandemic due to its video conferencing. However, rivals said packaging the products together was unfair to Microsoft. Get benefit.

The company began selling both products separately in the EU and Switzerland on August 31 last year. A Microsoft spokesperson said, “To ensure clarity for our customers, we are not releasing the M365 and O365 in the European Economic Area and Switzerland. The steps taken last year to separate the teams are being extended to customers globally.” “Doing so also addresses the European Commission’s response by providing greater flexibility to multinationals when they expand across geographies. Want to standardize your purchases.”Microsoft said in a blogpost that it is introducing a new lineup of commercial Microsoft 365 and Office 365 suites that exclude Teams in regions outside the EEA (European Economic Area) and Switzerland. , and a new standalone Teams is also being introduced for enterprise customers in those regions. Region.From April 1, customers can either continue their current licensing deal, renew, update or switch to the new offer.

For new commercial customers, Office without Teams prices range from $7.75 to $54.75 depending on the product, while Teams standalone will cost $5.25. Figures may vary by country and currency. The company did not disclose prices of existing packaged products.Microsoft’s unbundling may not be enough to prevent EU antitrust charges, which are likely to be sent to the company in the coming months because of the level of rival fees and its The service itself criticizes the ability of its messaging services to work with Office Web applications. Microsoft, which has faced 2.2 billion euros ($2.4 billion) in EU antitrust fines over the past decade for tying or bundling two or more products together, could face a face-to-face trial if found guilty of antitrust, the sources said. There is a risk of fines up to 10% of annual turnover. Violation.