Microsoft to Sell Teams Separately from Office Globally
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.
Background
- Microsoft will sell its chat and video app Teams separately from its Office product globally.
- Teams, added to Office 365 in 2017, replaced Skype for Business and gained popularity during the pandemic for its video conferencing capabilities.
- Rivals argue that bundling the products gives Microsoft an unfair advantage.
Recent Developments
Microsoft started selling the two products separately in the EU and Switzerland on Oct. 1 last year.
Microsoft’s Response
A Microsoft spokesperson stated, “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.”
New Offerings
Microsoft introduced new commercial Microsoft 365 and Office 365 suites that exclude Teams in regions outside the EEA and Switzerland, along with a standalone Teams offering for Enterprise customers in those regions.
Customer Options
Starting April 1, customers can choose to continue with their current licensing deal, renew, update, or switch to the new offers.
Pricing
For new commercial customers, prices for Office without Teams range from $7.75 to $54.75 depending on the product, while Teams Standalone will cost $5.25. Prices may vary by country and currency.
Antitrust Concerns
Despite the unbundling, Microsoft may still face EU antitrust charges due to criticism from rivals regarding fees and compatibility of their messaging services with Office Web Applications in their own services.
Microsoft, with a history of EU antitrust fines, risks a substantial fine if found guilty of antitrust breaches.
