Microsoft to unbundle Teams with Office 365 & Microsoft 365 amid EU probe
From April 1, Microsoft Teams and Office users can switch to one of the new offerings.
Microsoft (Reuters)
NEW DELHI: Following an antitrust investigation by the European Union (EU), Microsoft will reportedly unbundle Teams with Office 365 and Microsoft 365.
From April 1, Microsoft Teams and Office users can switch to one of the new offerings.
The company will also launch a fresh lineup of commercial Microsoft 365 and Office 365 suites that do not include Teams, according to media reports.
The announcement came after Microsoft unbundled the products in Europe. The antitrust ruling is yet to be announced.
“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 was quoted as saying.
“Doing so also addresses feedback from the European Commission by providing multinational companies more flexibility when they want to standardize their purchasing across geographies," the spokesperson added.
Microsoft Teams has around 320 million monthly active users (MAUs) globally.
In its probe, the European Commission had said: “The Commission is concerned that Microsoft may be abusing and defending its market position in productivity software by restricting competition in the European Economic Area (‘EEA’) for communication and collaboration products."