Microsoft to unbundle Teams from Office — report

3 years ago 1

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Microsoft will stop bundling its Teams collaboration software from the Microsoft Office Productivity Suite, the Financial Times reports.

The tech giant made the decision in light of an official European Union (EU) antitrust investigation into some of its most significant regulatory concerns in over ten years.

The Financial Times’ sources say that, while companies can buy Office with a choice of whether or not Teams is included, “the mechanism on how to do this remains unclear”.

They also note that a deal isn’t yet sure as talks with EU regulators are ongoing.

Microsoft says it is aware of its responsibility in the EU as a prominent technology company.

“We continue to engage cooperatively with the commission in its investigation and are open to pragmatic solutions that address its concerns and serve customers well,” it added.

Regulators started the investigation after Microsoft Teams competitor Slack asked officials to make Microsoft sell Teams separately from the Office suite.

“We’re asking the EU to be a neutral referee, examine the facts and enforce the law,” it said at the time.

Microsoft has made a slew of changes to Teams, including the addition of a Premium subscription and a revamp of the platform.

In February 2023, Microsoft launched Teams Premium, which gives customers access to features powered by OpenAI’s GPT-3.5 language model.

Teams Premium offers features like intelligent recap, generating notes, tasks, and meeting highlights.

Following a promotional launch period when the subscription is available for $7 (R127) a month, Microsoft will charge $10 (R182) a month for the subscription. These dollar conversions exclude sales taxes like VAT.

The company started rolling out its revamped Teams platform on 27 March 2023.

The tech giant has reworked the video conferencing app from the ground up, making the installation process around three times faster and joining meetings twice as fast.

The new app uses 50% less RAM and takes up 70% less space on users’ hard drives. The tech giant also revamped Microsoft Teams’ user interface to match Windows 11 better.