Facing an antitrust investigation in the EU, Microsoft has decided to pull its chat and conferencing app, Teams, from the Office 365 bundle and sell it as a separate app globally. Existing customers can choose to keep the current bundled deal or pick a new offer.
“Globally consistent licensing helps ensure clarity for customers and streamline decision making and negotiations,” Microsoft said in a press release. New customers will be required to pay $5.25 for a standalone Microsoft Teams app and Office packages, sans Teams, for $7.75 to $54.75.
In 2020, another business chat app, Slack, filed an anticompetitive complaint against Microsoft as Teams experience significant growth during the COVID-19 pandemic. Microsoft stripped Teams from Office for the first time last August in the EU after a commission began looking into whether the bundle infringed on competition rules. However, the company may still be fined up to 10% of its global annual turnover, despite the changes.
New customers
