Microsoft splits meeting and chat app Teams from its Office software globally

02 April 2024 , 13:30

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The decision to split Teams from Microsoft’s Office suite of apps in Europe last year came in response to an investigation from EU competition regulators (Image: Copyright 2021 The Associated Press. All rights reserved)

Microsoft is to split its meeting and chat app Teams from its Office software globally after making a similar move in Europe last year.

The tech heavyweight stated that this global step would help "ensure clarity for customers". The partition of Teams from Microsoft's other Office apps in Europe happened after EU competition regulators started to investigate following a complaint from workplace messaging rival Slack in 2020.

Slack argued it was unfair that Microsoft had an advantage by bundling Teams with Office. Microsoft said that these changes won't affect European customers already using the modified system, which first came into effect in the European Economic Area and Switzerland in October last year.

They originally made these changes to "address concerns that have been raised with the European Commission". Back in 1998, a landmark competition lawsuit by the US Justice Department against Microsoft caused the company to soften its hold on what software could be installed on its products.

This lead to the rise in other internet web browsers' popularity. Competing workplace messaging apps are hoping for a similar boost in their market share following Microsoft's decision to separate Teams from Office.

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In a blog post about the change, the company confirmed that the new standalone Microsoft Teams for businesses will cost £4.18.

Lawrence Matheson