Microsoft said Monday that it will separate Teams from the rest of its Office suite. According to an exclusive report from Reuters, the tech giant will separate the two products in a possible attempt to avoid antitrust sanctions.
The global move came six months after Microsoft dropped Teams from its Office product in Europe. The European Commission has been examining the Teams and Office suite since 2020, when Microsoft competitor Slack filed an antitrust complaint.
Microsoft tied Teams into its “dominant Office product, forcing its installation and blocking its removal,” David Schellhase, Slack’s general counsel, told The Verge at the time.
A screen shows a virtual meeting with Microsoft Teams at ISE 2024. Photo by Cesc Maymo/Getty Images
Microsoft responded to the complaint by “proactively” separating Teams from Office in the EU to “support a healthy competitive environment,” according to an August blog post from the company.
Data from Sensor Tower cited by Reuters found that the size of the Microsoft Teams user base in the region has remained largely the same since then.
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The global move announced today expands what Microsoft began doing last year in the EU, according to a Microsoft spokesperson’s statement to Reuters.
Microsoft has had to pay heavy fines to the EU over antitrust issues in the past, from the record $1.4 billion the company was forced to pay in 2004 to the $732 million paid in 2013.