Microsoft seeks to placate EU with pledges to unbundle Teams, Office

The Microsoft Teams app on a laptop arranged in New York, US, on Tuesday, June 25, 2024. Microsoft on Friday made fresh commitments to unbundle its Office 365 and Microsoft 365 software suites from its Teams workplace communication app in an effort to address competition concerns from European regulators and avoid a possible antitrust fine. The European Commission, which is the executive arm of the European Union, said in a statement Friday that Microsoft made a series of commitments to address concerns over the tying of Teams to its widely-used productivity tools, such as Word and Outlook. Under the proposals, Microsoft has said it will make versions of Office 365 and Microsoft 365 available without Teams at a reduced price, as well as allow customers to switch to the tools without Teams, including under existing contracts. Microsoft also committed to offer Teams' competitors increased interoperability with other Microsoft products and let customers move their data out of Teams to ... Read full article.