Microsoft Said To Dodge Hefty EU Antitrust Fine Over Bundling Teams With Office: Report

Microsoft Corp. (MSFT) is reportedly set to dodge hefty antitrust fines in the European Union for bundling its Teams video conferencing software with the popular Office suite of productivity software.

According to a Bloomberg report citing people familiar with the matter, the EU received positive feedback on Microsoft’s offer to carve out Teams from Office as part of a settlement to resolve the antitrust probe.

Microsoft’s shares rose 0.34% in Thursday’s midday trade. Retail sentiment on Stocktwits around the company trended in the ‘bearish’ territory.

The EU is expected to make its decision in the coming weeks, the report added, stating that as part of the settlement terms, Microsoft will sell the Teams video conferencing software separately from its Office 365 and Microsoft 365 offerings. The commitments from Microsoft also require the company to enhance interoperability between rival software and its solutions. The decision is still in its draft form, the report added.

The antitrust probe was initiated after a 2019 complaint by messaging and team collaboration software, Slack, which was subsequently acquired by Salesforce Inc. (CRM) in 2021 for $27.7 billion.

In April, a Reuters report stated that Microsoft would offer to sell Teams separately worldwide in a bid to get ahead of regulators. "To ensure clarity for our customers, we are extending the steps we took last year to unbundle Teams from M365 and O365 in the European Economic Area and Switzerland to customers globally," a Microsoft spokesperson stated, according to the report.

MSFT stock is up 20% year-to-date and 24% over the past 12 months.

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