Microsoft plans to unbundle Teams from Microsoft 365 and Office 365
The business said on Monday that Teams will no longer be a part of its productivity package and will instead be available for purchase separately for $5.25 per user per month.
Additionally, Office without Teams will now be available from Microsoft for $7.75 to $54.75 per person each month.
The computer giant's response to Slack, the widely used platform owned by Salesforce, is Microsoft Teams. Teams is a popular global tool that allows users to exchange files, have video conferences, and send messages.
Slack complained to the European Union in July 2020, claiming Microsoft was unfairly given an advantage by bundled Teams with Office.
The EU is still looking at Microsoft's Teams deployment, but in August 2023, Microsoft aims to separate Teams from Office throughout the EU.
The action was an attempt to allay whatever worries the European Commission, the EU's competition authority, could have had over Teams' implementation.
Microsoft's move on Monday could have been an additional move to address concerns that Slack and other parties may have had about Microsoft's Teams integration on a global scale.
The European Commission has the authority to punish Microsoft up to 10% of its yearly sales if it determines that the business is acting in an anti-competitive manner. In 2023, Microsoft brought in a record $211 billion in sales.