Microsoft says it’s going to change the best way it sells its Groups videoconferencing service to enterprise clients in Europe in a push to deal with issues raised in a European Union antitrust investigation.
The software program large stated Thursday that it plans to supply enterprise clients the possibility to purchase a lower-priced model of its productiveness suites that doesn’t embrace the videoconferencing app. New clients would nonetheless have the choice of buying Groups individually if they need the service.
“We imagine this can be a constructive step that may begin to result in fast and significant adjustments available in the market,” stated Nanna-Louise Linde, Microsoft’s vice chairman for European authorities affairs.
Microsoft made the announcement in a weblog put up printed Thursday morning. It stated the adjustments would take impact originally of October and apply within the European Financial Space, a bunch of European nations that excludes the U.Ok. The adjustments can even apply in Switzerland.
The European Fee, the bloc’s govt physique, stated Thursday that it had taken notice of Microsoft’s announcement. A spokeswoman declined to touch upon whether or not the transfer would assist to deal with officers’ issues.
When it launched its investigation in July, the fee stated it was involved that Microsoft’s apply of bundling the Groups app with its productiveness software program may quantity to an abuse of the corporate’s dominant place.
The fee additionally alleged that Microsoft may need restricted interoperability between its productiveness suites—which embrace Microsoft Phrase, Excel and PowerPoint—and different merchandise that compete with Groups.
The investigation, which is ongoing, is the primary formal EU probe that Microsoft has confronted in additional than a decade. Competitors watchdogs in Europe and the U.S. beforehand focused the corporate within the Nineteen Nineties and 2000s. These earlier instances targeted on Microsoft’s bundling of its Web Explorer browser and its media participant with the Home windows working system.
Microsoft is individually pursuing a last-ditch try and safe regulatory approval from the U.Ok.’s competitors authority to purchase videogaming firm Activision Blizzard.
Microsoft stated in its weblog put up Thursday that it deliberate to supply variations of its productiveness suites that don’t embrace Groups for two euros much less every month, equal to $2 a month. That change would apply to most enterprise clients within the area, the corporate stated, and Groups would nonetheless be accessible for brand spanking new clients to purchase individually.
Clients who already pay for a Microsoft productiveness suite with Groups, and a small subset of recent clients, can proceed to have these merchandise packaged collectively if they need, Microsoft stated.
The corporate stated it might additionally make it simpler for purchasers utilizing rival apps and providers to show and edit paperwork and different merchandise that had been created utilizing Microsoft’s productiveness instruments.
The EU investigation originated with a criticism lodged in 2020 by business-messaging app Slack, which stated Microsoft was forcing firms to put in Groups and blocking its removing. Slack Applied sciences is now owned by business-software firm Salesforce.
Salesforce didn’t instantly reply to a request for touch upon the adjustments Microsoft introduced Thursday.
Supply: Live Mint