Microsoft (MSFT) has avoided antitrust fines in Europe by agreeing to unbundle its Teams and Office software products.
The European Union (EU) says it has accepted commitments from Microsoft to unbundle its Teams workplace communication platform from its popular productivity apps.
The decision allows Microsoft to avoid what could have been hefty antitrust fines after the company was last year accused by the European Union of violating competition rules with the bundling of its Teams and Office products.
The unbundling agreement will run for seven years, according to Microsoft.
During that time, the Seattle-based technology giant will make versions of its Office 365 and Microsoft 365 software suites available at a reduced price without Teams.
The company will also allow customers with long-term licenses to switch to suites without Teams and allow clients to move data out of Teams to competing products.
The European Union opened an antitrust investigation into Microsoft in 2023 following a complaint by Salesforce (CRM), which has a rival chat service to Teams with its Slack platform.
MSFT stock has risen 20% this year to trade at $501.01 U.S. per share.
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