Microsoft has decided to unbundle Teams from Office at a global level, according to a new Reuters report today. The move comes around half a year after the company did the exact same thing for EU markets, at that time wanting to avert a possible antitrust fine from the EU.
Now this is going global, so Teams will no longer be bundled with Microsoft 365 and Office 365, which it’s been a part of since 2017. A Microsoft spokesperson said:
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. Doing so also addresses feedback from the European Commission by providing multinational companies more flexibility when they want to standardize their purchasing across geographies.
Thus, starting today, Microsoft is offering Teams as a standalone product, priced at $5.25 per user per month – but keep in mind that Enterprise-level pricing varies a lot based on country, currency, and other factors. Prices for Office without Teams are now between $7.75 to $54.75, depending on the exact package you go for.
Current customers can choose to continue with their current licensing deal, renew, update, or switch to the new offers if they want to.
Microsoft’s rivals have long claimed such bundling of products and services gives the company an unfair advantage, so we’ll see if they can compete better now.