Microsoft to separate Teams and Office globally

BRUSSELS — Microsoft will sell its chat and video app Teams separately from its Office product globally, the US tech giant said on Monday, six months after it unbundled the two products in Europe in a bid to avert a possible European Union antitrust fine.

The European Commission has been investigating Microsoft's tying of Office and Teams since a 2020 complaint by the Salesforce-owned competing workspace messaging app Slack.

Teams, which was added to Office 365 in 2017 for free, subsequently replaced Skype for Business and became popular during the pandemic due in part to its videoconferencing.