This move has been perceived as incrementally positive for Zoom, a video chat product that competes with Microsoft's Teams. The decision follows a complaint lodged by Slack, which is now owned by Salesforce, about Microsoft's behavior in 2020.

While Microsoft's suite of communications products, including Teams, has posed a challenge for Zoom, the video chat app witnessed a surge in popularity during the Covid pandemic. However, Zoom's revenue growth has slowed down in recent times, and it has struggled to compete with Microsoft. Slack, on the other hand, has long desired this type of split and had filed an antitrust complaint with the European Commission last year, alleging illegal tying of Teams into Office.

With Microsoft's announcement, some customers may have to pay more to access the same features. For instance, new clients of Office 365 E3 will face an additional cost of $3 per person per month with the split. According to analysts at Mizuho Securities, customers consider Zoom a superior platform compared to Teams and other vendors. However, the bundling of Teams with Office 365 has been enticing for customers, hence the unbundling could alleviate some enterprise churn headwinds.

Existing customers who already pay for the Microsoft bundle can choose to continue using Teams and Office as is, or switch to the new lineup upon their contract anniversary or renewal. In 2021, Microsoft generated approximately $53 billion in revenue from Office, including Teams, marking a 14% increase compared to 2020. CEO Satya Nadella revealed that Teams had over 320 million monthly active users.

Salesforce, a competitor to Microsoft in various domains, including communications and collaboration tools, acquired Slack in 2021 for a whopping $27 billion, representing its most expensive purchase since its inception 25 years ago. Slack had expressed concerns about Teams back in 2019, with its founder and former CEO, Stewart Butterfield, stating that despite many top customers using parts of Microsoft's Office 365 suite, they were choosing Slack for messaging over the Teams app.

Following the complaints and regulatory scrutiny, Microsoft has started selling separate subscriptions for Teams and other productivity software in 31 European countries. This step was taken to provide more flexibility to multinational companies looking to standardize their purchasing across different geographies. The measures taken in Europe will now be extended globally, offering clarity to Microsoft's customers.

Although Zoom's stock experienced a minor decline of about 1% upon the announcement, Salesforce shares rose by 0.4%. Neither Zoom nor Salesforce provided immediate comments on the matter when approached for clarification.

This decision by Microsoft comes in light of ongoing regulatory concerns surrounding big tech companies, as they navigate issues related to competition and market dominance.