EU antitrust regulators recently raised their eyebrows at Microsoft’s bundling of its chat and video app, Teams, with its renowned Office product. This move, as deemed by regulators, breaches antitrust rules. Despite Microsoft’s attempt to globally unbundle Teams from its Office suite last year in response to EU antitrust concerns, the European Commission found these actions “insufficient to address its concerns.” The tech behemoth has acknowledged the need for additional changes to comply with the commission’s stipulations.
EU’s Gripes with MSFT’s Teams
Since 2019, the European Union Commission has been grappling with their concerns about Microsoft pairing Teams with its Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) applications like Office. This bundled offering has given Microsoft an edge in distribution, according to the Commission. Customers subscribing to SaaS productivity applications were not granted the option to opt-out of Teams, thereby diminishing consumer choice and interoperability with competitors, potentially stifling innovation and causing detriment to customers in the European Economic Area (EEA).
Market Outlook for Microsoft
Despite the regulatory scrutiny, analysts continue to hold a positive outlook on MSFT stock, maintaining a Strong Buy consensus rating with 34 Buy recommendations and one Hold. Over the last year, MSFT has witnessed a surge of more than 35%. Moreover, the average MSFT price target currently stands at $500.71, suggesting an upside potential of 11.8% from its current levels. These figures highlight strong investor confidence and a promising trajectory for Microsoft in the market.
