Microsoft Announces 300 million MAU, Reportedly Decouples Teams from Office to Avoid an EU Antitrust Probe
Microsoft revealed that it has reached 300 million monthly active users (MAU) during its Q3 2023 earnings call.
Other notable takeaways from the earnings call include the Microsoft Cloud producing a quarterly revenue of more than $28 billion, a 22 percent increase which the business views as evidence of its “continued leadership” across the tech sector.
Generally, results surpassed expectations. Microsoft’s third-quarter revenue of $52.9 billion was up 7 percent and 10 percent in constant currency, which Amy Hood, CFO of Microsoft, attributed to the success of the sales teams and partners’ performance.
Satya Nadella, CEO of Microsoft, said:
Teams usage is at an all-time high and surpassed 300 million monthly active users this quarter, and we once again took share across every category from collaboration to chat to meetings to calling as we add value for existing customers and win new ones like ABN AMRO, Jaguar Land Rover, Mattress Firm, Unisys and Vodafone."
Nadella also noted that Microsoft had launched a new version of Teams that delivered up to two times faster performance while using 50 percent less memory, which he added will prepare them for the introduction of their AI-powered productivity tool, Copilot.
In other Microsoft news, the Financial Times reported on Monday that the tech giant will no longer automatically bundle Teams with Office in a move to avoid a formal EU antitrust investigation.
The alleged concession means that when prospective customers buy Office in the future, they will have the choice of whether the purchase will also include Teams or not. EU regulators had been in discussions with Microsoft since rivals Slack made an official complaint in 2020 claiming that Microsoft’s bundling of Office and Teams together is uncompetitive.
Microsoft told the Financial Times: "We are mindful of our responsibilities in the EU as a major technology company. We continue to engage cooperatively with the commission in its investigation and are open to pragmatic solutions that address its concerns and serve customers well."
However, the Financial Times‘ sources stressed that talks are ongoing between both parties and that the mooted deal has not yet been confirmed.
- Read more about Microsoft's MAU milestone
- Read more about Microsoft's alleged decoupling of Teams and Office
Slack, Teams and Zoom Receive Further Threat Protection from Abnormal Security
Cloud-based email security provider Abnormal Security has launched new threat detection capabilities for Teams, Zoom and Slack.
Abnormal’s three new email-like products are designed to help customers of the Teams, Zoom and Slack platforms detect suspicious messages, remedy compromised accounts, and provide data and management services for security posture. The new solutions are included as add-ons to the Abnormal Inbound Email Security offering and are generally available at launch.
Evan Reiser, Chief Executive Officer at Abnormal Security, said: "Abnormal’s platform uses an anomaly detection engine that ingests and correlates 45,000 plus behavioural signals from email platforms (Microsoft 365, Google Workplace), EDR platforms (CrowdStrike), authentication platforms (Okta), and email-like applications such as Slack, Microsoft Teams, and Zoom. Signals include sign-in events, geo-location, compromised identities, and communication patterns in messaging.”
