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>Teams is not preinstalled with Windows; it's part of a suite of products. Most businesses are buying that suite for Word/Excel. Teams comes along with it for

by treis 6y ago

>Teams is not preinstalled with Windows; it's part of a suite of products. Most businesses are buying that suite for Word/Excel. Teams comes along with it for free from their perspective. That can definitely be anti-competitive. I agree that Slack's case is pretty weak here. It's hard to see the harm to the consumer when Microsoft's bundle is cheaper than Slack's lowest paid plan.

nojito 6y ago
How is buying a productivity suite anti-competitive? There is nothing stopping businesses from using Slack.
- IshKebab 6y ago
  Microsoft have a monopoly on office software. All businesses more or less have to buy Microsoft Office. Microsoft bundles Teams for free with it. There is something stopping businesses from using Slack - the fact that Microsoft gives them Teams for free. To be honest I doubt this will be a successful case. Companies get away with this all the time. I think the Windows/IE case is the only instance I've ever heard of something coming from it.
- mortehu 6y ago
  You can't pay for Excel without also paying for Teams. Why would you pay for two team chat solutions? Teams is not actually free for people who don't want the rest of Office. That being said, I don't this should be illegal.
  - topkai22 6y ago
    There is a free version of Teams now: https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/microsoft-365/microsoft-teams/free https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/microsoft-365/microsoft-team... Office web apps also have free tiers, although I don't know if there are business licensing restrictions.
coredog64 6y ago
Skype for Business (or whatever the legacy chat product is or has been called) dates back to 2007 and was typically present in your EA seat license bundle. Slack might be better than Skype, but it’s weird to suggest that getting into a market with an established history suddenly becomes anti-competitive only as soon as your competitor actually produces something that’s not a raging dumpster fire.
- treis 6y ago
  Skype For Business was a separate product. It's only when rolling it into the office suite that it becomes problematic. And that is only because of the dominant position Word/Excel/PPT hold. I personally don't think it's anti-competitive but I at least see the argument that can be made.
  - hcurtiss 6y ago
    Skype for Business has always been an Office 365 install.
    - treis 6y ago
      I definitely could be wrong but I thought at one point they were billed separately. Or at least there was a package you could get without Skype.
      - MangoCoffee 6y ago
        it was. two years ago i changed job and the current employer use Skype for business as it was part of Office 365. we moved off Skype when Windows Team roll out.
whywhywhywhy 6y ago
If I buy Adobe Creative Cloud for Photoshop and Illustrator is it anti-competitive that I get Premier for "free"?

by treis 6y ago

nojito 6y ago

How is buying a productivity suite anti-competitive? There is nothing stopping businesses from using Slack.

IshKebab 6y ago
Microsoft have a monopoly on office software. All businesses more or less have to buy Microsoft Office. Microsoft bundles Teams for free with it. There is something stopping businesses from using Slack - the fact that Microsoft gives them Teams for free. To be honest I doubt this will be a successful case. Companies get away with this all the time. I think the Windows/IE case is the only instance I've ever heard of something coming from it.
mortehu 6y ago
You can't pay for Excel without also paying for Teams. Why would you pay for two team chat solutions? Teams is not actually free for people who don't want the rest of Office. That being said, I don't this should be illegal.
- topkai22 6y ago
  There is a free version of Teams now: https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/microsoft-365/microsoft-teams/free https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/microsoft-365/microsoft-team... Office web apps also have free tiers, although I don't know if there are business licensing restrictions.

coredog64 6y ago

Skype for Business (or whatever the legacy chat product is or has been called) dates back to 2007 and was typically present in your EA seat license bundle. Slack might be better than Skype, but it’s weird to suggest that getting into a market with an established history suddenly becomes anti-competitive only as soon as your competitor actually produces something that’s not a raging dumpster fire.

treis 6y ago
Skype For Business was a separate product. It's only when rolling it into the office suite that it becomes problematic. And that is only because of the dominant position Word/Excel/PPT hold. I personally don't think it's anti-competitive but I at least see the argument that can be made.
- hcurtiss 6y ago
  Skype for Business has always been an Office 365 install.
  - treis 6y ago
    I definitely could be wrong but I thought at one point they were billed separately. Or at least there was a package you could get without Skype.
    - MangoCoffee 6y ago
      it was. two years ago i changed job and the current employer use Skype for business as it was part of Office 365. we moved off Skype when Windows Team roll out.

whywhywhywhy 6y ago

If I buy Adobe Creative Cloud for Photoshop and Illustrator is it anti-competitive that I get Premier for "free"?