Skip to main content

Slack has filed an antitrust complaint against Microsoft, accusing it of blocking competition with its Teams app (MSFT, WORK)

* Slack said on Wednesday that it had filed a complaint against Microsoft with the European Commission over its Teams chat software * The complaint accuses Microsoft of engaging in anticompetitive practices by tying its Teams office chat app to its popular Office 356 productivity suite. * It comes as major tech firms like Apple, Amazon, Google, and Facebook have been scrutinized over antitrust concerns, which Microsoft has largely dodged until now. * Microsoft is Slack's biggest competitor in the work communication software space, and both have grown throughout the COVID-19 pandemic as more people have been working remotely.  * Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories. Workplace communication software maker Slack said on Wednesday that it had filed a competition complaint against Microsoft with the European Commission over its Teams software, a move that comes as tech giants have faced increased scrutiny over their size and influence on the market.  Slack is accusing Microsoft of engaging in anticompetitive practices by tying its Teams chat and collaboration app — which directly competes with Slack — to its popular Office 365 productivity suite.  "We're confident that we win on the merits of our product, but we can't ignore illegal behavior that deprives customers of access to the tools and solutions they want," Jonathan Prince, vice president of communications and policy at Slack, said in a press release. "Slack threatens Microsoft's hold on business email, the cornerstone of Office, which means Slack threatens Microsoft's lock on enterprise software." The European Commission will have to review Slack's complaint before deciding whether to launch an investigation into Microsoft.  Microsoft's Teams app is Slack's biggest competitor in the workplace communication software space. Both companies have boomed during the coronavirus pandemic as businesses around the world were forced to shift to remote work arrangements. Microsoft said in March that it had added 12 million daily active users for Teams in a single week, while Slack said around the same time that it had added 7 million new paid users since February.  "Teams and Slack are in a fierce battle for market share," Wedbush Securities analyst Dan Ives previously told Business Insider's Paayal Zaveri, adding: "This trend is accelerating and is probably going to continue to accelerate over the coming months as more employees around the world are working remote." Microsoft was the subject of a historic antitrust battle in the late 1990s, when Judge Thomas Penfield Jackson ruled that its dominance of the PC market deemed it a monopoly. But it has dodged the mounting scrutiny that other large American tech companies like Apple, Amazon, Google, and Facebook have faced in recent years. The CEOs of these companies are set to testify before Congress about possible antitrust practices on July 27. Brad Smith, Microsoft's president, has recently been outspoken about the importance of facilitating competition in the tech industry when it comes to app stores. He was recently tapped by the House of Representative's antitrust subcommittee to share his perspective ahead of the July 27  hearing given Microsoft's experience, according to reports from Bloomberg and The Information. During that conversation, Smith is said to have raised concerns about the way Apple, a Microsoft competitor, manages its App Store. The App Store has come under scrutiny for potentially anticompetitive behavior. "The time has come, whether we are talking about DC or Brussels, for a much more focused conversation about the nature of app stores, the rules that are being put in place, the prices and the tolls that are being extracted and whether there is really a justification in antitrust law for everything that has been created," Smith also previously said during a livestreamed Politico event on June 18. Join the conversation about this story » NOW WATCH: Pathologists debunk 13 coronavirus myths
https://bit.ly/3jwL4ar

Popular posts from this blog

How to enable the text-to-speech feature on your Kindle Fire device to hear text read aloud

* You can enable the text-to-speech feature on your Kindle Fire device to have written content read aloud. * Both Kindle content and your personal documents can utilize the text-to-speech feature. * Text-to-speech inputs are also available for languages other than English and can be downloaded via the progress bar within the book itself. * Visit Business Insider's Tech Reference library for more stories. If you are vision-impaired or simply want to hear your book or document aloud rather than reading the text, Kindle Fire has a text-to-speech feature that will translate the written words to audio so you can listen aloud. Best of all, text-to-speech is not only available for Kindle books but also for many (though not all) personal text files. Turning on text-to-speech is easy and should only take a few seconds. Books in the Kindle store will even notify you if the capability is available before you purchase, though the feature must be turned on within the book or document itse...
Read more

The NSA warned staff that smartphone apps can track them. Here are their recommendations to avoid tracking.

* The NSA warned members of the US military and intelligence community this week that their smartphone apps could be tracking them and put their security at risk. * In guidance issued Tuesday, the agency noted that many apps make use of WiFi, GPS, and Bluetooth to collect cellphone location information, which is typically sold to advertisers or third parties. * The agency recommended specific steps for staff to reduce their data exposure, like restricting app permissions and reducing web browsing on their smartphones. * Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories. The National Security Administration warned staff that the amount of data their smartphones track could pose a national security risk in new guidance issued Tuesday. The guidance highlights a practice that's common across Silicon Valley products but rarely understood by consumers: smartphones are constantly gathering information on users' location, through a combination of apps, the smartphone's o...
Read more

All the coolest features of every Tesla vehicle ever made or unveiled, ranked (TSLA)

* Tesla's vehicles are and always have been crammed with great ideas. * These range from touchscreen interfaces to innovative battery designs to staggering acceleration. * I've driven or experienced every vehicle Tesla has ever sold or intends to sell in the future. * Here are all my favorite features, ranked. * Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories. In about two decades, Tesla has done what everyone in the auto industry thought was impossible: create an all-electric brand that could sell hundreds of thousands of vehicles. Tesla could have done that in a boring or modest way, developing  the equivalent of an electric VW Beetle. Instead, Tesla made fantastically compelling cars that are fast, look amazing, and are packed with features. Here's a rundown of all my favorites, ranked from bottom to top: FOLLOW US: On Facebook for more car and transportation content! Tesla has been in business for 17 years. In that period of time, it's consisten...
Read more