Zoom CEO Says FTC Should Look at Microsoft Teams Bundle After EU Investigation

Brody Ford, Bloomberg News

The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) headquarters in Washington, DC, US, on Friday, Feb. 17, 2023. A slew of business groups joined the US Chamber of Commerce in opposing the FTC's proposal to ban non-compete agreements, arguing it would limit their ability to protect confidential information. , Photographer: Ting Shen/Bloomberg

(Bloomberg) -- Zoom Video Communications Inc. Chief Executive Officer Eric Yuan said the US Federal Trade Commission should look into Microsoft Corp.’s bundling of its video-conferencing software, Teams, in light of an investigation by the European Union.

“No matter what, you’ve got to be fair,” Yuan said Tuesday during the Goldman Sachs Communacopia + Technology Conference.

Yuan was asked his reaction to Microsoft’s announcement last week that it would split Teams from the company’s other major office software in Europe after regulatory pressure. “You should ask this question to the FTC as well,” Yuan added, referring to the US agency that oversees competition rules.

Microsoft has been under scrutiny from the EU, which is examining whether the company breached antitrust regulations by tying Teams to business products Microsoft 365 and Office 365. The world’s largest software maker said last week it would unbundle Teams and sell it separately in Europe beginning Oct. 1. The EU probe followed a complaint from Salesforce Inc.’s messaging platform Slack made three years ago.

Though Teams is its primary competitor, Zoom has been largely quiet on the bundling issue. Yuan compared the competition to sports, saying that even if you have a better team, you can’t win if the other side gets extra points for each shot. He added that customers are beginning to realize that the total cost of managing “the so-called free service” of competitors’ products is actually higher than using Zoom.

“We have huge competitors, sometimes they bundle everything together,” Yuan said earlier in the conversation, adding that Zoom can still work to provide better and faster innovations to its products and business model. Separately on Tuesday, Zoom announced its generative artificial intelligence tool would be offered at no additional cost for paying users.

--With assistance from Samuel Stolton.