Microsoft to unbundle Office and Teams globally following years-long criticism

Microsoft will introduce a new version of Microsoft 365 and Office 365 subscription service that excludes Teams, unbundling a suite following scrutiny from the European Union regulator and complaints from rival Slack. The move follows Microsoft agreeing to sell Office 365 suite sans Microsoft Teams offering in the EU and Switzerland last year. The company […]

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Apple dismisses Microsoft monopoly comparisons

A week after finding itself at the business end of a landmark lawsuit from the United States Department of Justice, Apple is staunchly denying any parallels between itself and Microsoft in the 1990s. It’s a comparison into which the U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland leaned heavily in last week’s filing. While portions of the United […]

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LinkedIn targets users caught between TikTok and what used to be Twitter

Two weeks ago, TechCrunch broke the news that LinkedIn was getting into games, helping users “deepen relationships” through puzzle-based interactions. And on Wednesday, TechCrunch reported that the Microsoft-owned social network was experimenting with short-form videos. It’s as if LinkedIn is targeting a whole new “type” of user — one caught in limbo somewhere between two […]

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Startups Weekly: What goes up must come down

Welcome to Startups Weekly — your weekly recap of everything you can’t miss from the world of startups. Sign up here to get it in your inbox every Friday. Helloooo, startup nerds! I spent much of this week in San Jose hanging out in the world of AI startups and tech giants at GTC, and […]

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Here’s how Microsoft is providing a ‘good outcome’ for Inflection AI VCs, as Reid Hoffman promised

Exactly how much Microsoft is paying all the investors of Inflection AI as part its oddly structured deal to abscond with the co-founders, much of the staff and the rights to use the tech hasn’t been publicly revealed. And Microsoft declined comment when asked. But unnamed sources tell The Information that it’s plunking out approximately […]

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TechCrunch Minute: All about Microsoft’s mega AI push after it hired Inflection AI’s co-founders

Microsoft’s latest gambit to snag much of the human talent from Inflection AI is causing waves this week. Redmond has previously invested in the company, but is now absorbing much of its staff into a new division it created for just that purpose. The subtext is clear enough: Microsoft doesn’t want to run into regulatory […]

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Copilot gets its own key on Microsoft’s new Surface devices

We’re still a month or so out from Build, but Microsoft is doing a bit of a trial run this week in the form of an online-only event. What’s been billed as a Windows event is, predictably, focused on AI efforts, with Copilot taking the wheel. A pair of refreshes to the Surface line announced […]

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Microsoft really wants to talk about Copilot

Microsoft announced two new Surface devices and a slew of new accessories at a virtual event today, but the first part of the presentation focused squarely on how its AI Copilot is getting integrated ever deeper into Windows. For the most part, however, this was a hardware event with some enterprise software dressing. But that’s […]

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