How a rejected $8 billion acquisition birthed Microsoft's dominant workplace collaboration giant
Microsoft Teams was not always the inevitable office standard. Before its 2016 launch, Microsoft executives seriously considered buying Slack for $8 billion. Bill Gates famously blocked the deal, pushing for an internal alternative instead. That decision sparked a massive shift in how millions of professionals communicate and collaborate today.
The origins of Microsoft Teams are rooted in a high-stakes internal debate. In 2016, executive vice president Lu Qi championed the acquisition of Slack for $8 billion to bolster Microsoft's messaging capabilities. However, Bill Gates opposed the move, favoring the enhancement of Skype for Business. Following Lu’s departure, Microsoft pivoted, announcing Teams in November 2016 as a direct competitor to Slack. The platform launched globally in March 2017, eventually absorbing legacy tools like Skype for Business, Microsoft Classroom, and even technologies from the shuttered game-streaming service, Mixer.
Teams gained massive momentum during the COVID-19 pandemic, as remote work forced a rapid transition to virtual collaboration. By March 2020, the platform reported 44 million daily active users, a figure that surged to 280 million by January 2023. The platform’s architecture relies on the Microsoft 365 ecosystem, integrating SharePoint for file storage and Exchange Online for messaging and contact management. Its technical foundation has also evolved; while the original desktop client was built on the Electron framework, Microsoft later rebuilt it using the more efficient Edge WebView2.
The platform’s rapid growth eventually drew regulatory scrutiny. In 2023, the European Commission launched an antitrust investigation, questioning whether Microsoft unfairly leveraged its market power by bundling Teams with its Office suite. By June 2024, the Commission formally charged Microsoft with antitrust violations. In response, Microsoft began decoupling Teams from its primary software bundles and providing developers with more tools to facilitate data migration to competing services, marking a significant shift in the company’s strategy to maintain its dominance while navigating global regulatory pressure.
Source: Microsoft Teams
