Microsoft Teams Gets Ready to Pick Up the Slack

Microsoft is expected to launch a new service next week called Microsoft Teams. The Slack competitor was initially supposed to be called Skype Teams, but hints online now point to it being branded as Microsoft Teams instead.

Microsoft is hosting an event today in New York to talk about devices—ostensibly a Surface PC all-in-one, but that isn’t the only thing on the horizon for Microsoft. There is another event scheduled next week to talk about Microsoft Office where Microsoft is expected to announce Microsoft Teams—a collaborative chat platform to take on Slack.

The world of business and collaboration is evolving. Companies need to focus on efficiency and productivity, but increasingly they also need to focus on employee satisfaction, corporate culture, and access to new technology in an effort to attract and retain the best employees.

Workplace tools and collaboration platforms are rising trends. Slack is a cloud-based team collaboration tool founded in 2013. The name is an acronym for “Searchable Log of All Conversation and Knowledge) In three short years, Slack is has grown to be valued at over $3 Billion.

Microsoft could have just bought Slack. In fact, according to TechCrunch Microsoft considered spending $8 billion to do just that. However, Microsoft already has much of the foundation in place between tools like Yammer, Skype, and the collaboration within Microsoft Office. Microsoft’s components are not apples to apples with Slack, but illustrate why Microsoft may prefer to build something organic rather than acquiring Slack.

Read the full story on Forbes: Microsoft To Launch Microsoft Teams And Take On Slack.