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Investing.com – Microsoft stock (NASDAQ:MSFT) traded 1.6% higher in Tuesday’s premarket on a CNBC report that the company is planning a big price hike for some Microsoft Office subscriptions.
According to the network, the software giant is telling partners customers will soon be charged 20% more for its flagship suite of applications if they pay by the month.
The move is intended to improve revenue predictability and reduce churn, according to the CNBC report.
Microsoft has already said it will raise prices for the Microsoft 365 suite of applications by as much as 20% from March 1. That hike covers only commercial products. Prices of education and consumer products will remain unchanged.
The Microsoft 365 suite, earlier known as Office 365, had sales of $53.9 billion in financial year 2021, almost a third of Microsoft’s overall $168.1 billion in sales.
According to an August blog post by Corporate Vice President for Microsoft 365 Jared Spataro, the suite had over 300 million commercial paid seats.
Microsoft stock was up more than 2% in early premarket trading but retraced slightly after a Reuters news report saying that the EU’s antitrust regulator is taking a deeper look into the company’s $16 billion deal for transcription technology company Nuance Communications (NASDAQ:NUAN), asking customers and competitors to draw up a list of concerns.
