A new report claims that Microsoft is about to secure a major new client for its Microsoft 365 cloud productivity service. That client also happened to be one of its big tech rivals: Amazon.
Business Insider reports that according to its sources and a review of a document of the deal, Amazon will be switching over from the old-fashioned Microsoft Office apps for its productivity software to the Microsoft 365 cloud-based subscription service. The article claims that Amazon will pay over $1 billion over the next five years to license over one million Microsoft 365 seats.
The number of seats means that Microsoft 365 will be used by both frontline Amazon workers all the way to the company's top executives. The story claims that Amazon plans to begin setting up for the new Microsoft service sometime in early November.
If the report is accurate this is a massive win for Microsoft in the enterprise space. The story says that previously Amazon was reluctant to use Microsoft's cloud services because the two companies are major cloud service providers, with Microsoft Azure competing with Amazon Web Services.
This report comes even as Microsoft is preparing to launch Microsoft 365 Copilot for enterprise subscribers. A few weeks ago, the company confirmed that the generative AI assistant will be available on November 1.
Microsoft previously stated that the service would cost $30 per user per month when it launches. It will allow its subscribers to automate a number of tasks in Office apps. That includes Copilot writing drafts of documents in Word, emails for Outlook, or summarising meetings in Teams. There's no word on if Copilot is part of this reported license deal with Amazon.
Amazon also recently took one of Microsoft's biggest executives. Panos Panay, who was the head of Microsoft's Windows and Surface team, will become the head of Amazon's devices team by the end of October.
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