Tech giant Microsoft (MSFT) is facing an odd sort of credibility crisis as several new developments emerge around Microsoft products. Microsoft’s return-to-office (RTO) mandate is making some question whether Teams is worthwhile, and the Austrian military’s pivot away from Office is hurting as well. Microsoft shareholders seem to be getting concerned too, judging by the fractional loss in share prices in Wednesday afternoon’s trading.
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Microsoft recently issued a return-to-office mandate to its workers, pulling them back into the office at least three days a week. This makes sense on some levels; after all, companies have buildings for a reason, and they need to be used to look like a worthwhile investment. The problem, some point out, is that Microsoft has an entire product line built around facilitating remote work. If Microsoft itself is abandoning remote work—even just three days a week—then it represents a major question to potential customers.
Basically, if even the chef will not eat his own cooking, then why in the world should anyone else? Microsoft, the report noted, has spent years pushing Teams—along with SharePoint and the 365 ecosystem—as excellent tools for remote work. But now, Microsoft seems to have abandoned its own remote work product line in favor of what Wildix CEO Steve Osler considered “…less about collaboration and more about old reflexes.”
Meanwhile in Austria
A separate problem for Microsoft emerged as the Austrian Armed Forces decided to pull out of Microsoft Office altogether and switch over to LibreOffice, an open-source tool that offers somewhat similar features. The move will pull Microsoft Office out of around 16,000 total workstations, reports note.
The move is not universal; some exceptions will be granted, particularly in terms of Microsoft Access or Microsoft Office 2024 LTSC. LibreOffice is gaining ground as an open-source office suite, and the idea that there are potentially free replacements for Microsoft Office may be an especially concerning move.
Is Microsoft a Buy, Hold or Sell?
Turning to Wall Street, analysts have a Strong Buy consensus rating on MSFT stock based on 33 Buys and one Hold assigned in the past three months, as indicated by the graphic below. After a 24.17% rally in its share price over the past year, the average MSFT price target of $627.95 per share implies 20.97% upside potential.
