Salesforce challenges Microsoft over anti-competitive practices while showcasing strong fiscal results and expanding AI services, signalling a strategic shift in enterprise cloud dominance amidst ongoing legal and market tensions.
Salesforce is emerging as both a legal challenger and an increasingly assertive AI platform vendor, as the company and its Slack subsidiary have taken Microsoft to London’s High Court over alleged anti-competitive conduct linked to Teams. According to Reuters, Slack says Microsoft’s tying and bundling tactics have distorted competition in enterprise collaboration software and narrowed customer choice.
The dispute lands at a moment when Salesforce is trying to demonstrate that its own product strategy is gaining traction. In its fiscal fourth-quarter results for 2025, the company said remaining performance obligations rose to $63 billion, operating cash flow climbed 28% to $13 billion, and Data Cloud and AI annual recurring revenue reached $900 million after jumping 120% year on year. Salesforce also said it had closed 5,000 Agentforce deals since October, including more than 3,000 paid contracts, while Data Cloud topped 50 trillion records.
That commercial momentum appears to be resonating with large customers. On 22 April, Unisys said it was expanding its partnership with Salesforce to strengthen on-site technology support, integrating Agentforce 360 into its Digital Workplace Solutions Field Services platform in more than 120 countries. The company said the rollout would support about 7.4 million devices worldwide and represented one of the largest deployments in the Agentforce ecosystem.
Salesforce’s latest positioning also reflects a capital discipline that has become central to the investment case. The company has spent $8.87 billion on share repurchases over the past 12 months through September 2025, placing it among the biggest buyback stories in US equities. For investors, that mix of litigation risk, enterprise AI adoption and heavy capital returns leaves Salesforce looking less like a pure software incumbent and more like a company trying to defend, extend and monetise its platform at the same time.
Source Reference Map
Inspired by headline at: [1]
Sources by paragraph:
Source: Noah Wire Services
Noah Fact Check Pro
The draft above was created using the information available at the time the story first
emerged. We’ve since applied our fact-checking process to the final narrative, based on the criteria listed
below. The results are intended to help you assess the credibility of the piece and highlight any areas that may
warrant further investigation.
Freshness check
Score:
8
Notes:
The article reports on a lawsuit filed on April 23, 2026, by Salesforce and Slack against Microsoft in London’s High Court over alleged anticompetitive practices related to Microsoft Teams. ([investing.com](https://www.investing.com/news/stock-market-news/microsoft-facing-uk-antitrust-lawsuit-from-slack-over-teams-bundling-4639460?utm_source=openai)) This event is recent and has been covered by multiple reputable sources, including Reuters and Investing.com. ([investing.com](https://www.investing.com/news/company-news/slack-owner-salesforce-reportedly-sues-microsoft-in-uk-over-teams-bundling-4639474?utm_source=openai)) However, some details, such as the specific date of the lawsuit filing, vary slightly across sources, which may indicate minor discrepancies in reporting.
Quotes check
Score:
7
Notes:
The article includes a direct quote from a Slack spokesperson stating that the lawsuit was filed “because Microsoft’s practices harmed competition, using tying and bundling of Teams to limit customer choice.” ([investing.com](https://www.investing.com/news/stock-market-news/microsoft-facing-uk-antitrust-lawsuit-from-slack-over-teams-bundling-4639460?utm_source=openai)) This quote is consistent with statements from other sources. ([investing.com](https://www.investing.com/news/company-news/slack-owner-salesforce-reportedly-sues-microsoft-in-uk-over-teams-bundling-4639474?utm_source=openai)) However, the exact wording varies slightly between sources, which could indicate paraphrasing or minor discrepancies in reporting.
Source reliability
Score:
9
Notes:
The article is sourced from Yahoo Finance, a reputable financial news outlet. The primary source of the information is Reuters, a well-established news agency known for its accuracy and reliability. ([investing.com](https://www.investing.com/news/stock-market-news/microsoft-facing-uk-antitrust-lawsuit-from-slack-over-teams-bundling-4639460?utm_source=openai))
Plausibility check
Score:
8
Notes:
The claims made in the article align with known industry practices and previous reports. For instance, Microsoft has faced similar allegations in the past regarding bundling practices. ([en.wikipedia.org](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft_litigation?utm_source=openai)) The article also mentions Salesforce’s financial performance, including a $8.87 billion stock buyback over the past 12 months, which is consistent with recent financial reports. ([harianbasis.co](https://www.harianbasis.co/en/salesforce-microsoft-legal-dispute-teams?utm_source=openai))
Overall assessment
Verdict (FAIL, OPEN, PASS): PASS
Confidence (LOW, MEDIUM, HIGH): MEDIUM
Summary:
The article reports on a recent lawsuit filed by Salesforce and Slack against Microsoft over alleged anticompetitive practices related to Microsoft Teams. The information is sourced from reputable outlets, and the claims are plausible and consistent with known industry practices. However, minor discrepancies in reporting details and slight variations in quoted statements raise some concerns about the article’s accuracy. Given these factors, the overall assessment is a PASS with MEDIUM confidence.
