Courtesy of Benzinga
Microsoft Corporation’s (NASDAQ: MSFT) workplace communications platform Teams added 12 million daily active users between March 11 and March 18, the company said, as reported by MarketWatch.
What Happened
This is a stark increase in daily active users as it took about four months for Microsoft to add the previous 12 million users since November.
Rival Slack Technologies Inc. (NYSE: WORK) has only 12 million daily active users, for comparison.
The Canada-based company also reported an increase of 7,000 customers between February 1 and March 18 in a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. This is a significant rise in customers for the company that added 5,000 new customers each in the previous two quarters.
Why It Matters
The novel coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic globally has forced companies to ask employees to work remotely. As a result, companies enabling at-home services, including remote work, are seeing a rise in customers.
At press time, more than 244,523 COVID-19 cases have been confirmed globally, including 10,031 deaths, according to data from Johns Hopkins University.
Other companies enabling remote work, including Zoom Video Communications Inc. (NASDAQ: ZM) and Cisco Systems Inc,’s (NASDAQ: CSCO) Webex, have reported a similar surge.
Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE: VZ) CEO told CNBC on Thursday that among the company’s customers, web traffic increased 20%, and gaming rose by 75%, among other surges in online services.
Price Action
Microsoft’s shares closed 1.65% higher at $142.71 in the regular session on Thursday. The shares traded 0.64% lower at $141.8 in the after-hours session.
Slack shares closed 16.66% higher at $21.01 in the regular session and traded 0.33% lower in the after-hours.