Tech giant Microsoft (MSFT) tried to make hay while the sun shined during the pandemic, and brought out Together Mode for Microsoft Teams. But the Teams Together Mode is no longer a part of Teams, as Microsoft looks to change its platform to meet the needs of a Return to Office (RTO) environment. The move did not sit well with investors, who sent Microsoft shares down fractionally in Monday afternoon’s trading.
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The Together mode basically took an artificial intelligence (AI) application to cut your head and shoulders out of a video feed, and move that bit of your avatar to a virtual space with others in a simulated meeting room. It was a gimmick, and little more, but for the era it made sense. And it did have the effect of limiting “visual distractions,” reports noted.
But times changed, and so did Teams. The Together Mode toggle will likely be the first to go, gone from the View menu. From there, Together-related features like seat assignments and scenes, will follow, reports note. But Microsoft will not take without giving in this case, as the removed features will shortly be replaced by improved video quality and better overall performance. That should keep Teams a solid entrant in the space, even if remote working features will be a bit less prized in an RTO world.
Xbox No More
Asha Sharma, new boss at Xbox, recently polled gamers and made a very small change that feels less like a win and more like polishing the ship’s bell on the HMS Titanic. Sharma’s poll tried to figure out whether Microsoft’s gaming arm should be known as “Xbox” or as “XBOX.” The all-caps version actually won out, and so, Sharma renamed the X account to be XBOX.
This comes at an odd time, as Xbox had been renamed to Microsoft Gaming some time ago, and then back to Xbox, before being changed once more to XBOX. Sharma described the rationale behind this seemingly minor change, saying, “Our best work happens when the full stack moves together. Microsoft Gaming describes our structure but it does not describe our ambition. So, we are going back to where we started and changing our team’s name.”
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 two Holds assigned in the past three months, as indicated by the graphic below. After an 8.05% loss in its share price over the past year, the average MSFT price target of $559.98 per share implies 32.5% upside potential.
