Microsoft has announced that it will be increasing the prices of its enterprise software and cloud services for customers buying in the British pound. The company said this is to harmonize prices within the EU/EFTA region.
Microsoft posted in its official blog that British pound prices of the on-premises enterprise software will increase by 13%, while most enterprise cloud prices will increase by 22 percent. The price increase will realign these products close to euro levels and will be effective on January 1, 2017.
"We periodically assess the impact of local pricing of our products and services to ensure there is reasonable alignment across the region and this change is an outcome of this assessment," Microsoft said. "These changes are similar to the recent harmonization adjustments to pricing in Norwegian krone and Swiss franc we made in April 2016."
CNN Money reports that the pound has dropped more than 18 percent against the dollar since British voters chose to leave the EU. The decline has hurt companies that make money in Britain but report earnings in other currencies.
Tech companies, especially, are more vulnerable to the drop in the pound as quite a large number of components that are used in their products are priced in dollars. Other tech companies have already hiked prices following the June 23 EU referendum.
Apple, HP, and Dell have increased their prices by roughly 10 percent. Chinese smartphone maker OnePlus also raised the price of its OnePlus 3 model by 6.5 percent.
Microsoft's increase is larger than that of its rivals Apple, HP, and Dell. But the company said despite their adjustment, customers who buy in British pound will still find their "offerings highly competitive."
The company said the price increase wouldn't affect business customers' existing orders under annuity volume licensing agreements for products that are subject to price protection. Besides, business customers with cloud commitment subscription will also receive price protection during the subscription term.
However, new product additions under existing agreements and purchases under new contracts will be defined by the price list at the time of order. The price change does not apply to consumer software or consumer cloud services.
