Microsoft Teams and Outlook down for users around the world

The problem, which affected other services too, was being investigated by Microsoft

Microsoft said it had identified a potential networking issue. EPA

Microsoft said it had detected a problem affecting users around the world using programs such as Teams and Outlook.

The technical issue was reported on the Downdetector website, with users in the UAE affected, while reports also spiked in Australia, Britain, India and Japan.

“We're investigating issues impacting multiple Microsoft 365 services,” Microsoft 365 Status tweeted.

“We've identified a potential networking issue and are reviewing telemetry to determine the next troubleshooting steps.

“We’ve isolated the problem to networking configuration issues, and we're analysing the best mitigation strategy to address these without causing additional impact.”

It then added that it was rolling back a network change “that we believe is causing impact. We're monitoring the service as the rollback takes effect”.

Microsoft's service health status web page listed the following services as being affected: Microsoft Teams, Exchange Online, Outlook, SharePoint Online, OneDrive for Business, Microsoft Graph, PowerBi, M365 Admin Portal, Microsoft Intune, Microsoft Defender for Cloud Apps and Microsoft Defender for Identity.

Microsoft on Tuesday announced its fiscal second quarter net profit dropped more than 12 per cent, as the company took a $1.2 billion hit following its decision to cut 10,000 jobs.

The company's net profit dropped to $16.4 billion in the three months to the end of December, from the same period a year earlier, the company said.

Microsoft 365 Consumer — a bundle of various apps — subscribers increased to 63.2 million at the end of the last quarter, up 12 per cent on a yearly basis, the company said.

Earlier this week, Microsoft announced the third phase of its long-term partnership with ChatGPT-maker OpenAI through a new multiyear, multibillion-dollar investment. The agreement follows Microsoft’s previous investments in the company in 2019 and 2021.