Microsoft stealthily raises prices of Office for Mac, removes multi-license bundles

By Mariella Moon Published February 19, 2013

In a super-stealth move that’s not so unpredictable, Microsoft secretly raised Office for Mac 2011’s prices by as much as 17 percent. Nobody knows when the price increase took effect, but Computerworld believes it might’ve been back on January 29 when Microsoft launched Office 2013 and Office 365 Home Premium.In addition to the price increase, the company also removed the option to buy multi-license packages of Office for Mac.

From $120, one Office for Mac Home & Student license now costs $140, which is the same price as the newly released Office 2013 for Windows. Office for Mac Home & Business – which adds Outlook on top of the basic version’s Word, Excel, and Powerpoint – now costs $220 instead of $200. And because you can no longer purchase multi-license bundles, three licenses of Home & Student will now set you back $420 instead of the $150 you would’ve spent had the bundle still been available.

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The sudden price increase of Office for Mac could be seen as a push by the company to promote its Office 365 subscription service. After all, it will cost you only $100 per year to get an Office 365 Home Premium subscription, and you can already install Office for Windows or Office for Mac on up to five computers, whereas it will cost you $700 to get five perpetual licenses. You can, however, still get Office for Mac 2011 at lower prices. Some vendors, including Amazon, still list copies of the suite for even less than the original price of $120. You can also always opt for free Office alternatives if you want to save money.

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Mariella loves working on both helpful and awe-inspiring science and technology stories. When she's not at her desk writing…

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