Microsoft outage eases after 24 hours, full recovery timeline unclear

Microsoft's global outage of Outlook and Teams began easing Friday after over 24 hours of disruption, though the company gave no timeline for full recovery. Server issues caused the incident, which also affected its Copilot AI assistant, with no malicious activity suspected. The outage hit Exchange Online features, blocking email, calendars, and virtual meetings for hundreds of millions of users. Government agencies in Australia, Japan, the US, and UK were affected, along with trading firms, airlines, and companies delaying earnings. Downdetector logged over 7.4 million reports worldwide. This is Microsoft's second major disruption this year, following outages in January and October, plus last month's Azure platform issue. Analysts estimate insured losses between $300 million and $500 million, less than the 2024 CrowdStrike outage. Some firms used faxes to confirm trades, while switching costs may limit customer defections.