Benzinga | Jun 30, 2021 01:15PM EDT

Slack Juices Up Hybrid Work Race With New Features: Bloomberg

* Slack Technologies Inc (NYSE:WORK) released new features to help people work with their colleagues irrespective of office or home, intensifying hybrid work competition, Bloomberg reported.

* Slack Huddles will allow casual audio conversations across channels and direct messages on the workplace communications platform.

* Other features include creating and playback video and audio recordings with a full transcript and an employee directory called Slack Atlas.

* Microsoft Corp (NASDAQ:MSFT) recently revealed design changes to its Teams platform to improve remote workers' interactions in meetings.

* Zoom Video Communications Inc (NASDAQ:ZM) will acquire Germany-based Kites GmbH to improve language translation abilities on its videoconferencing service.

* Alphabet Inc's (NASDAQ:GOOG) (NASDAQ:GOOGL) Google revealed updates to its Workspace productivity suite, including new tools for its Meet videoconferencing system.

* Slack's new features will be available on different timelines for different customer plans. Slack Huddles will be open Wednesday to paid customers.

* Salesforce.com Inc (NYSE:CRM) will acquire Slack for $27.7 billion. Salesforce sold $8 billion worth of bonds to fund the acquisition partly.

* Price action: WORK shares traded lower by 0.59% at $44.47 on the last check Wednesday.