diff --git a/.gitmodules b/.gitmodules
index 733ce470cd0..8da5875a54e 100644
--- a/.gitmodules
+++ b/.gitmodules
@@ -1,7 +1,3 @@
-[submodule "components/bioformats"]
-	path = components/bioformats
-	url = git://github.com/openmicroscopy/bioformats.git
-	ignore = dirty
 [submodule "docs/sphinx"]
 	path = docs/sphinx
 	url = git://github.com/openmicroscopy/ome-documentation.git
diff --git a/components/bioformats b/components/bioformats
deleted file mode 160000
index 923bf020f92..00000000000
--- a/components/bioformats
+++ /dev/null
@@ -1 +0,0 @@
-Subproject commit 923bf020f921d8bfcef203f407fc94855e5b03f0