US FTC launches 'anti-monopoly investigation' against Microsoft, cloud computing, software licensing, and AI businesses are all pinned

The U.S. Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has officially launched an antitrust investigation into Microsoft (MSFT), covering cloud computing, software licensing, cybersecurity and artificial intelligence. (Synopsis: Google Shock Bomb" The US Department of Justice will demand the forced sale of Chrome to combat Google's search monopoly) (Background supplement: MakerDAO confirmed to change its name to Sky!) The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) officially launched an antitrust investigation into Microsoft (MSFT), covering the company's business in cloud computing, software licensing, cybersecurity and artificial intelligence. The investigation began a year ago when the FTC conducted informal interviews with Microsoft's competitors and partners and produced hundreds of pages of documents requesting information from Microsoft. One of the main focuses of the investigation is whether Microsoft is further strengthening its dominance in the market by bundling office productivity and security software with cloud products. The FTC specifically follows Microsoft's management issues in the area of cybersecurity and expands its scrutiny of Microsoft's cloud computing business. Microsoft's vulnerabilities in cybersecurity, as well as its special position as a government contractor, have led the FTC to believe that the company's influence in the market could create competitive distortions. The investigation also conducted an in-depth review of Microsoft's security software Microsoft Entra ID (formerly Azure Active Directory). The software is used to verify the identity of users logging into cloud applications, but has also been accused of potentially restricting access to competitors. Competitor reaction Yesterday (27), according to Reuters, Microsoft's competitors strongly criticized the company's business practices, especially in the field of cloud services, accusing Microsoft of forcing customers to use only its Azure cloud platform, and the FTC has received similar complaints from competitors when reviewing the cloud computing market in the past. NetChoice, a lobby group representing Amazon and Google, also complained about Microsoft's licensing policies, particularly the company's integration of AI tools in its Office and Outlook products, saying: "Given that Microsoft is the world's largest software company with a dominant position in productivity and operating system software, the scale and consequences of its licensing decisions are extraordinary." Google complained to the European Commission in September about Microsoft's approach, saying it made customers pay a 400 percent markup to continue running Windows Server on rival cloud carriers, and offered them later and more limited security updates. At present, large technology companies such as Facebook's META (META), Apple (AAPL) and Amazon (AMZN) are facing antitrust charges from the US government, accusing them of maintaining an illegal monopoly position in the market. Alphabet (GOOGL) faces two lawsuits, with one of the judges finding that Google has unlawfully obstructed search engine competition. While big tech companies are facing increasing antitrust investigations, it's unclear whether regulation of these companies will be relaxed if Trump is re-elected president. The Trump administration launched several investigations into tech giants during its first term, and incoming Vice President JD Vance has also expressed concern about the influence of big tech companies in the public sphere. Andre Barlow, a lawyer at the law firm Doyle Barlow & Mazard, noted that the Trump administration has filed lawsuits against Google and Facebook. "The Trump administration has been very active in enforcing antitrust laws," he said. While the U.S. imposes stricter antitrust regulations on big tech companies, Microsoft has benefited from the Trump administration's policies in the past. In 2019, the Pentagon awarded Microsoft a $10 billion cloud computing contract, although Amazon was considered the strongest contender for the deal at the time. Amazon then accused Trump of putting undue pressure on military officials to transfer contracts from Amazon Web Services to Microsoft. Related reports Google Shock Bomb" The US Department of Justice will demand a forced sale of Chrome to combat Google's search monopoly MakerDAO is determined to change its name to Sky! The four major whale "monopoly votes" USDS jumped to the 3rd largest Stable Coin Google may force a split? The U.S. Department of Justice recommends: break up businesses, restrict protocols, and make search data public: Cracking down on monopoly (the US FTC launched an "anti-monopoly investigation" against Microsoft, cloud computing, software licensing, and AI businesses were all pinned) This article was first published in BlockTempo's "Dynamic Trend - The Most Influential Block Chain News Media".