FTC Launches Broad Microsoft Antitrust Investigation

The FTC has opened a broad antitrust investigation into Microsoft, including of its software licensing and cloud computing business. Bloomberg first reported the news. Reuters reports: The probe was approved by FTC Chair Lina Khan ahead of her likely departure in January. The election of Donald Trump as U.S. president and the expectation he will appoint a fellow Republican with a softer approach toward business, leaves the outcome of the investigation up in the air.

The FTC is examining allegations that the software giant is potentially abusing its market power in productivity software by imposing punitive licensing terms to prevent customers from moving their data from its Azure cloud service to other competitive platforms, sources confirmed earlier this month. The FTC is also looking at practices related to cybersecurity and artificial intelligence products, the source said on Wednesday.

Cool!

[Sebby]

Now do Broadcom
Now do Oracle
....

The party of corporate profits

[OrangeTide]

Now get it all done before January 20 when the new administration unwinds all of this.

Re:

[ffkom]

If the current administration had actually wanted to get these monopolies broken up, they would have initiated such investigations long ago, and not just as a token gesture on their way out.

Re:

[taustin]

Precisely. They have no intention of breaking up huge companies that contribute millions to campaign coffers. This is a setup for the next election cycle:

"Look, we tried, but the Republicans shut it down (never mind we had no chance of winning to begin with)." The current administration is doing quite a lot of that sort of pro-consumer, pretend virtue signaling the last few months, both to set up the campaign contributions in the next four years, and to leave the new administration as big a mess as possible

Re:

[bill_mcgonigle]

> both taste like almonds

They're both nutty.

Re:

[dsgrntlxmply]

Green Kool-Aid tastes like Prestone.

Nuance is dead

[rsilvergun]

So it's way, way more complicated than "just do it!".

You're going up against a mega corp, it takes years to build a case, and even then you have hostile elements due to revolving door bribery and the Senate Appointment process. Keep in mind the president doesn't get to rule by fiat (at least not if they're a Democrat). They still have to get their appointees through the Senate, and 2 of the 50 Democrats were basically Republicans (Joe Manchin & Kristen Sinema).

But ain't nobody got time to learn

Here we go again

[xack]

We will probably just have another browser choice screen again and Microsoft be required to make Edge less malware, but no real changes. The fact that you still can't go into Best Buy and get a Linux computer after all these years is proof enough. Google only forced Chromebooks through their own brute force.

Re:

[Powercntrl]

The fact that you still can't go into Best Buy and get a Linux computer after all these years is proof enough.

Technically, Android is Linux under the hood. Best Buy also sells Apple machines and mobile devices, which also aren't running Windows. The main reason you can't grab a machine off the shelf running, say, Ubuntu, is because it just wouldn't sell well to the general public, not because of anything Microsoft is doing lately.

TFS makes it seem this is mostly about Microsoft's enterprise offerings, since the consumer market is something Microsoft no longer has a stranglehold over. There's even a hugely popula

Break Them Up

[gavron]

Unbundle Internet Explorer!

That will teach them!!

Don't forget this...

[zkiwi34]

Baking bits of Hyper-V into Win11, which generally has the effect of buggering other virtualization products.

Don't worry Microsoft

[Tony Isaac]

Trump will save you.

Nice Euphism

[buss_error]

The election of Donald Trump as U.S. president and the expectation he will appoint a fellow Republican with a softer approach toward business,

That's a nice way of saying Rape the consumer as hard and as often as you'd like. Please leave a gratuity at the door on your way out Bill!" [skadden.com]

leaves the outcome of the investigation up in the air.

Only if you're a drooling moron. It will be closed, the people ordered to investigate will be fired and charges brought. This is the world you voted for when you pulled the lever for Trump. Corruption, payola, and the stench of special access and favors. If Trump is draining the swamp, it is only to replace it with effluent.

Tired of this game yet again

[will4]

How many of these investigations, federal agency actions, cases, rulings, and last minute policy / regulation changes does it take for /. readers to realize that this is one party's administration kicking every hornet's nest in the entire forest before leaving office just to distract the next administration, build campaign issues, and perpetuate the party flip flop nonsense game?

When reading these news articles, questioning whether the action is politically motivated is a good thing.