The U.S. Federal Trade Commission (FTC) is launching a wide-ranging antitrust investigation against Microsoft, covering many areas from cloud computing and software licensing to cybersecurity services. With this, the agency is the fifth big tech company in recent years. The case requires hundreds of pages of documentation, including information collected by Microsoft’s competitors and partners.
One focus of the investigation will be on the connection of Microsoft’s various productivity and security software with the Azure cloud, which is based on the fact that the company is a software supplier to US government agencies. There are concerns that the company may be abusing its market dominance, as its license terms make it difficult for customers to transfer their data from the Azure cloud service to other platforms. Competitors say customers are locked into the ecosystem, and given that Microsoft is one of the world’s most dominant software companies, the implications of licensing practices are far-reaching.
Machine recruiting: you may not like itAI has become irreversibly integrated into the recruitment process. |
Machine recruiting: you may not like it
AI has become irreversibly integrated into the recruitment process.
In a March report by the US Cyber Safety Review Board (CSRB). found after several security breaches that the company’s security culture was inadequate and in need of refinement. According to the CSRB, the company could have prevented last year’s attack on government accounts, and Microsoft is also responsible for the success of the attack due to insufficiently strong measures, which led to a “series of security errors”. The investigation will also cover the company’s cybersecurity and AI-based practices.
If the FTC initiates a lawsuit as a result of the investigation, it would bring back the memory of an old case, when the Ministry of Justice initiated a large-scale antitrust lawsuit against Microsoft in the late nineties due to the connection between the web browser and the Windows operating system. Since then, the people of Redmond have been relatively at peace, while the competition authorities have mainly dealt with the affairs of Amazon, Meta, Apple and Google.
The investigation was approved by Lina Khan, the chairman of the FTC, even before her departure in January, her later Republican successor is expected to be more permissive regarding the outcome of the investigation, the FTC blocked dozens of mergers and acquisitions under Khan along with the Justice Department. Efor now, there is only speculation about whether there will be a relaxation of big tech companies after the election of Donald Trump, but the new administration may even cancel the current FTC investigations.
Source: www.hwsw.hu
