FTC Launches Major Antitrust Investigation into Microsoft, First in 25 Years

[AleksandarK]

According to the original report from Bloomberg, the Federal Trade Commission has initiated a comprehensive antitrust investigation into Microsoft Corporation, incorporating about a year of conducted informal interviews with Microsoft's competitors about its business practices. The probe encompasses Microsoft's cloud computing services, software licensing practices, cybersecurity offerings, and AI products. The investigation has now culminated in an extensive information request spanning hundreds of pages. FTC chair Lina Khan has authorized this demand for documents, signaling a serious escalation in the agency's oversight of the company. A key focus of the investigation is Microsoft's practice of bundling its popular Office productivity suite and security software with its cloud services.

Critics, including companies like Slack and Zoom, argue that Microsoft's strategy of including Teams video-conferencing software free with Word and Excel creates an unfair competitive advantage. The probe has gained momentum following several cybersecurity incidents involving Microsoft's products. As a major government contractor providing billions in software and cloud services to US agencies, including the Defense Department, Microsoft's security practices have drawn particular attention. The government's Cyber Safety Review Board recently concluded that Microsoft's security culture "requires an overhaul" given the company's role in the technology infrastructure ecosystem. This investigation makes Microsoft the fifth major tech company to face antitrust scrutiny in recent years, joining Amazon, Apple, Meta, and Google. It also represents a return after 25 years to regulatory challenges for Microsoft, which faced a similar antitrust lawsuit in the late 1990s over its Windows operating system and browser bundling practices.



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[user556]

Next year ... every govt dept will lose their heads, quit all investigations, then start over looking for UFOs.

 

[Chaitanya]

Just like last ruling that went nowhere this one will also go nowhere.

 

[Neo_Morpheus]

Finally!

Then add Apple, Amazon, Ngreedia and facebook.

yeah, i know, nothing will happen to any of them.

 

[MacZ]

Wasn't this administration in place for the last 4 years ?

 

[Daven]

Wasn't this administration in place for the last 4 years ?

Independent entities like the FTC are suppose to operate in a way that transcends administrations. This is the best way since some of theses cases can take years and years to resolve.

However the incoming administration promises to do away with all agency independence. That combined with the supreme court ruling that presidents are immune to prosecution of all ‘official’ acts means that the incoming president can rule like a king. Microsoft can just simply compliment the king’s hair and it all goes away.

 

[N3utro]

About time.

I hope they do something about microsoft mail servers policy: by default it flags mail sent by any mail server as spam/junk, whatever the mail content is. This means as a business owner if you want to self host your own mail server, most of your customers wont see your mail because it will be flagged as spam. It forces you to use a microsoft account or an authorized microsoft partner. Textbook definition of abusing a dominant position. Gmail doesnt do this at all.

 

[goldman]

Please PLEASE separate windows to be it's own entity, or something. It really needs to stop being so shitty

 

[Dahita]

Except that, for small businesses, Teams is a blessing as it allows everyone who has a subscription to Office 365 (mandatory today) to collaborate for free. I understand the other providers of collaborative tools, but separating Teams make no sense. Just bill an additional fee for it and be done with it.

 

[ScaLibBDP]

>>...The government's Cyber Safety Review Board recently concluded that Microsoft's security culture "requires an overhaul"
>>...given the company's role in the technology infrastructure ecosystem...

If somebody thinks that source codes of Microsoft software, like OSs, Office, etc, are very good or almost perfect in quality You Are Wrong.

Quality of Source codes of Microsoft software is something you can Not imagine...

Source codes are Messy, Full of Fixes, Bloated solutions ( when more than 1,500 code lines are implemented instead of 100 optimized
code lines ), Full of Workarounds, Workarounds over Workarounds, and so on. Teams inside the company use different techniques for
logging, code styles are Not enforced, etc.

Unfortunately, it is a common trend in software industry these days! Well, I stop here.

 

[Daven]

Except that, for small businesses, Teams is a blessing as it allows everyone who has a subscription to Office 365 (mandatory today) to collaborate for free. I understand the other providers of collaborative tools, but separating Teams make no sense. Just bill an additional fee for it and be done with it.

Productivity companies like Zoom need to realize you need to provide an ecosystem of apps and not just the one.

The MS Office ecosystem is hard to break but there is also Google Apps and Apple Apps for productivity. A company like Zoom should merge with other companies to come out with a suite of productivity apps that serve a larger part of the business ecosystem and not just one small part of it.

 

[ScaLibBDP]

Productivity companies like Zoom need to realize you need to provide an ecosystem of apps and not just the one.

The MS Office ecosystem is hard to break but there is also Google Apps and Apple Apps for productivity. A company like Zoom should merge with other companies to come out with a suite of productivity apps that serve a larger part of the business ecosystem and not just one small part of it.

>>...Zoom should merge with other companies...

I would consider an integration with LibreOffice open source software. Some guys I know do Not use MS Office at all.

 

[eidairaman1]

So is the FCC and EU going to get in on this?

Wasn't this administration in place for the last 4 years ?

Yeah after the fact they do something...

 

[mb194dc]

$100bn version of Clippy 2.0 pushed regulators over the edge ? Amazon is the big one the FTC should be going after, AWS and the retail side should be split in to separate businesses.

 

[eidairaman1]

Yet nothing mentioned about recall or copilot

 

[Solaris17]

Critics, including companies like Slack and Zoom, argue that Microsoft's strategy of including Teams video-conferencing software free with Word and Excel creates an unfair competitive advantage.

lol?? Things like this are wild to me. They have been doing this forever; from lync to skype these companies upon their inception (since they are younger) elected to compete. I see Microsoft’s transgressions like every other sane person but man some allegations have nothing to stand on and make me roll my eyes.

You think I’ll be begging to use slack after they up there rates per user to cover the legal fees? Like???

This means as a business owner if you want to self host your own mail server, most of your customers wont see your mail because it will be flagged as spam.

No business owners need to stop trying to do things themselves or playing sysadmin and over riding there talent. Don’t spend bottom dollar on a VPS with abused IP space and let your admin take his time setting up DMARC, DKIM and SPF records and this problem goes away.

 

[N3utro]

No business owners need to stop trying to do things themselves or playing sysadmin and over riding there talent. Don’t spend bottom dollar on a VPS with abused IP space and let your admin take his time setting up DMARC, DKIM and SPF records and this problem goes away.

No even with perfect setup including dmarc, dkim and spf records and a personal dedicated IP from a pro ISP you still get flagged as spam from microsoft servers because they apply this policy by default to all previously unknown servers.

And even when multiple customers whitelist you on their accounts over the span of several months, your mail is still flagged as spam / junk by default.

When you use the same server to send to anything but microsoft (gmail, ect), it works flawlessly.

I use a microsoft email account myself for this exact reason, and even large businesses companies mail go often in my junk folder because they use their own mail servers.

Some businnesses need strict confidentiality and they cannot rely on using external mail providers to handle their data.

 

[Solaris17]

No even with perfect setup including dmarc, dkim and spf records and a personal dedicated IP from a pro ISP you still get flagged as spam from microsoft servers because they apply this policy by default to all previously unknown servers.

And even when multiple customers whitelist you on their accounts over the span of several months, your mail is still flagged as spam / junk by default.

When you use the same server to send to anything but microsoft (gmail, ect), it works flawlessly.

I use a microsoft email account myself for this exact reason, and even large businesses companies mail go often in my junk folder because they use their own mail servers.

Some businnesses need strict confidentiality and they cannot rely on using external mail providers to handle their data.

Sorry; the only time this is true is if you are part of other blacklists, you are in the abused pool, or you dont have your records setup correctly. The very last is generally an introspective like "Are you sure you actually arent sending spam?" I have dealt with operators that thought there product or service was gods gift to earth, the recievers...generally disagreed.

 

[ScaLibBDP]

So is the FCC and EU going to get in on this?

Yeah after the fact they do something...

FCC has absolutely No authority to break a monopoly of Microsoft. This is because FCC stands for 'The Federal Communications Commission'. It has a different mandate.

EU fined many companies in the past but EU also has No authority to force Microsoft to spin-off any internal software groups.

 

[AleksandarK]

lol?? Things like this are wild to me. They have been doing this forever; from lync to skype these companies upon their inception (since they are younger) elected to compete. I see Microsoft’s transgressions like every other sane person but man some allegations have nothing to stand on and make me roll my eyes.

You think I’ll be begging to use slack after they up there rates per user to cover the legal fees? Like???

Yeah but the regulatory sees this as unfair advantage. At Microsoft's size and power, they can suspect that.

And of couse Slack for its price is too much, but FTC wants to regulate the market to "try to help" everyone. I don't believe it is going to happen though, but we have to wait and see.