The U.S. Federal Trade Commission (FTC) earlier launched another investigation into Microsoft, believing that Microsoft's practice of bundling Office products with network security and cloud computing services has affected market competition, and even believed that Microsoft deliberately took advantage of the government's network security crisis to sell its products.
Related news claimsLawyers appointed by the U.S. Federal Trade Commission recently interviewed Microsoft's competitors and learned from these competitors that Microsoft's practice of bundling commonly used software such as Office with cloud services has made it more difficult to compete with them.
In a subsequent response, Microsoft confirmed that it was indeed facing an investigation by the U.S. Federal Trade Commission, and even emphasized that the content of the documents it was asked to provide exceeded a reasonable scope, but did not provide specific details.
Related reports also alleged that Microsoft sold more software service licenses to the US government and upgraded it to higher-priced versions when the US government was facing cyber attacks, and that US government departments, including military services, also switched to using Microsoft's higher-priced software services.
Ironically, this sales model was used when Microsoft faced a SolarWinds software platform vulnerability attack in 2021. The Biden administration at the time asked large technology companies to help strengthen network security, but Microsoft chose to conceal the vulnerability issue in order to win government cooperation orders.
In addition to the current FTC investigation into the bundling of Office software and cloud services, as early as 1998, the FTC also investigated whether the bundling of Internet Explorer with the Windows operating system affected competition with products such as Netscape's browser.
In other parts, the U.S. Federal Trade Commission has previously targetedMicrosoft invests in OpenAIWhether it constitutes an impact on market competition, and when Microsoft acquired Activision Blizzard, the US Federal Trade Commission alsoIntervention investigation, believes that Microsoft's move will affect the imbalance of market competition. Even Microsoft recently announcedHow to increase Xbox Game Pass subscription feesIt is also believed that the company is taking advantage of the market advantage after acquiring Activision Blizzard to obtain improper benefits.
